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.
