Democratic Scientists and Doctors Win One in Three Flipped House Seats and Send Two Doctors to the Senate
Democratic doctors, scientists, nurses and engineers won a record number of seats on Tuesday in an election voters made about healthcare. 314 Action, the nation’s only organization working to recruit, train and elect Democratic scientists put a historic $30 million behind their campaigns. Those investments helped Democratic scientists flip 10 Republican-held districts to secure the largest Democratic House majority in nearly two decades and sent two Democratic doctors to the Senate for the first time in nearly 60 years.
The results are a direct rebuke of RFK Jr. and the MAHA movement. After two years of attacks on vaccines and public health from inside HHS, voters rejected MAHA and elected the doctors and scientists to fix America’s broken healthcare system and rebuild trust in public health.
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The New York Times: Medical Professionals Are Among the Winners of the Midterms
“‘This election cycle, R.F.K. Jr. was hands down our No. 1 recruitment and fund-raising tool,’ said Erik Polyak, executive director of 314 Action, an organization that spent $30 million to support Democratic scientists and health care professionals.”
The Washington Post: STEM Wave: Democratic Doctors, Scientists Win Record Number of Seats in Midterms
“The organization 314 Action, which helps elect Democrats with a science background to public office, called the victories in battleground states a “STEM wave,” noting the first Democratic doctors were elected to the Senate since the 1960s. Democrats won the House and Senate with sizable majorities and succeeded in states once unthinkable, such as Texas and Kansas.”
TIME: Meet the Doctors and Scientists Who Won in the Midterms
“Working in medicine, in particular, provides an opportunity to connect to voters, says Erik Polyak, executive director of 314 Action, a political organization that recruits and supports Democratic candidates with scientific and medical backgrounds. “You go into the ER and your doctor doesn’t ask what party you are,” he says. Doctors, nurses, and others who work in health care may have heard patients describe their struggles and might have personally fought insurance companies to get treatment covered.”
NPR: It was a big night for doctors to win seats in Congress, riding the blue wave
“Naughton runs an organization called 314 Action (ph), which invested $30 million in dozens of Democratic candidates running for state and federal office, including more than $3 million for Andrews.
NAUGHTON: Running against Donald Trump’s handpicked candidate – that is not an easy thing to do, but she did it, and she did it largely running on healthcare and affordability.”
The Guardian: ‘Revenge of the nerds’: US midterms deliver a win for science – and a rebuke of Maha
““It’s clear from the results: 2026 was a healthcare election,” said Erik Polyak, executive director of 3.14 Action, a group that worked to elect Democratic health professionals and scientists across the country. “We’ve heard a lot about affordability. Healthcare affordability is the No 1 piece of that. Our doctors and scientists are certainly well-equipped to lead on those issues.”
POLITICO: RFK Jr.’s alliance with Trump is on tenterhooks
“‘We’re going to see RFK Jr.’s head on a platter,’ said Erik Polyak, executive director of 314 Action, a political action committee that has spent more than $30 million in this election cycle helping Democrats, the most in its ten-year history. Polyak said targeting Kennedy was its “biggest motivator and fundraising tool.”
NBC News: Voters reject Trump’s GOP as Democrats rack up wins
“With the notable exception of Cowan, a Republican, most of the doctors who won last night were endorsed by 314 Action, a political action committee working to recruit and elect Democratic doctors and scientists. The group has positioned its candidates as challengers to the Trump administration’s “anti-science agenda” and railed against the policies of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”
USA Today: Voters reject Trump’s GOP as Democrats rack up wins
“Erik Polyak, executive director of 314 Action, a political action committee that recruits, trains and helps elect Democrats with a background in science, called the midterms a ‘culmination of hard work (over) the last decade,’ and ‘RFK Jr.’s biggest nightmare.’ 314 Action worked with now-elected officials like Acton, El-Sayed and Andrews, raising over $3 million for Acton’s campaign alone.
‘We’re gonna start to see some real accountability,’ Polyak said. ‘Talking to our candidates over the course of the election cycle, one of the most motivating factors for them was having the opportunity to question RFK Jr. under oath.’”
The Hill: Healthcare powers Democrats’ midterm rout: 4 takeaways
“The blue medical wave on Tuesday night was also a victory for 314 Action, the political action committee dedicated to getting Democrats in STEM elected.
‘314 Action candidates flipped the House because this was a healthcare election, and we elect outsiders who voters trust,’ 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton said in a statement. ‘Millions of Americans lost healthcare because of Trump, RFK Jr. and Republicans in Congress, and on Tuesday — voters answered by electing a new wave of doctors and scientists to Washington. This proves that STEM candidates are better positioned than any other candidate to win battleground races.’”
STAT News: Democratic Doctors and Scientists Ride the Blue Wave
“More than 500 Democratic doctors, nurses, scientists, and others with backgrounds in public health also ran for state and local office nationwide, according to 314 Action Fund, a grassroots organization that this year put $30 million into backing Democratic physicians, health care workers, and other scientists in key races.
‘Health care has been the number one issue in this election, whether it’s affordability or accessibility,’ said Shaughnessy
Naughton, founder and president 314 Action. ‘Both are out of reach for too many Americans. Having doctors and public health officials not just as policy advisors, but as elected officials, makes a huge difference in that discussion.’”
Nature: ‘Historic change’: what the 2026 US mid-term election results mean for science
“The results will mark the end of nearly two years in which the Republicans controlled the presidency and both congressional chambers — and many scientists around the world are celebrating the change as an opportunity to protect the country’s research system.”
Scientific American: Science advocates react to Democrats’ historic midterm rout: ‘It’s a new day in Washington’
“Both candidates were supported by 314 Action, a political action committee that backs candidates with scientific expertise.
‘Last night, scientists fought back and and won,” says Shaughnessy Naughton, the organization’s president. “This was a romp. The candidates worked hard and it’s well deserved.’”
WIRED: The Blue Tsunami Swept Doctors and Scientists Into Office
“Each is either a doctor or a scientist. And each had the backing of the political action committee 314 Action Fund, which focuses on electing pro-science voices to public office.
‘We really benefit by having those data-driven, fact- based decisionmakers actually in a position at the governing table,’ says Shaughnessy Naughton, a chemist and former congressional candidate who founded 314 Action after losing her race in 2016.
This cycle, the PAC spent above $30 million donating to and supporting various campaigns, including fundraising for specific races. It raised $3.6 million for pediatrician Andrews in the fight over what had been Lindsay Graham’s Senate seat in South Carolina, for example, and another $3 million for physician Acton’s campaign in the hotly contested Ohio governor race, according to Naughton.”
The American Prospect: The Midterm Election Was About Health Care
“‘It’s been 50 years since there was a Democrat in the Senate who was a doctor,’ said 314 Action Executive Director Erik Polyak, referring to Sen. Ernest Gruening (D-AK), the last Democratic medical doctor to serve in the chamber, who left in 1969. That has now changed with Andrews’s victory in South Carolina. Polyak added that the candidates 314 backs agree that women have a right to choose and that vaccines are safe. ‘There’s never been a pro-choice doctor in the Senate,’ he said, ‘if you can believe it.’”
Inside Health Policy: Midterm Elections Win for Dem Doctors and Science, MAHA Struggles
“Candidates endorsed by the group 314 Action, which aims to elect Democrats with backgrounds in health, science and medicine, had a good night in the midterm election Tuesday (Nov. 3), with two Democratic doctors elected to Congress and a broad wave of Democratic victories widely touted as a rejection of President Donald Trump and HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s health policies.”