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NBC News just called it the great freeze - coldest weather in years. Is our country still spending money on the GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2014

In December, The Washington Post reported that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was directed to not use certain words such as \"evidence-based” and \"science-based\" in any official documents for prepping the FY19 budget.

The Trump administration has “taken what felt like a war on science by certain members of Congress and just taken it to a whole new level,” Naughton said.

The increase in the number of candidates from STEM fields coincides with a larger trend in 2018 of people running for office with non-political backgrounds, according to Leah Askarinam, an analyst at Inside Elections.

\"There are a handful of people with backgrounds in science running,\" she said. \"That is part of a larger trend of people with non-political, non-partisan backgrounds running.\"

Askarinam also added that the Trump administration's appointments and policies have \"generated some frustrations\" among the science community, and among Democrats at-large who are energized by the 2016 loss of Hillary Clinton and want \"to take back the government.\"

Naughton started 314 Action after running for Congress in her home district of Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 2014 and 2016 and losing, as a way to push back against what she sees as anti-science rhetoric. By supporting and training scientists who use calculated, evidence-based thinking to determine solutions, Naughton said she hopes for a new answer to the question, “Do you believe in climate change?”

Instead of responses like \"I don’t know, I’m not a scientist,\" Naughton says, “How refreshing would it be if we heard, ‘Trust me, I’m a doctor.’”

The motives behind the scientists, doctors and researchers' bids for political office are similar. They say they seek to go beyond simply changing the direction of policy — they want to change the decision-making process to ensure that the scientific method is part of the political discourse.

\"We are seeing evidence-based decision making being thrown by the wayside by politicians today and so much divisive rhetoric determining how we approach our problems,\" said Grant Kier, a longtime conservationist and 314 Action-endorsed candidate who is hoping to unseat Republican incumbent Greg Gianforte in Montana's at-large district.

\"PHOTO:
Grant Kier for Congress/Facebook
PHOTO: Grant Kier, candidate for US House in Montana.
>

“It’s really important that we talk about science as a tool through which we address our communities problems,” Kier added. “Scientists are known for using evidence-based decision making and two, really good science is done in collaboration.”

Kim Schrier, a pediatrician running in Washington’s 8th Congressional District to succeed retiring Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Wash., told ABC News that while scientists are “fact-driven and data-driven,” Congress is “negotiation-driven and sometimes the facts get blurred.”

Schrier, who aims to be the only sitting female doctor in Congress, said, \"I’m appalled when science becomes politicized.”

\"PHOTO:
Dr. Kim Schrier/Facebook
PHOTO: Dr. Kim Schrier, candidate for Washington's 8th District.
>

“Representatives should be representative,” she said. “Women doctors, that’s a missing voice at the table when we’re discussing reproductive rights, and issues surrounding women, children and health care.”

Hans Keirstead, who holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience and is a world-renowned stem cell researcher, is running for the California's 48th Congressional District, a long-held Republican seat, in a “toss-up” race according to the Cook Political report. He says he's running to put \"issues before politics.\"

“I want to address with science and medicine, one-fifth of our economy, which is in very bad shape and which is being brutalized by our current administration,\" he said. “I’m stepping up and it’s a grander stage to do good.\"

\"PHOTO:
drhanskeirstead/Twitter
PHOTO: Dr. Hans S. Keirstead, candidate US House in CA-48.
>

Keirstead's California district is currently represented by Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher and was narrowly won by Hillary Clinton in 2016.

“The scientific method is just so absent in the political system,” Keirstead said. \"This mentality brought to Congress, this is what our country needs.\"

The year 2018, as Ted Bordelon, a spokesman for 314 Action puts it, will be “the year that science strikes back, the year of the scientist.”

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