A PAC dedicated to electing Democratic physicians and scientists to public office has invested around $8 million backing candidates this year, nearly double the amount given in 2024.
In a memorandum obtained by The Independent, 3.14 Action Fund said the funding boost was needed to combat “Trump and RFK Jr’s war on science”.
The group said it has dropped $7.9 million in Democratic primary races since the start of the 2026 cycle — a full $3.9 million more than the primary season two years ago. The surge in financial support includes backing candidates in Tuesday’s Georgia and Pennsylvania primary contests.
Action Fund was founded in 2016 and has backed more than 500 candidates with science backgrounds in the four election cycles since.
That includes Daniel Biss, the Evanston, Illinois mayor who won the 15-way March primary that is all but certain to determine who will represent Illinois’ heavily Democratic 9th district.
Biss, an MIT-educated mathematician and former University of Chicago assistant professor, defeated influencer Kat Abughazaleh, a progressive streamer, journalist and activist who rose to prominence as a researcher for Media Matters for America during Trump’s first term.
In Georgia, the PAC has bet big on Jasmine Clark, a state legislator with a PhD in microbiology from Atlanta’s Emory University who is running in the Peach State’s 13th District.
The group established a joint fundraising committee with Clark’s campaign and dropped $300,000 on a television advertisement campaign in support of her candidacy, which would make her the first Black and female scientist to serve in the House if she is successful on Tuesday.
And in Pennsylvania’s third Congressional district, 3.14 has spent at least $3.5 million in support of making Ala Stanford the successor to retiring Representative Dwight Evans.
Stanford, a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania’s biology department who is the first entirely U.S.-educated Black, female pediatric surgeon in the United States, was endorsed by Evans, who is stepping down after serving five terms in Congress.
But she still has to get past three other candidates to claim the Democratic Party’s nomination in the race, including state legislator Chris Rabb, state senator Sharif Street and attorney Shaun Griffith.
In the memorandum to interested parties, the PAC boasted that its investment in Stanford’s candidacy helped power her rise from a 10 percent also-ran six months ago to a “serious contender” in the Tuesday primary thanks to its “early investments” in support for her campaign.
The PAC has said its efforts are guided by a playbook of early investment in primary races to back “strong candidates with STEM backgrounds” and give them “operational support to strengthen their campaign infrastructure.”
“With Trump and RFK Jr’s war on science, 314 Action believes now is the time to elect more Democratic doctors, scientists and healthcare professionals in Washington,” it added.
