This morning, 314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton was joined by three STEM candidates positioned to win in battlegrounds, including Dr. Amish Shah (AZ-01), Jake Johnson (MN-01) and Kristina Knickerbocker (OH-10), along with Dr. Jasmine Clark who is expected to win in GA-13, and will be the first Black female PhD scientist to ever serve in Congress. (The Washington Post named OH-10 and MN-01 as battleground races to watch in ‘deep-red’ districts this morning.)
314 Action President Shaughnessy Naughton pitched their electability thesis, emphasizing that 8 out 10 Americans trust healthcare professionals and scientists to tell the truth and solve problems––qualities desperately needed in Washington right now. Candidates discussed how their experience as healthcare providers, scientists, and educators has prepared them to fix a broken system, and given them a competitive advantage in an election where healthcare costs and access to care are top concerns for voters.
Excerpts from their remarks are below.
Shaughnessy Naughton, President of 314 Action
“92% of voters trust nurses. 90% trust their personal or family doctor, and 86% of Americans trust doctors in general, and nearly eight in 10 trust scientists. Those are extraordinary numbers at a time when confidence in political institutions is strained, and they tell us something important about the opportunity in front of us––our candidates have the experience voters are looking for and the credibility to compete in the toughest races on the map.
“They understand the consequences of rising healthcare costs. They know what happens when public health decisions are driven by political ideology instead of evidence, and they’ve spent their careers solving complicated problems, making difficult decisions, and delivering results for their communities. That experience matters, and we believe it can be a powerful advantage at the ballot box.”
Dr. Amish Shah, candidate for Arizona’s 1st Congressional District
“The choice we’re facing today is stark. Do we want two more years of the same? Healthcare cuts, hospital industry threatened, costs going up? In Arizona, it’s 30% premium rises year on year. Not to mention everything else: DOGE cuts, cutting research into science like Alzheimer’s disease and cancer. That’s what these folks have done. And I think the people are really sick of it. And I’m hearing that when I go to the doors.
“With us, you’re going to get leadership that follows science. You’re going to get leadership that is practical and solves problems for people.”
Kristina Knickerbocker, candidate for Ohio’s 10th Congressional District
“We have politicians making policy that ends up being life and death decisions for my patients, and so I was really looking at the Big Beautiful Bill. I was kind of researching it, trying to figure out how it was going to impact us because it was going to impact my patients. And so I called Mike Turner, I called Senator Husted, and I said, “I can tell you with a fact that this bill will kill my patients,” and I didn’t get a response. And to me, that is gross negligence. If you have elected officials that are going to ignore an expert, both in the military and in the healthcare space, and not comment… that launched my decision to start running for Congress. Now more than ever, we have to prioritize people, not party politics, not power and profit.”
Jake Johnson, candidate for Minnesota’s 1st Congressional District
“We’ve had small business owners and farmers stand up at our town hall meetings saying they are going without healthcare because of these cuts. In Minnesota, we are facing nine hospital closures, four of which are in our district. It has raised premiums by $229 per person per month for the average Minnesotan…”
“What we need, in my opinion, is a little bit more problem-solving, a little bit more critical thinking, a little bit more working together in the halls of Congress. And that’s exactly what I teach my kids to do in our math classes. It’s what it’s been about for two decades: how do we critically think, how do we solve problems, and how do we work together to get things done? If we can do it in a math classroom in southern Minnesota, Lord knows we should be able to do it in the halls of Congress.”’
Dr. Jasmine Clark, candidate for Georgia’s 13th Congressional District
“My background is in microbiology. Microbiologists deal with microscopes and microscopic organisms. We zoom in, and that’s exactly what I will do in the halls of Congress. I will put policy under a microscope. But also I’m a biologist, and we think about systems. So I will also zoom out and look at how policy impacts more than what’s just on that sheet of paper and in that bill, but how does it spread out into our communities and into the different parts of our lives that may not necessarily be what you see when you look at a particular bill?
“I look forward to November 3, where we get over the finish line, and the American people also send a message that we are ready to see someone something different, and we are ready to see people in these seats that actually are going to use the evidence, use the data, follow the actual facts to make their decisions and do what’s right for the people in our communities.”