Political Action Group Backs Science

A chemist who lost a congressional primary race earlier this year has launched a political action committee (PAC) to support a group underrepresented in Congress: scientists. The organization’s founder, Shaughnessy Naughton, who unsuccessfully ran in Pennsylvania for a House of Representatives seat, says the PAC is designed to boost the influence of the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics community on public policy. Named for the first three digits of the mathematical constant pi, 314 PAC will recruit and train Democratic candidates with STEM backgrounds to run for elected office, the group says. It delivered its first endorsement last week for Seth Moulton, a Harvard University-educated physicist from Massachusetts vying for a seat in the House of Representatives. The PAC expects to endorse additional candidates with the input of its advisory board before the midterm elections in November. Its board of advisers is made up of professionals from medicine and science.