When Dr. Annie Andrews took the stage at the South Carolina Democratic Party's Spratt Issues Conference in August, she made clear what her goals would be as senator.
"I believe that health care is a human right. I believe we need to fully fund the Medicaid program. I believe we need to protect Medicare and social security," she said at the conference. "I believe we need to fully fund the CDC and the NIH, and I believe we need to impeach and remove RFK Jr."
On Nov. 3, Andrews became the first woman Senator elected in South Carolina. The pediatrician was joined by other Democratic medical doctors and health leaders elected to various offices across the country, including Ohio Governor-elect Dr. Amy Acton and U.S. Senator-elect Abdul El-Sayed in Michigan,
both of whom have also publicly condemned Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s health policies.
"Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is already the most dangerous Secretary of Health and Human Services that we’ve ever had," Acton wrote in an opinion article published by Courier in 2025. "He uses the official government report to not only legitimize junk science but also to concoct and demonize a new villain supposedly standing in the way of his agenda: Doctors."
A few Democrat elects aren't enough to boot out the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services alone. And for many Americans, the "Make America Healthy Again" or MAHA movement that Kennedy leads and represents is still holding strong.
"I identify with those words because we genuinely want not only our families to be healthy, but everybody else to be healthy as well," Courtney Luna, a mother and influencer, recently told USA TODAY about being a "MAHA mom."
But the tide has certainly shifted, experts say. More medical doctors in office, particularly left-leaning ones, means a chance at repairing broken trust with some Americans.
"After years of junk science, attacks on reproductive health care and the gutting of Medicaid, voters responded by electing medical doctors who are grounded in science and patient care. And those voters will expect them to deliver − to get to work to fight against the corruption that has undermined our health system and made life unaffordable, and to work to ensure everyone can find and afford the health care they need," Fatima Goss Graves, president of the National Women's Law Center Action Fund, wrote in a statement to USA TODAY.
Pediatrician and online health educator Dr. Zachary Rubin said in a series of Instagram posts that "saving our democracy, science and public health will take much more than one election." He called Andrews' victory a "huge win for children, science and public health," adding that in a time where vaccines and health care access are "facing enormous challenges," we "desperately need leaders who understand what is at stake."
"We still have enormous work ahead to rebuild trust in public health, defend scientific integrity, protect access to health care, restore accountability to our federal agencies and confront the misinformation that has cost lives," he wrote. "It won’t be repaired overnight."
Democrats hone in on reproductive rights
Democrats have long been pushing to expand reproductive rights for women, including access to abortion services.
"It is my professional opinion that if you could not pass a pop quiz about women's reproductive anatomy, you should have nothing to do with the process of writing laws about what any woman does with any part of her body," Andrews said in her August speech to her state's Democratic Party.
With more Democrats in office, women's rights leaders across the country are hopeful reproductive health care will be at the forefront of changes to come.
"With Democrats now leading both the House and the Senate, we have a real opportunity to turn this momentum into progress. We look forward to working with leaders in both chambers to advance meaningful protections for reproductive health care," Nourbese Flint, President of the All Above All, a reproductive justice group, said in a statement Nov. 3. "Tonight's results are a reminder that people want leaders who will help them build healthier, more secure futures. Access to abortion and reproductive health care is central to that vision. It affects whether people can stay healthy, support their families, pursue their careers and plan for their futures."
For anti-abortion groups like Americans United for Life, the blue wave means trouble.
"The next Congress will be characterized by pro-abortion antagonism under hostile leadership. However, that does not mean the pro-life movement can ignore our work on Capitol Hill," Americans United for Life CEO John Mize said in a statement on Nov. 4, adding that the anti-abortion movement has "survived darker days" before. "Codifying the abortion extremism of Roe v. Wade using the Women’s Health Protection Act will be a primary goal of this new majority, and we must ensure its defeat."
Madeline Mitchell's role covering women and the caregiving economy at USA TODAY is supported by a partnership with Pivotal and Journalism Funding Partners. Funders do not provide editorial input.
Reach Madeline at memitchell@usatoday.com and @maddiemitch_ on X.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Amy Acton, Annie Andrews and what Democrat wins mean for RFK Jr. and the MAHA movement
