Democratic doctors, nurses aim to flip Congress seats with a focus on healthcare

As an emergency room nurse in Wisconsin, Mitchell Berman says he sees patients who can't afford their medications or utilities.

"I can help mend their broken arm or give them medication to take away their pain, but what I struggle with is knowing full well that I can't help them with the trauma that sets in two weeks later when they get their bill in the mail," Berman said.

Now he's trying to change that -- by running for office, mounting a bid to unseat GOP incumbent Rep. Bryan Steil in Wisconsin's 1st Congressional District.

Berman, whose race was recently added to Democrats' targeted districts, is among a crop of Democratic medical professionals running for Congress who are campaigning to reduce healthcare costs. They're also now campaigning in the wake of public health incidents such as recent measles outbreaks.

Republicans have already elected many medical doctors and professionals to Congress, with the GOP Doctors' Caucus in the U.S. House 14 members strong. But groups such as 314 Action, a Democratic-aligned group supporting Berman and other medical professionals, believe more Democratic medical professionals will be entering Congress after the midterms.

"We think 2026 is going to be the year of the doctor," 314 Action Executive Director Erik Polyak told ABC News.

There are currently 20 doctors in Congress -- six are Democrats and 14 are Republicans.

Republicans doctors running for Congress are also leaning into their medical experience. In the Senate, there are four Republican doctors in office. Those include Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy and Kansas Sen. Roger Marshall, who practiced as an OB/GYN and is up for reelection this year. 

Marshall recently faced some scrutiny over billing practices, but has said he was following common business practices and helped patients who wouldn't have otherwise received care.

"Why does the New York Times never publish the fact that I took everybody that walked through the door, every patient, every Medicaid patient, that other hospitals were sending me their indigent?" he said at a recent debate. Some in the crowd chanted, "Shame on you!"

Democrats campaign on reversing cuts

Democrats agree on making healthcare more affordable, although some are divided on how to get there: some progressives advocate for Medicare for All while others support expanding healthcare options in other ways.

But many have taken swings at Republicans for voting in favor of the 2025 budget reconciliation bill, otherwise known as President Donald Trump's signature tax legislation in his "One Big Beautiful Bill." It includes around $1 trillion in cuts to Medicaid over the next 10 years, in part through new work and eligibility requirements. Republicans said their goal is reducing "waste, fraud and abuse" in these programs."

"Medicaid afforded my mom an additional eight years of life," Berman told ABC News as he called out Steil's vote for the bill. "It gave her the opportunity to dance with me at my wedding. It gave her the ability to hold my first daughter and her first grandchild."

Steil wrote in a statement to ABC News, "With my support beginning July 2025, Wisconsin began receiving an additional $1 billion annually in record federal Medicaid funding."

He said that followed the federal bill passing and other actions such as the state budget passing. Steil also said that the federal bill "strengthened important programs for who they were designed for -- pregnant women, children, and disabled Americans."

Wisconsin legislators and the governor last year passed an increase in Medicaid reimbursements, which may help alleviate the impact of cuts, although some Democrats have argued items like that in the state budget were in anticipation of the federal bill passing.

In South Carolina, Dr. Annie Andrews, a pediatrician running as a Democrat for the Senate seat formerly held by the late Sen. Lindsey Graham, told ABC News that more voters than she expected "are acutely aware" of Medicaid's role in the state's healthcare system.

"I talk a lot about how it's the largest insurer of children here in South Carolina," Andrews said. "If this money is taken out of the system, it will really be devastating to a healthcare system that is already quite broken."

Incumbent GOP Sen. Darline Graham was not a senator when the bill passed -- she was appointed to fill out her brother's term -- but has spoken in support of it.

"Senator Darline Graham has no reservations about her support for the One Big Beautiful Bill and the historic tax relief it delivered for working families," Graham spokesperson Abby Zilch wrote in a statement to ABC News, while also pointing to funding for rural healthcare in the bill.

Graham's campaign on Tuesday unveiled an online game, "Dr. Annie's Waiting Room," where players can navigate a cartoon rendering of Andrews around a waiting room to find messages portraying her as too liberal for South Carolina on medical and health-related issues.

Health headlines and the campaign trail

The wave of medical professional Democrats running also comes as health-related headlines dominate the airwaves in recent months, ranging from cuts at the Center for Disease Control and Prevention to measles outbreaks to the cyclosporiasis outbreak tied to produce.

Those issues also concern Richard Pan, a pediatrician and former state lawmaker in California, who is running to unseat incumbent independent -- and former Republican -- Rep. Kevin Kiley, who caucuses with Republicans.

Pan said he worked in the statehouse on strengthening public health preventive measures, at points clashing with now-Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.

And while the cost of healthcare is top of mind for many voters, Pan said they're also worries about other health issues.

"People don't want to see more disease ... Last thing they need to worry about is that they're going to have to miss work, or because they or someone else got sick at home," he said.

Health and Human Services spokesperson Emily Hillard wrote in a statement to ABC News, "We will not be distracted by political stunts as we continue our work on behalf of the American people." Hillard also said the administration has "mounted a robust response" to measles and cyclosporiasis outbreaks.

Kiley, speaking with ABC News on Tuesday, downplayed Pan's chances against him and criticized some of Pan's actions as a legislator, which he said raised medical costs.

"I have a record of fighting to lower costs for folks in my district in every way that we can. ... I think that we're getting tremendous support from doctors, from nurses, from other healthcare professionals," Kiley said.