a record number of researchers applying for US mid-term offices

An unprecedented number of American scientists are trading in their lab coats to run for office in November’s US midterm elections. Many Democratic candidates are motivated by the actions of President Donald Trump and his Republican allies slowing and ending research funding and redefining the goals of government-funded science. A variety of issues tend to energize scientists who run as Republicans, including artificial intelligence-induced demand for more energy — along with a willingness to play a role in science-based decisions.

314 Action, which recruits and supports Democratic scientists, engineers and health professionals to run for office, has received more than 700 applications from potential candidates seeking support this election cycle — nearly three times its usual volume (see “Political Push”). The organization funds candidates to win seats in their state and federal legislatures, with the goal of building “pro-science power at the ballot box.”

For decades, the prevailing wisdom among researchers was that science should be separated from politics. The current political transformation of American science should make scientists realize that this idea “is really a failed business model,” says Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, which is based in Washington and named after the first three digits of p.

“We scientists are used to sticking to our knitting,” says Sam Wang, a neuroscientist at Princeton University in New Jersey who is running for the Democratic U.S. House of Representatives for the state’s 12th district. “But I began to realize that science needs protection.”

Motivations for running

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 suddenly canceled or delayed, and as interns, such as postdocs, had to be let go for lack of funding.

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He likens the frantic process of creating a political campaign to setting up a research lab—only ten times faster. And he hopes to bring some of his knowledge from the lab to politics by applying the scientific method to what he calls a broken system. In 2024, he used statistics to argue in federal court that the design of some of New Jersey’s election ballots gave an unfair advantage to certain candidates. (A federal judge later threw out the design.) If he wins during the midterms, Wang says, he will continue to use evidence and data to fight for justice.

Jasmine Clark, a microbiologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, already serves in her state legislature, but the change in science in the U.S. over the past year has motivated her to run for even higher political office in 2026. Now she’s campaigning to become the Democratic congressional representative for Georgia’s 13th district.

In the year since Trump took office, about 10,000 PhD scientists left the US government because in an effort to reduce the federal workforce, the administration fired them or encouraged them to retire early. One US agency that lost many scientists was the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), based in Clark’s home state of Georgia. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who called the agency corrupt, contributed to much of this exodus while taking actions that many scientists oppose, such as changing vaccine recommendations without consulting specialists.

In response, Clark wants to bring data and science to the policy-making table. “We need people who really care about the truth to sit in those seats.”

Scientific wave?

The number of people with a science background applying for office has historically been very low, says Christopher Shields, a political scientist at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

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His team found in 2025 that only about 3% of seats in state legislatures across the country are filled by people with science, engineering or health education. But with issues like climate change, artificial intelligence and public health dominating legislative agendas, Shields expects that number to grow.

One hot topic where scientific expertise is useful is energy, says Jeff Wilson, a retired nuclear engineer and U.S. Navy veteran who is running for Illinois’ 13th district Republican representative. Wilson wants to ensure that the United States becomes energy independent. If elected, he says he would help build more nuclear power plants in the state. His district “needs someone who is articulate, scientific, practical” and “who can provide sensible solutions, especially on energy,” he adds.