Soon after Congress voted to cut Medicaid and food assistance for millions of people in the Republican tax and spending bill last summer, physician Thomas Fisher headed to the emergency room for his regular shift.
The ER was already chaos.
"There were people in every room, there were people in the hallway, there were people who had been waiting to be admitted. And that's not just my ER. That's every ER," he told USA TODAY. "It's one thing to accept, as I do, that there's a certain amount of suffering in life that's just the human condition. It's another thing to accept that people in government are making that worse intentionally."
He felt like he had to do something in response to the vote. Run for public office.
Fisher, 51, is now competing with more than a dozen Democrats in the March 17 primary for a chance to represent Chicago's downtown and westside.
Congress is already home to doctors, nurses and scientists − both Republicans and Democrats. According to theCongressional Research Service's biennialreport, in 2025 the Senate had four physicians and one optometrist. The House had 16 physicians and four dentists. The House also included one psychologist, two pharmacists, four nurses and one emergency medical technician.
See Senators grill HHS Secretary RFK Jr. over vaccine rulings, CDC turmoil
But one year into the tenure ofRobert F. Kennedy Jr.assecretary of the Department of Health and Human Servicesand the rise of the Make America Healthy Again movement, scientists and doctors like Fisher are stepping into politics, motivated by concerns over changes to health policy, anti-science movements and cuts to social programs.
They're hoping they can slow down or stop new policies modifying vaccination timetables, blaming common pain medicines for autism and changing federal dietary guidelines.
"The wheels have come off. We've undermined the fundamental tenets of health care, of science and so I feel called to this moment, to public service," Fisher said. "I think I can speak with moral clarity."
Several of them are running in toss-up districts that could determine which party controls Congress for the rest ofPresident Donald Trump's second term and how much of his agenda can move forward.
Advocacy groups, including progressive political action committee 314 Action, are pushing for Democratic doctors and scientists to step into the ring at all levels of government.
"As Trump andRFK Jr.lead us down a dangerous anti-science path, Americans are searching for who they can trust — and doctors and scientists bring something Washington desperately needs right now: credibility rooted in evidence and real-world experience," 314 Action president Shaughnessy Naughton said in a statement.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Press Secretary Emily Hilliard said in a statement that Americans have spent decades in a medical status quo.
"Secretary Kennedy is the one who is finally fixing it. Many of the voices now criticizing reform were part of that system as outcomes worsened," she said. "Secretary Kennedy's focus on transparency, informed consent, and patient choice is about restoring trust, not undermining public health."
Most of the current elected health care professionals in Congress are Republicans, and several Republican candidates are running as well.
"House Republicans are delivering real results by advancing affordable, healthy, commonsense nutrition policies that Americans overwhelmingly support," National Republican Congressional Committee spokesperson Mike Marinella said in a statement. "The polling is clear, and a growing roster of strong Republican incumbents and candidates are leading the charge. Democrats, meanwhile, are left with nothing but empty talking points and the same radical agenda voters keep rejecting."
Rural health care
Jasmeet Bains, a family physician and California assemblymember, said she wouldn't have run for Congress before Republican Rep. David Valadao voted for the Republican tax and spending law last summer.
The law, which Valadao initiallypledged to not support, is expected to strip health insurance from millions of low-income Californians, including nearly 290,000 residents in his rural farming Central Valley district, according to the California Budget and Policy Center.
Bains, 40, who only serves Medicaid patients at her Delano, California clinic, said Valadao's change of mind surprised her.
"In the Valley, your word is your bond. Going back on your word is the biggest slap in the face that you can give to a community, especially a vulnerable community like this," she said. "I had full faith that he would do the right thing and stand up for the district. But he didn't."
Valadao said ina statement after the bill passedthat he still had concerns about some of the changes to Medicaid, but appreciated the newly created fund meant to help the rural hospitals that would be hit disproportionally hard.
Advertisement
"No piece of legislation is perfect, but this bill ultimately reflects the priorities of CA-22—lower taxes, stronger farms, better infrastructure, and a commitment to protecting access to healthcare for Valley residents," he said.
His campaign did not respond to a request for new comment.
Bains, who faces three other Democrats and Valadao in California's June 2 primary, wants to see a rural, Medicaid-serving doctor's voice in Congress. California has a top two primary system, where the two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary advance to the general election regardless of party.
"You'll get a very different perception of what needs to be done to strengthen health care," she said. "A lot of times people have ideas of healthcare, but if you don't have the expert that's actually worked in those areas that need it most, you're not going to create a program that's effective."
Facts and data
Megan O'Rourke, 46, of Blairstown, New Jersey, said she knew quickly after Trump took office and started making changes that she was not going to be able to stay on as a civil worker focused on food security and climate change at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
"It was clear to me that I was not going to follow orders and to be complicit and do the things they wanted me to do. And so I did what I thought was the most strategic thing I could do in my capacity, which was resign and run to take him down," O'Rourke said.
O'Rourke, who has a doctorate in ecology, said that running for Congress was "one of the most strategic ways that we can push back against this presidency and the executive overreach and restore checks and balances and uphold my oath to the Constitution as a civil servant was to run for office in a flip-able seat, which was my hometown," she said.
O'Rourke is one of eight Democrats competing in the June 2 primary to represent central New Jersey's 7th District.
Fluoridation in Florida
Emily Gregory, 40, of Jupiter, Florida, has master's in public health and health policy and management. She's watched with concern in the last few years as state lawmakers removed vaccine mandates, downplayed the health threats of forever chemicals and made changes to whether drinking water should be fluoridated.
She's more concerned about the state's water quality than some of Kennedy supporters' concerns like what food dyes can be used. Kennedy has pledged to removecertain synthetic dyes from the food supplyby the end of 2026.
"I agree that red food dye is a concern, but my children don't have M&Ms every day," Gregory said. "They do drink water every day and they drink a lot of water every day. We have to think about scale. So if we're going to put our energies into making something safe, clean drinking water void of PFAS and forever chemicals is far more important and is going to impact our children and everyone's health outcomes so much more than red food dye number 5."
More:Will MAHA turn on Trump? How his executive order feels like 'betrayal'
Florida Democrats have outperformed Republicans this year, and Gregory decided to run for an open formerly Republican-held seat in the state legislature for a district that includes Trump's home at Mar-a-Lago. She won the Democratic primary with 88% of the vote. The special election is March 24.
"I want to be a part of bringing ... data and science back to the legislature," she said.
Child vaccines
Pediatrician and California state Sen. Richard Pan has already faced off with Kennedy, who attacked Pan's 2015 legislation to make it harder for parents to opt out of school vaccine requirements by saying vaccines were causing an autism "holocaust."
Kennedy laterapologized for using the wordin that context.
Pan, 60, of Sacramento, said Kennedy was evasive and accused him of lying during an August appearance before the Senate Finance Committee on Trump's 2026 health care agenda. It was a "tipping point" in his decision to run, he said.
"He's in DC. I need to go to DC and take him on as well on behalf of the people, to keep people safe, keep our kids safe." Pan said.
Pan is one of five Democrats running for the seat in the June 2 primary, which includes three Republicans and sitting U.S. Rep. Kevin Kiley, who recently announced he would run as an independent rather than a Republican.
Pan said Kennedy has transformed an agency that used to be one of the most accurate sources of American medical and scientific information into a major source of disinformation. He urged other doctors to join him in running for public office.
"This (moment) calls on people like physicians and scientists to step up because we're not gonna be able to do it from our clinics or from our hospitals, from our operating rooms, from our labs," Pan said. "We are watching the fruits of our work being undermined by policy decisions by people who are unqualified, and frankly, it seems like they're making decisions based on their own personal gain, whether it's political or financial or both, instead of on what's best for the American people."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Democratic doctors run for Congress to challenge Trump, RFK Jr.