By MIKE MAGEE
As we entered the 2026 Mid-terms, twenty physicians held seats in Congress, four in the Senate and 16 in the House, a record for physicians in the highest offices of the land. (I provide a list below.)
In the wake of Tuesday’s remarkable display of democracy, many have shined a light on several new elected physicians, including Sen. Abdul El-Sayed (D-Mich.), Sen. Annie Andrews (D-S.C.), and notably the election of a woman physician as governor of Ohio, Gov. Amy Acton (D-Ohio).
They will join, come January, two standing physician senators – John Barrasso (R-WY) and Rand Paul (R-KY), and leave behind two other Republican Senators, Bill Cassidy (R-LA) and Roger Marshall (R-KS), both mired in controversy.
Physician leaders. Is this a good thing for our nation, struggling with an inequitable and prohibitively expensive health care system, a frayed and collapsing public health infrastructure, and a reckless vaccine policy launched by a public official whose own family members describe him as, well, “crazy.”
My short answer is “On the whole with notable exceptions, yes.” In search of an answer why, I go back to a speech I gave, now two decades ago, on March 12, 2006 at the AMA President’s Forum in Washington, D.C.
In that speech to the national leadership of the AMA’s “House of Medicine,” I provided three reasons for my faith in entrusting physician leaders with the heavy mantle of leadership:
“The world is a better place today for having developed and supported strong, enduring patient-physician relationships. This is not simply a function of the nuts and bolts health care that this relationship provides, in full vision day in and day out. But also for those things it has reliably delivered over many decades around the world, quietly below the radar screen.
1. The first of these, as a collective, is the management and processing of a population’s fear and worry, which, absent our efforts, would accumulate to destabilizing effect.
2. The second is a subtle and rational reinforcement of important societal bonds as an outflow of personalization of care. The importance of this second contribution was best highlighted by the great Cardinal Bernardin, who shortly before he died said to several thousand AMA physicians, ‘There are four words in the English language that have common English roots. They are Heal, Health, Whole and Holy. I tell you this today to remind each of you that to heal in a modern world you must provide health; and to provide health you must keep the individual, the family, the community, and society whole. And if you can do all that, why that is a holy thing.’
3. The third mostly invisible contribution that the patient-physician relationship makes to society is hopefulness; a quiet confidence that most problems can be managed, most mysteries solved, and that, absent a cure today, there remains hope for a discovery tomorrow. That deep seated optimism, embodied in an individual whom you trust, have confidence in, and believe in, is transferable.
As a collective each day, and every day, we help create a reservoir of good will, a belief that life is worth living, that risks are worth taking, that loving and being loved is possible, that dreaming, imagining, purchasing a home, getting married, having children are all worth the effort.
So it is my firm belief that if tomorrow all patient-physician relationships were to disappear, stable civil societies would immediately notice the difference. Our populations would be more fearful, less trusting, less tolerant, less connected, less compassionate, less productive, and less committed to the future.”
Two decades later, as I approach 80, do I still believe these words? On the whole, the answer is “Yes.” But high expectations leave a steep decline emotionally when our fellow human physicians disappoint.
Back then, I labelled this minority of physicians as “negative leaders”:
“Negative leaders view change with fear and leverage that fear as a currency to control a population in order to reinforce existing and past power silos. They attempt to segregate us one from another to maintain the status quo, and they deserve our contempt. They not only draw down the reservoir of good will locally and globally, but ensure our medium and long term failure. While their highly effective tactics can lock a quivering public in check, they cannot stop the world from changing around them. And so for negative leaders, success is short term, for they are rapidly overtaken by each other, and by environmental events.”
With youthful optimism back then, I offered this alternative. Choose “positive leaders” to lead. I said that day:
“Contrast these with positive leaders for whom visioning, rather than fear, is the currency. Where one excludes, the other includes. Where one reinforces the status quo, the other makes constant incremental adjustments. Where one plays by the old rules, the other makes the new rules. Where one segregates, the other congregates. Where one reinforces silos, the other builds islands of common stewardship.”
I am encouraged today, now 20 years later, with your newly elected physician leaders – Abdul El-Sayed, Annie Andrews (D-S.C.), and Amy Acton (D-Ohio).
Here is a current list of physicians serving in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives:
Senate:
John Barrasso (R) WY Orthopedic surgery
Bill Cassidy (R) LA Gastroenterology/hepatology
Roger Marshall (R) KS Obstetrics/gynecology
Rand Paul (R) KY Ophthalmology
House of Representatives:
Ami Bera (D) CA Internal medicine
Herb Conaway (D) NJ Internal Medicine
Scott DesJarlais (R) TN General/family medicine
Maxine Dexter (D) OR Pulmonary/critical care
Neal Dunn (R) FL Urology
Andy Harris (R) MD Anesthesiology
Ronny Jackson (R) TX Emergency medicine
John Joyce (R) PA Dermatology
Mike Kennedy (R) UT Family medicine
Rich McCormick (R) GA Emergency medicine
Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R) IA Ophthalmology
Kelly Morrison (D) MN Obstetrics/gynecology
Greg Murphy (R) NC Urology
Bob Onder (R) MO Allergy/immunology
Raul Ruiz (D) CA Emergency Medicine
Kim Schrier (D) WA Pediatrics
Here is the list of physicians who ran for office and the results:
Rich McCormick (R-GA) (+)
Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA) (-)
Roger Marshall (R-KS) (-)
Andy Harris (R-MD) (+)
Bob Onder (R-MO) (+)
Greg Murphy (R-NC) (?)
John Joyce (R-PA) (+)
Scott DesJarlais (R-TN) (?)
Ronny Jackson (R-TX) (+)
Mike Kennedy (R-UT) (+)
Ami Bera (D-CA) (+)
Raul Ruiz (D-CA) (+)
Kelly Morrison (D-MN) (+)
Herb Conaway (D-NJ) (+)
Maxine Dexter (D-OR) (+)
Kim Schrier (D-WA) (+)
Amish Shah (D-AZ) (+)
Richard Pan (D-CA) (+)
Abdul El-Sayed (D-MI) (+)
Adam Hamawy (D-NJ) (+)
Annie Andrews (D-SC) (+)
John Cowan (R-GA) (+)
Ralph Alvarado (R-KY) (-)
Mike Magee MD is a Medical Historian and regular contributor to THCB. He is the author of CODE BLUE: Inside America’s Medical Industrial Complex. Grove/2020
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