The Largest Number Of Scientists In Modern U.S. History Is Running For Office In 2018 [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

02/03/2018 08:00 am ET Updated 2 hours ago

This comes at a time when there’s only one Ph.D. scientist in Congress.

By Alexander C. Kaufman

More than 60 researchers and technologists are running for federal office in 2018 as part of a historic wave of candidates with science backgrounds launching campaigns.

At least 200 candidates with previous careers in science, technology, engineering and math announced bids for some of the nation’s roughly 7,000 state legislature seats as of Jan. 31, according to data that 314 Action, a political action committee, shared exclusively with HuffPost.

The group, which launched in 2014 to help scientists run for office, said it is talking with 500 more people and is pressing about half of them to run. An additional 200 such candidates are running for school boards.

“The sheer number is really astonishing,” 314 Action founder Shaughnessy Naughton told HuffPost. “We’ve never seen anything like this.”

More:
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/science-candidates_us_5a74fffde4b06ee97af2ae60?utm_hp_ref=climate-change