‘A complete repudiation’: public health won big in US midterm elections

Candidates who centred their campaigns on healthcare and public health won offices across the US in last week’s midterm elections. Public health advocates called the results a rejection of the Trump administration’s health policies, as voters faced concerns including rising vaccine-preventable disease, healthcare costs and access to reproductive care.

Democrats gained ground in several state legislatures, with potential consequences for policies on abortion, gender-affirming care and vaccination. Victories included pediatrician Annie Andrews, who campaigned to impeach Health Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, and public health figures Amy Acton and Abdul El-Sayed; Texas’s incoming attorney general has also said he will drop several lawsuits pursued by his predecessor.