Newly elected doctors and scientists secured congressional seats and state offices across the United States last week, launching a fresh push to restore public trust in science despite deep electoral divisions over public health policy.
Lawmakers Plan to Investigate Federal Health Leadership
- Lawmakers plan to use congressional oversight powers to investigate federal health leadership and examine past pandemic policies.
Flipping Congressional Seats With Science
Doctors and public health officials ran pro-vaccine and pro-science campaigns last week, winning over voters even in traditionally conservative areas, STAT reported. Candidates endorsed by 314 Action flipped 10 congressional seats.
“What we saw in the results is that when these scientists really leaned into their scientific and medical backgrounds, that only provided their potential constituents with more trust,” said Shaughnessy Naughton, the founder of 314 Action.
“They are looked at as truth tellers and that really is what people want,” Naughton told STAT.
Statehouse Divides Over Vaccine Policy
The midterm results demonstrate that Americans remain deeply divided on core scientific issues, with some communities distrustful of public health cornerstones. South Carolina elected pediatrician Annie Andrews as the first Democrat to represent the state in the Senate since 2005.
Unless RFK Jr. is interested in spending the next two years in front of Congressional committees, he should go ahead and resign now.
Simultaneously, the Americans for Health Freedom, an anti-vaccine advocacy organization, reports that the state elected 18 candidates who made public commitments to ban Covid vaccines from the marketplace. Across the nation, more than 120 lawmakers publicly opposed to Covid shots won election to office.
State-level executive races also showed mixed results. Ohio elected Democrat Amy Acton, who led the state’s Covid response, as its next governor. In Florida, voters chose Byron Donalds, who said that removing all state vaccine requirements would be a step in the right direction.
| Elected Official | State | Stance on Public Health |
|---|---|---|
| Annie Andrews | South Carolina | Pro-science, pro-vaccine Senate victor |
| Amy Acton | Ohio | Former Covid response leader, gubernatorial winner |
| Byron Donalds | Florida | Supports removing state vaccine requirements |
| Abdul El-Sayed | Michigan | Pro-science Senate victor, aims to investigate HHS |
A Strategy to Rebuild Public Trust
Newly elected public health experts face the immediate challenge of answering why the public should trust them. Brian Castrucci, a Republican who leads the de Beaumont Foundation, said that rebuilding trust requires abandoning patronizing approaches.
“We can answer that question, but it’s not going to be by telling people they’re wrong,” Castrucci told STAT.
Abdul El-Sayed, a Democrat elected to represent Michigan in the Senate, wrote in a 2024 column for the Detroit Metro Times that yelling slogans at frightened individuals is counterproductive.
“Yelling ‘trust the science!’ at someone who’s afraid of vaccinating does little to allay their underlying fear. Rather, it gives them more reason not to trust — you, the vaccine, ‘the science,’” El-Sayed wrote.
El-Sayed argued that public health distrust stems primarily from corporate greed rather than rejection of science itself. He expressed a desire to investigate Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
Democratic Lawmakers Intend to Use Oversight for Investigations
Democratic lawmakers intend to utilize congressional majorities for vigorous oversight and document requests. Rep. Lauren Underwood said that the majority will enable effective investigations and accurate information delivery.
However, political fights over vaccines carry documented risks. A 2015 research paper demonstrated that statehouse debates can decrease support for immunization requirements and government confidence. Researcher Sarah Gollust said that political polarization surrounding vaccines has increased since Covid-19.
According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the number of vaccine exemptions rose across the District of Columbia and 41 states between the 2024 and 2025 academic years.
CDC data shows that a localized cluster of vaccine objectors in Spartanburg County triggered South Carolina’s 2025 measles outbreak, which represented the largest such event in the U.S. since the disease was officially eradicated in 2000.
References
- Figures provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that vaccine exemptions increased across the District of Columbia and 41 states from the 2024 to the 2025 school year.
