A political organization that sells itself as ‘pro-science’ just helped send a record number of Democratic doctors and scientists to Washington, and Soros-linked money that flowed through several Democratic dark-money groups helped fund the effort. The group behind the push has set its sights on one man more than anyone else, Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and his Make America Healthy Again agenda, as reported by the New York Post.

The group is 3.14 Action, which runs the 314 Action Fund. It says its mission is to “identify STEM leaders who would make strong candidates, recruit them to run for office and provide game-changing support.” On its website, 314 Action describes itself as “the only national organization working to recruit, train, and elect Democratic scientists” to office. It lists candidate services that include training opportunities such as media training, leadership development and staff retreats, along with operational support such as hiring staff, financial planning and polling, plus strategic guidance, day-to-day support to candidates and staff, and financial investments. 

The site states that “from pre-launch to Election Day, we work closely with candidates every step of the way.” The Post reports that the group’s legislative priorities include abortion, climate change and gun violence. It also reports that many of the 19 lawmakers elected this week built careers around race, DEI, climate change and gun control. 

This was not an organic wave of scientists deciding on their own to run. It was a deliberate recruitment. The PAC handled its candidates from start to finish, giving them training, staff, polling, strategy and money. A Washington Post analysis found that 16 of its endorsed candidates in competitive races ran more than 2,300 ads that aired hundreds of thousands of times in October.

Following the money
The spending was the biggest in the group’s history. The New York Post reported that 3.14 Action roughly doubled their investment to about $23 million into races this cycle. The group itself said in an October 14 memo that it had invested more than $22 million in STEM candidates and bundled another $6.6 million directly to campaigns.

The Post traced part of that money back to the Soros network. It reported that the Open Society Action Fund, tied to George and Alex Soros, gave millions that moved through Democratic-aligned groups and ultimately reached 3.14 Action, including a $2.5 million donation from House Majority Forward in 2024. That was the first donation House Majority Forward had made to the group.

Who got elected
The best-known winner is Dr. Annie Andrews of South Carolina, a 46-year-old pediatrician and first-time candidate. She won the Senate seat long held by Lindsey Graham, defeating his sister, Sen. Darline Graham, whom Gov. Henry McMaster appointed after Graham’s death in July. The Post reports that Andrews has supported puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors, saying “gender affirming care isn’t child abuse.” Her research shifted politically around 2020, including multiple firearms studies and a 2022 paper calling for “culturally appropriate interventions.” She has called Kennedy her “professional archnemesis” and has backed impeaching him.

In California, pediatrician Richard Pan, 61, won his first federal race. He led the 2015 “Vaccinate California” campaign that ended personal-belief exemptions for school vaccines, and he told reporters that grilling Kennedy under oath was one of his reasons for running, The Washington Post reported. The New York Post notes that his research includes DEI-themed papers on the pediatric workforce.

In North Carolina, Jamie Ager flipped a House seat while being promoted as an “environmental scientist.” The Post reports that his only science credential is an undergraduate degree in environmental studies and history from Warren Wilson College.

Michigan Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed, 42, calls himself a physician. Politico reported he holds a Columbia medical degree but never finished a residency or held a medical license. The degree was supported by a Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans. Some of his Columbia research on interethnic mating and birth outcomes has been criticized as “eugenics.”

In a 2011 Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health paper, El-Sayed and Sandro Galea wrote that “interethnic mating may be associated with increased risk for adverse birth outcomes among Arab ethnicity mothers.” Using Michigan birth records from 2000–2005, they found higher odds of preterm birth (about 18%) and late preterm birth (about 24%) among Arab-ethnicity mothers with non-Arab fathers after adjustments; the pattern did not appear among non-Arab white mothers. The paper noted that “individuals in interracial/interethnic relationships have increased stress” that can raise risk for adverse birth outcomes, pointed to possible cultural or behavioral factors, and called for further study. Because the analysis focused on Arab-ethnicity mothers and framed interethnic mating as linked to worse outcomes for that group, many have argued that the work reflects a preference for Arab women only having children within their own ethnic group.

New Jersey’s Dr. Adam Hamawy, 57, a plastic surgeon who volunteered in Gaza, also won his House race. The Investigative Project on Terrorism has accused him of giving false testimony as a defense witness at the 1995 trial of Omar Abdel-Rahman, the “Blind Sheikh” behind the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. Hamawy was never charged with perjury. The Post also reports that he volunteered in Bosnia with a Chicago-based charity later raided as an al-Qaeda front, and that he was sued in 2017 over a neck lift.

The real agenda
Theo Wold, a former White House deputy assistant for domestic policy under President Trump, told the Post what many conservatives suspect: “This is just the left trying to capitalize on their complete occupation and control of higher education and academia. They want to use scientific credentials to hoodwink voters into trusting so-called scientific expertise that is just leftist ideology with a veneer of STEM terminology.” Shaughnessy Naughton, president of 314 Action, pushed back, telling the Post, “If anyone is responsible for politicizing science, it’s Robert F. Kennedy Jr.”

Democrats will hold subpoena power in the House, and several of the newly elected members with scientific and medical backgrounds have stated they intend to use it against Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Voters who supported MAHA’s emphasis on getting Americans on the road to healthier living by holding companies responsible for their ingredients, addressing chronic disease, improving food safety, and increasing accountability at federal health agencies should pay close attention to how that power is exercised.

Speaking at SOMOS, the yearly New York political retreat in Puerto Rico that follows Election Day, New York Attorney General Letitia James set the record straight just after Hakeem Jeffries was re-elected and positioned to become the next Speaker of the House. “For those who live in his district and are so drunk on power to think that they’re going to run against this man, you’ve got to get past this neighborhood and Tish James. We are going hard for our speaker.” 

James delivered those lines Saturday at a Brooklyn Democratic leadership event during the conference, drawing a clear line around Jeffries’ Eighth Congressional District, which includes Coney Island, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and nearby parts of Brooklyn, as reported by the New York Post.

James repeated the point to applause: “We are going hard. We are going hard for our speaker.”

Simultaneously, as James was speaking in Puerto Rico, the Democratic Socialists of America and their allies staged a victory lap through Manhattan in New York City. Hundreds marched about a mile from Times Square toward Seventh Avenue and East 14th Street under the banner “March for Our Democracy: The Fight Isn’t Over,” many carrying matching signs and coordinated banners. They claimed credit for the midterm “blue tsunami” that delivered Democratic control of both chambers and declared that traditional leadership was no longer sufficient. They also demanded new leaders in the House and Senate unless establishment Democrats moved further left.

The split was already public. Democrats may have won the gavel, but for the first weekend the party was arguing out in the open over who would hold it.

DSA participants made their demands explicit. Connie Cooper of Connecticut told the New York Post, “We don’t want corporate Dems in there. We’re calling the shots,” while carrying a sign that read “New Majority Leader.” She added, “It’s not enough to just keep the status quo. That’s not what people want.” Others chanted that Jeffries and presumptive Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer must keep ICE out of New York and abandon the status quo, barking, “Jeffries, Schumer let’s be clear ICE is not wanted here.” The group, joined by the NYC DSA chapter, Make the Road New York, the United Federation of Teachers, and PSC-CUNY, framed the midterm gains as a mandate for a sharper leftward turn rather than continuity under the current leadership slate. A rally flyer cited by the Post listed those groups among the sponsors.

James did not name the DSA directly, yet her warning was unmistakably aimed at the same forces. That stance sits in open tension with the DSA’s growing roster of elected officials, including incoming New York Rep. Darializa Avila Chevalier, who is headed to Congress from the 13th District after unseating longtime Rep. Adriano Espaillat in the primary. She is part of a larger DSA class that also includes New York’s Claire Valdez. NPR reported that six DSA-backed candidates won House seats this cycle, growing a caucus that had been just two sitting members, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Rashida Tlaib. The group’s public line remains that figures like Jeffries and Schumer are too moderate for the moment.

While the Manhattan march moved through the streets, James used the same weekend to signal that any effort to unseat Jeffries would meet organized resistance. One side of the party spent Saturday claiming it is now calling the shots. The other drew a boundary around Brooklyn’s most powerful Democrat and said challengers would have to get through Tish James first. Winning both chambers did not settle who speaks for New York Democrats. It only made the fight public.

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Thursday escalated its economic campaign against Cuba, sanctioning China-based suppliers accused of arming Havana’s military and clearing the way for broader hits on key sectors of the island’s economy.

In a State Department statement, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced designations of eight entities and two individuals under President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14404, plus five associated vessels as blocked property. The targets include Cuban elites, a crude oil shipping network, state-owned import and technical-support entities, and Chinese firms tied to Cuba’s armed forces.

Among the China-based targets are China National Electronic Import and Export Company (CEIEC) and Beijing H&C Technologies Co., Ltd. According to a State Department fact sheet, both worked with Cuban arms procurement company Sociedad Mercantil Duna S.A., already designated in August, to export military-related components and equipment to Cuba in 2026. CEIEC contracted to supply parts intended for equipment used by Cuba’s Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces. Beijing H&C, a subsidiary of China Electronics Technology Group Corporation International, sells surveillance and security gear and likewise routed military equipment through Duna.

Treasury also published a determination under E.O. 14404 authorizing sanctions on any foreign person operating in Cuba’s electronics, manufacturing, marine, and technology sectors. The personal designations include Guillermo Faustino Rodriguez Lopez Calleja, tied to an offshore network moving Cuban crude oil, and Any Rodriguez Lastres, daughter of previously designated GAESA President Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera.

“Cuba’s ruling elite is hoarding the island’s energy, shipping, and technology resources for its own enrichment, leaving the Cuban people to contend with blackouts, shortages, and a stagnant economy,” Rubio said. He added that the regime’s foreign backers supply military equipment that sustains its forces and enables repression, while Cuba serves as a staging ground for hostile actors plotting against the United States.

Property and interests of the designated persons in the United States, or under U.S. persons’ control, are blocked. Thursday’s action is an implementation and expansion under E.O. 14404, which President Trump signed on May 1, 2026, along with E.O. 14380 and National Security Presidential Memorandum 5. Those directives call on the administration to pressure Havana over repression and threats to U.S. national security.

Lockheed Martin has agreed to pay roughly $29.5 million to settle federal claims that the defense giant used DEI-driven pay, hiring, and promotion practices while taking taxpayer money as a federal contractor.

The Justice Department and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission announced the two-part deal on November 3. Under it, Lockheed will pay $22 million to the United States to resolve False Claims Act allegations covering race and sex and about $7.5 million to more than 1,000 affected workers under a Title VII settlement with the EEOC, framed as race discrimination against white employees. The EEOC called it the largest class of workers to publicly recover in a settlement tied to alleged Title VII violations arising from a DEI program.

Most federal contracts require contractors to certify that employment decisions will be made “without regard to” race or sex. Prosecutors alleged that from 2019 forward, Lockheed falsely certified that compliance while race and sex shaped who got raises, bonuses, and advancement. The centerpiece was Lockheed’s “Compensation Adder,” or Comp Adder, program, which began in 2021. It was supposed to give the top 20% of employees in each business area an extra pay bump based on merit. According to the Justice Department, before those lists were locked in, Lockheed ran statistical checks that “flagged” selections based on race and sex. When a unit was flagged, HR pressed leaders to rework the lists.

In practice, prosecutors said, that meant adding minority employees and cutting non-minority ones. One HR employee told business leaders that “increasing POC [People of Color] for Comp Adder will result in removing equal count of non-minority.” A Director of Global Diversity & Inclusion told colleagues they would “identify at least 11 additional PoC adds” so a “Race flag will clear,” ending the message with “Let’s goooooooooo” and a smiley face.

The government also alleged Lockheed tracked non-public race and sex workforce goals that steered hiring and promotions, scored managers on demographic “Performance Metrics,” and offered mentoring and leadership programs limited by race or sex.

The False Claims Act case grew out of a whistleblower suit by Tim Booher, a former Lockheed vice president in Combat Systems, as reported by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. 

Booher will receive $4.4 million from the government share of the settlement.

Lockheed cooperated in the resolution of these matters, denies the allegations, and does not admit liability. There has been no finding of wrongdoing. The claims remain allegations only.

This year the Administration launched the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud and the National Fraud Enforcement Division to enhance the Administration’s war on fraud, waste and abuse in federal programs. When unscrupulous actors exploit these programs for their own financial gain, they defraud the government, harm the people these programs are designed to aid and protect, and undermine American businesses that play by the rules. 

The Justice Department Civil Division’s FCA enforcement plays a critical role in combatting such fraudulent schemes, recovering billions of dollars for American taxpayers, and holding wrongdoers accountable. FCA matters will continue to be on the forefront of the battle against fraud, and the Civil Division’s FCA work will support and advance the mission of the Task Force to Eliminate Fraud and the National Fraud Enforcement Division.

The two-part resolution obtained in this matter was the result of a coordinated effort between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the Justice Department’s Civil Division, Commercial Litigation Branch, Fraud Section, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas with investigative assistance from the Department of War, Office of Inspector General.

Associate Attorney General Stanley E. Woodward Jr. put the stakes plainly: companies that do business with the federal government “should not make DEI compensation decisions that prioritize an employee’s race over the merit of their work.” EEOC Chair Andrea Lucas said Title VII protects every worker from race discrimination, and that protection “does not yield when discriminatory decisions are framed as diversity initiatives.”

Under the EEOC deal, Lockheed must keep a merit-based workplace where race and sex are not factors in hiring, pay, bonuses, or promotions, with EEOC oversight for the life of the agreement.

The U.S. economy is accelerating. Real GDP grew at a 3.4% annual rate in the third quarter of 2026, according to the Treasury Department’s advance estimate, a sharp pickup from the 2.2% pace in the second quarter and the fastest growth in the last four quarters.

Private demand is driving the expansion. Private domestic final purchases, which include consumer spending, business fixed investment, and residential investment combined, rose 4.9% at an annual rate, the strongest pace in more than five years and the second consecutive quarter above 4.5% outside the pandemic recovery. Business fixed investment alone grew 12.7% in the third quarter after gains of 9.0% and 9.9% in the prior two quarters, the fastest rate in 15 years outside pandemic volatility.

Equipment investment surged 20.9% (the third straight double-digit quarter), industrial equipment jumped 24.7%, intellectual property products rose 8.4%, and structures turned positive at 5.4%, the strongest reading since late 2023. Business fixed investment contributed 1.8 percentage points to GDP growth, while personal consumption expenditures rose 3.8% and added another 2.5 points. These trends have reinforced the economy’s capacity for self-sustaining growth.

Labor-market conditions remain solid. Since December 2025 the private sector has added 634,000 net new jobs. Unemployment averaged 4.1% in the third quarter, down from 4.3% in the first half of the year. Federal payrolls have continued to shrink, holding near 2.68 million workers, down from 3.01 million in January 2025.

Nominal average hourly earnings rose 3.0% and average weekly earnings rose 3.6% over the year through September; the Employment Cost Index for private workers increased 3.4%. Initial unemployment claims stayed exceptionally low by historical standards, and new business applications hit a record high of more than 576,000 in July and remained elevated through the third quarter.

Core inflation has cooled even as growth has picked up. Twelve-month core CPI stood at 2.6% as of September, down from 3.0% a year earlier, while food price inflation eased to 2.5%.

The acceleration has been supported by the major fiscal legislation enacted in July 2025 (the Working Families Tax Cuts). The law averted a large scheduled tax increase, lowered the cost of capital, and restored key investment incentives: full expensing of research and development, 100% bonus depreciation for business equipment, and restored interest deductibility for capital-intensive manufacturers.

Real business fixed investment has risen a cumulative 9.4% since the law’s passage, and business equipment investment alone has added 0.8 percentage points to GDP growth over the past four quarters. A net 22% of small businesses plan capital outlays over the next six months, and the Business Roundtable’s index of CEO capital-expenditure expectations stands at its highest level since early 2022.

Announced investments in U.S. manufacturing, production, and innovation total trillions of dollars, reflecting broad global confidence in the United States as an investment destination. Full expensing, tariffs and reshoring incentives, and deregulation have reinforced the capital-expenditure boom. Together, the enacted and planned policies form a foundation for continued private-sector-led growth and broader prosperity.

Anthony Constantino — who survived one of the nastiest House races in upstate New York by “being authentic” and standing by the president — is poised to become one of the GOP’s most outspoken voices in the minority.

The CEO of custom printing company Sticker Mule, who burst onto the political scene in 2024 by putting a huge “Vote for Trump” sign on the roof of his factory in the city of Amsterdam, spoke to The Post Thursday after declaring victory in his midterm race — one of the few bright spots for Republicans in an election where Democrats seized control of the House and Senate.

“I stood by the president. I stood by him doing good things,” he said, when asked about his survival strategy. “I just try to be authentic, be honest. I’m authentic. I’m not just trying to sell them a line of BS in order to win a seat.

“President Trump was right to say if he was on the ballot and if other people fought, stood by him more aggressively, we would have better outcomes.”

Constantino’s brand of political confrontation included ripping reporters as “a–holes” and “scumbags” in his victory night speech and partnering with political “prince of darkness” Roger Stone, who helped persuade him to run.

“I give him a lot of credit. He saw me as a person that had no political experience and but built a great company,” Constantino said.

Asked why he teed off on a pair of TV reporters during his moment of triumph, Constantino explained: “They deleted two of my interviews, put up a fake transcript, and then when I started, you know, criticizing the guy crossed his arms and tried to stare me down … I have to be mindful of security in an event. And just because you’re a reporter doesn’t mean you’re not an unstable person.

“You are an a–hole if you’re going around calling other people a–holes for no reason,” he continued, blasting an article about his affiliation with Stone. “I think the biggest drag in the race was the evil media.”

Constantino defeated Democratic challenger dairy farmer Blake Gendebien by about 6,000 votes, 51-49, in the 21st Congressional District that Trump carried by 20 points when his predecessor Rep. Elise Stefanik was on the ballot. Gendebien conceded Friday.

Constantino self-funded his race, spending $17 million out of his pocket. But he doesn’t know if he’ll self-fund a 2028 re-election campaign.

He spoke about his decision to hire private eyes to investigate his opponent, initially to chase down an unconfirmed allegation, then to chase a rumor of illegal dumping.

“So we originally did a drone flight to look for, you know, look for dead cows, and then we found this giant dump site,” he said of Gendebien’s farm. Gendebien denied the allegation and said he was cleared by the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Constantino blasted Republican gubernatorial nominee Bruce Blakeman, who ended up getting trounced by Gov. Kathy Hochul, despite earlier hopes of peeling away disgruntled Democrats downstate.

“They just go to political dinners with other political people and they talk to high propensity Republicans,” he said of party officials. “Bruce Blakeman should have done what I did: go out and meet regular people … But he just went to political dinners. All they want to do is go to dinner, and pat each other on the back and eat food with donor money.”

He said his advice to Blakeman went nowhere.

“I gave him advice and they told me they don’t want to listen to me,” he said – on a day Blakeman unloaded on Stefanik for failing to “lift a finger” to help other Republicans after she ripped his campaign.

Blakeman slammed Constantino, who had online compared him to a “headless chicken.”

“Anthony Constantino was by far the worst candidate I ever encountered. I ran way ahead of him in his District and if it weren’t for me he wouldn’t have won. See you in two years, pal,” Blakeman posted on X.

Constantino said Stefanik would have performed better: “She’s very smart, and she would run a different race. And I think you know I think she would have done better.”

He said he plans to ask Republican leaders to put him on the House Oversight Committee, where Democrats are already warning unnamed targets to “lawyer up.”

With fellow New Yorkers — House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer — set to assume leadership when Constantino is sworn in alongside self-described New York socialist Darializa Chevalier, the MAGA warrior said he’ll focus on trying to persuade his Democratic opponents rather than simply attacking them.

“I can talk to anybody. I don’t even mind talking to them and telling them why their ideas are bad,” he said of incoming socialists.

By – https://nypost.com/2026/11/07/us-news/constantino-says-standing-by-trump-spared-him-dem-wave/