GoKawiilMicrobiologist Jasmine Clark is running to become a Democratic representative of Georgia’s 13th district.Credit: Alex Slitz/AP Photo/Alamy
An unprecedented number of US scientists are trading in their lab coats to run for office in the US mid-term elections in November. Many running as Democrats are motivated by the actions of President Donald Trump and his Republican allies to delay and terminate research funding and redefine the goals of government-funded science. Different issues tend to galvanize the scientists running as Republicans, including the artificial-intelligence driven demand for more energy — along with a desire to play a part in science-backed solutions.
The organization 314 Action, which recruits and backs Democratic scientists, engineers and health-care specialists to run for office, has received more than 700 applications from potential candidates seeking support during this election cycle — nearly triple its usual volume (see ‘Political push’). The organization funds candidates to win seats in their state and federal legislatures, with the aim of building “pro-science power at the ballot box”.
Source: 314 Action
For decades, the prevailing wisdom among researchers was that science should be separate from politics. The current political reshaping of US science should drive scientists to realize that this idea “is really a failed business model”, says Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, which is based in Washington DC and named after the first three digits of π.
“We scientists are used to sticking to our knitting,” says Sam Wang, a neuroscientist at Princeton University in New Jersey who is running to become a Democratic member of the US House of Representatives for the state’s 12th district. “But I began realizing that science needed defending.”
Running motivations
Wang is one of the candidates who decided to run because of the Trump administration’s actions. He watched last year as his colleagues’ research grants were abruptly cancelled or delayed, and as trainees, such as postdoctoral fellows, had to be let go because of a lack of funding.
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He likens the frantic process of establishing a political campaign to setting up a research laboratory — only ten times faster. And he’s hoping to bring some of his knowledge from the lab into politics, by applying the scientific method to what he calls a broken system. In 2024, he used statistics to argue before a federal court that the design of some of New Jersey’s election ballots was giving an unfair advantage to certain candidates. (The federal judge later struck down the design.) If he wins during the mid-terms, Wang says, he’ll continue using evidence and data to fight for fairness.
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