A number of people with backgrounds in science and technology are throwing their hat in the ring to seek political office, the Huffington Post reports.
It says that more than 60 researchers or technologists are running for federal-level offices this year, while about 200 are seeking seats in state legislatures, according to 314 Action, a political action committee that helps scientists seeking office. Currently, HuffPost notes that there is one PhD-trained scientist in Congress, Representative Bill Foster (D-Ill.), who is a physicist.
"The sheer number is really astonishing," 314 Action founder Shaughnessy Naughton tells HuffPost. "We've never seen anything like this."
HuffPost attributes this rise in researchers and technologists being interested in political office to the Trump Administration's apparent disregard of science, its call to cut research funding, and to it not yet naming a presidential science advisor.
314 Action has endorsed 16 candidates for seats in the House of Representatives, including Brian Forde, who was a technology advisor in the Obama Administration, and Suneel Gupta, a systems architect who has worked at Mozilla and Groupon.
Other people with science backgrounds like physician Kathie Allen, chemist Phil Janowicz, and biologist Michael Eisen are also seeking office.