A group promoting Democratic candidates with science and technology backgrounds plans to spend $20 million to $25 million on the 2024 election, the organization’s executive director told HuffPost.
Action 314, which was formed after the 2016 election, targets 27 House districts, many of which were won by President Joe Biden in 2020 but are now held by Republicans, as well as key state-level races in Pennsylvania, Delaware and North Carolina.
“I really have broken the code on what makes a good candidate [swing] district,” said Joshua Morrow, executive director of 314 Action. “This is going to be our candidate that people want to support.”
The group already has one top recruit in the competitive district: George Whitesides, former NASA chief of staff and CEO of Virgin Galactic, has announced plans to challenge GOP Rep. Mike Garcia in California’s 27th District, which covers suburban areas. north of Los Angeles.
The 27th is the emblem of many districts 314 Action target. While President Joe Biden easily won in 2020, taking more than two-thirds of the vote, Garcia won again by seven percentage points in 2022 after national Democrats struggled to find the resources to run ads in the expensive Los Angeles media market.
The group is also targeting the Delaware governor’s race, the lieutenant governor’s race in North Carolina and Delaware and the treasurer’s race in Oregon and Pennsylvania.
Most of the group’s funds will be used to help candidates qualify in competitive primaries. The group is backing the winning candidates in 2022, including Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, a former astronaut, and two new members of the House of Representatives: Eric Sorensen of Illinois, a meteorologist, and Yadira Caraveo, a pediatrician.
Morrow argued a candidate with a background in STEM could appeal to the Democratic Party’s liberal base and to swing voters, especially as science-based issues such as pandemic prevention and climate change become important.
“They’re problem solvers. Scientists aren’t programmed to disprove facts, they’re programmed to find facts. Lawyers are taught to disprove facts,” Morrow said. “And I think that’s what makes him work across the aisle in a way that other politicians can’t.”
“During a pandemic, wouldn’t it be great if we had a president who knew about the pandemic?” Tomorrow ask for rhetoric. “And wouldn’t it be great if experts could write the climate change bill instead of energy companies?”