It was a big night for doctors to win seats in Congress, riding the blue wave

Democrats made major gains among physician candidates in Tuesday's elections, reversing a long pattern in which doctors serving in Congress leaned Republican. The most notable result came in South Carolina, where pediatrician Annie Andrews won a Senate seat, giving the chamber its first practicing Democratic physician since 1938. Michigan's Abdul El-Sayed, an epidemiologist who trained as a doctor but never practiced, also won. Because Republican physicians Bill Cassidy and Roger Marshall lost reelection, the Senate will hold equal numbers of Democratic and Republican doctors, according to NPR.

NPR reports that the newer Democratic doctors tend to work for big hospital systems and care about public health and affordability, unlike earlier Republican doctors who ran small practices. Andrews said she entered politics after seeing parents struggle to pay for children's medications. In the House, Adam Hamawy of New Jersey and Richard Pan of California join the Democratic doctors' caucus, while Georgia elected the Republican neurosurgeon John Cowan, though at least two GOP physician incumbents were defeated.

The group 314 Action, led by Shaughnessy Naughton, put over $30 million into Democratic candidates, 48 of them physicians. Naughton credits voter concern about health costs, public trust in doctors, and a rebuttal of Health Secretary Robert F.

Summarized by PolitiKool from NPR’s reporting. Read the full story at NPR →