August 20, 2025
(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) — As Donald Trump and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. systematically attack public health, gut Medicaid, and allow Affordable Care Act subsidies to expire, doctors and health care professionals are stepping up to lead. Earlier this year, 314 Action launched Guardians of Public Health—a new $25 million campaign to elect 100 new doctors, nurses, and public health experts to federal, state, and local offices.
With more doctors than ever running for office, The Bulwark has declared 2026 the “Year of the Doctor” — at 314 Action is paving the way.
The Bulwark: Democratic Doctors Are Pouring Into Politics. Thank Trump and RFK Jr.
Key points:
- Already in this 2025–26 cycle, 314 Action—dedicated to helping Democrats with science backgrounds win local, state, and federal elections—says more than 150 doctors have reached out about running for office in nearly three dozen states.
- “That has motivated a lot of folks from health backgrounds to see this as a moment where there’s only so much they can do from within their exam rooms. If they want to have a greater impact on improving the outcomes and lives of their patients and community, we need them to step up and get elected.”
- “Naughton compares her group, which has six million grassroots donors and supporters, to a business incubator. She describes a soup-to-nuts approach tailored to political novices: find pickup opportunities, recruit candidates, help them put together a team, a staff, a finance plan, and a communications strategy, help them fundraise and prepare for debates, and make direct campaign donations as well.”
- She and the 314 team have already endorsed 113 candidates in 2025 state and local races for legislature, mayor, city council, school boards, and other offices. They haven’t yet started to look at downballot 2026 races, most of which have yet to launch, but they are already working with nearly fifty 2026 candidates for House, Senate, and governor.
- A DIGITAL AD THAT RAN in June in swing House districts—part of what 314 Action calls its ongoing, seven-figure advocacy campaign to hold Trump’s anti-science administration accountable—underscores the group’s broader mission of restoring science as a pillar of American leadership.
###