The Democratic victors in the midterm elections included people who have spent their careers treating patients, studying viruses, and solving equations.
asserted
who → include → equations
Among the winners: a pediatrician in South Carolina, a microbiologist in Georgia, and a mathematician in Illinois—all bringing experience in health and science to government.
asserted
all → bring → government
Several are joining Congress.
asserted
Several → join → Congress
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.
asserted
that → work → backgrounds
“You go into the ER and your doctor doesn’t ask what party you are,” he says.
asserted
he → go → ER
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.
uncertain
treatment → work → companies
Still, having health credentials alone does not guarantee that someone will craft good policy, cautions Brian Castrucci, an epidemiologist and president and CEO of the de Beaumont Foundation, which works to strengthen public health through funding, training, and research.
asserted
which → have → funding
What matters is how they use their training.
asserted
they → matter → training
“Congress needs people who know how to weigh evidence, ask hard questions, and admit what we do not yet know,” he says.
asserted
he → need → what
Here’s what to know about some of the health and science professionals who won political seats in the midterms.
asserted
who → ’ → midterms
She has researched childhood asthma and the aftermath of gunshot wounds, and helped teach young doctors how to talk to parents about storing firearms safely.
asserted
She → research → firearms
Now, she’s taking those concerns to the Senate after unseating Republican Sen. Darline Graham in one of the night’s biggest upsets.
asserted
she → take → upsets
South Carolina hadn’t elected a Democratic senator since 1998.
asserted
Carolina → elect → 1998
Andrews previously ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2022.
asserted
Andrews → run → 2022
This time, she had a particular motivator: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whom she has called her “professional arch-nemesis.”
asserted
she → have → whom
She said his nomination to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services convinced her to run for Senate.
asserted
nomination → say → Senate
Polyak points to her proposals to end prior authorization for routine and emergency care and prohibit private-equity firms from owning hospitals as examples of how doctors could bring their clinical experience into policymaking.
uncertain
doctors → point → policymaking
Andrews’ campaign agenda also includes keeping rural hospitals open, lowering prescription prices, and strengthening vaccine access.
asserted
agenda → include → access
“Everyone deserves the peace of mind that if they or their child get sick, they can see a doctor without going broke,” she writes.
asserted
she → deserve → doctor
Dr. Georges Benjamin, who leads the American Public Health Association (APHA), hasn’t worked directly with Andrews, but her approach to firearm safety has caught his attention.
asserted
approach → lead → attention
By emphasizing children’s safety, he says, she has found a way to discuss the issue with strong gun-rights supporters.
asserted
she → emphasize → supporters
He hopes that approach can help lawmakers have “an intelligent conversation” about protecting children and communities from firearm violence.
asserted
lawmakers → hop → violence
As a medical student, El-Sayed—Michigan’s incoming U.S. senator—helped take care of a woman who had fallen and hit her head.
asserted
who → help → head
He pushed to have her admitted to the hospital, where further examination revealed serious underlying illnesses, and arranged for her to enter a rehabilitation facility.
asserted
her → push → facility
Instead, she said she would go home with her daughter.
asserted
she → say → daughter
Two weeks later, he found her sleeping on the subway, he recalled in a 2016 interview with Columbia Medicine magazine.
asserted
he → find → magazine
The encounter helped convince him to withdraw his residency application and pursue public health.
asserted
encounter → convince → health
“I realized that I was a lot more interested in what happens before a patient gets to the door than what happens in the hospital,” he said at the time.
asserted
he → realize → time
El-Sayed went on to lead health departments in Detroit and Wayne County.
asserted
Sayed → go → Detroit
Now, after defeating Republican Mike Rogers for Michigan’s open Senate seat, he’s headed to Washington as the nation’s first Muslim senator.
asserted
he → defeat → senator
His health-care platform supports Medicare for All, reversing Medicaid cuts, and increasing support for local health departments.
asserted
platform → support → departments
He also wants stronger protections against political interference in federal health agencies.
asserted
He → want → agencies
“He’s brilliant.
asserted
He → ’ → ?
He’s thoughtful,” says Benjamin, who knows El-Sayed through APHA meetings.
asserted
who → ’ → meetings
“He’s respectful, and he follows the evidence wherever it goes.”
asserted
it → ’ → evidence
Jasmine Clark
Clark, who won an open seat for Congress in Georgia, is used to explaining things people don’t immediately understand.
asserted
people → win → things
“Being a professor, the whole job is explaining difficult concepts to people who are hearing it for the first time,” says Clark, who teaches biology at Emory University, in an interview with TIME.
asserted
who → explain → TIME
Ideally, her students leave understanding the material well enough to explain it to someone else.
asserted
students → leave → someone
The microbiologist earned her doctorate at Emory in 2013 studying retroviral particles with live-cell imaging.
asserted
microbiologist → earn → imaging
She directed Atlanta’s March for Science in 2017 and won a seat in the Georgia legislature a year later.
asserted
She → direct → legislature
…and 77 more, not listed.
The Aporia
