As political pundits insist, the upcoming midterm elections are centered on affordability, so healthcare can’t be ignored as it also nears the top of the ballot.
With enhanced Obamacare subsidies expired, deep federal cuts to Medicaid looming and private insurance premiums climbing, millions of Americans are again facing the prospect of paying more for coverage — or losing it altogether. And Black Americans have particular reason to worry: they are more likely to live with chronic health conditions and routinely face longstanding barriers to affordable care.
For millions of people, healthcare, usually just behind affordability and the economy, is a key election issue. Quinnipiac University’s national poll released at the end of September found that 55% of respondents trust Democrats more than Republicans on health care.
For Black voters, the stakes go well beyond the monthly cost of an insurance premium. According to the NAACP, an estimated 3.6 million Black Americans face higher healthcare costs because of the expired Obamacare subsidies. That could mean the difference between managing diabetes or hypertension and ending up in an emergency room, between getting preventive care and waiting until a medical problem becomes a crisis.
At the same time, several prominent Black candidates are seeking to make history in races across the country, including Senate candidates Angie Nixon in Florida and Scott Colom in Mississippi, as well as gubernatorial candidates David Crowley in Wisconsin and former Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms in Georgia. If they won, they would be the first Black people to hold their respective offices.
Their campaigns raise an important question: With healthcare costs rising and the federal safety net under pressure, what would these candidates do to protect access to care?
With that in mind, Word In Black took a closer look at where some of the nation’s higher-profile Black candidates stand on healthcare — and what their positions could mean for voters long after Election Day.
Candidates for U.S. House of Representatives
State Rep. Dr. Jasmine Clark, Georgia
A microbiologist with a doctorate from Emory University and a nursing school professor, Clark would be the first Black woman with a Ph.D. in a science discipline to serve in Congress. She faces Republican Jonathan Chavez in a heavily Democratic district.
Health platform: Her campaign agenda lists expanding health care, restoring research funding and standing up for science, rebuilding federal agencies with experts, and restoring reproductive health care. She has called for more research on prostate cancer and triple-negative breast cancer, which disproportionately affect Black Americans. She has also criticized budget cuts to public health programs and medical research, which have hit the Atlanta region hard: the area is home to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters.
State Rep. Justin J. Pearson, Tennessee
Earlier this year, during the congressional redistricting frenzy, Tennessee Republicans broke the state’s majority-Black, Memphis-based 9th District into three parts. The new district Pearson wants to represent currently leans Republican. Pearson — who made national headlines in 2023 when Republicans expelled him and Rep. Justin Jones from the Tennessee legislature — entered the race when longtime Rep. Steve Cohen, a Democrat, dropped out. He faces Republican state Sen. Brent Taylor and two independent candidates vying for the seat.
Health platform: Pearson calls for passing Medicare for All, raising wages and tackling affordability issues by lowering the costs of food and housing. He has also called for a national moratorium on data centers until air-quality and other health protections are in place. The Colossus data center built in the Memphis area by Elon Musk’s Space xAI is in or near the congressional district.
Candidates for U.S. Senate
District Attorney Scott Colom, Mississippi
A seventh-generation Mississippian who still lives in Columbus, his hometown, Colom made history in 2015 as the first Black district attorney in the state’s 16th Judicial District, defeating a nearly 30-year incumbent on a platform of criminal justice reform. He is challenging incumbent Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith, a former Democrat-turned-Republican who is running for a second term. In the Senate, Hyde-Smith blocked Colom’s federal judicial nomination in 2023. Mississippi hasn’t elected a Democrat to the Senate since 1982.
Health platform: Colom has made his first priority clear: “I’m going to fight to restore the Medicaid cuts” enacted in the Trump administration’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which became law in 2025. He also wants to restore the Affordable Care Act subsidies and to add a public, nonprofit insurance option that would compete with private insurers. He has vowed to protect Mississippi’s rural hospitals and recently warned that eight of them are at risk of closing. In August 2025, the Mississippi State Department of Health declared a public health emergency on infant mortality.
Jamie Davis, Louisiana
A third-generation farmer, Davis was inspired to run after his healthcare premiums doubled last year. The Democrat won all 64 of the state’s parishes during the party’s primary; he faces Rep. Julia Letlow, a Republican, for the state’s open Senate seat. Though early voting totals indicate Davis is running more competitively than predicted, experts say he’s still a long shot in bright-red Louisiana. Still, if he pulls off the upset, he’d be the second Black candidate the state has sent to the Senate. In 1873, during Reconstruction, voters elected PBS Pinchback, but he was blocked from taking his seat.
Health platform: Davis calls for restoring Trump-era Medicaid budget cuts, lowering healthcare premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and using Medicare’s buying power to lower drug prices. He has pledged to improve health care in the impoverished Delta region, which has the nation’s highest poverty rate, birthing deserts in one out of every four parishes, one of the nation’s highest rates of HIV infections and an infant mortality rate that earned an F from the March of Dimes. Davis says he will fight rural hospital closures: if trends continue, Louisiana could be left with just 16 rural operating hospitals statewide. He also wants stronger enforcement of the Clean Air Act—the state is home to the infamous “Cancer Alley”—and tighter regulation of data center construction.
State Rep. Angie Nixon, Florida
A Democratic state representative from Jacksonville, Nixon is a union organizer and mother of five. If elected, she would be only the fifth Black woman to serve in the U.S. Senate. She upset Alex Vindman — a retired United States Army lieutenant colonel whose testimony contributed to Trump’s first impeachment — to win the Democratic primary. Nixon faces Sen. Ashley Moody, whom Gov. Ron DeSantis appointed to fill Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s term.
Health platform: Nixon’s priorities call for “Medicare for All that covers every person in America.” She has also called for free child care, kindergarten for all children, increased affordable housing and an end to corporate price gouging in groceries. In a July interview, she described a gradual path to universal health care by first extending Affordable Care Act subsidies and pressing insurers to lower premiums.
Governor
Georgia: Keisha Lance Bottoms, former Atlanta Mayor
Bottoms stunned the political establishment by choosing not to run for reelection as Atlanta’s mayor. But she’s made experience her calling card, declaring that her years leading one of the biggest cities in the South demonstrate her “battle-tested executive leadership.” If elected, she would be the nation’s first Black woman governor; her agenda isn’t simply to push back against the Trump administration, but to focus on “the pressing needs of our communities.”
Health platform: Her CARE Plan focuses on cutting waste and costs, expanding access to healthcare, recruiting and retaining health workers, and enabling better nutrition. She supports expanding access to Medicaid, overhauling state-subsidized healthcare, creating a state prescription-drug affordability board, and launching a Rural Care First Initiative for struggling rural hospitals. As mayor, Bottoms appointed Atlanta’s first chief health officer and gained unanimous approval for $100,000 to distribute HIV-prevention PrEP through the Fulton County Board of Health.
Wisconsin: Milwaukee County Executive David Crowley
Crowley — who grew up in poverty in one of Milwaukee’s most economically distressed neighborhoods, experienced homelessness as a teenager — went on to become the youngest and first Black person elected to lead Wisconsin’s largest county. Personally endorsed by Gov. Tony Evers, the Democratic incumbent, Crowley would be Wisconsin’s first Black governor, the first to govern a Midwestern state, and one of only a handful of Black elected governors in U.S. history.
Health platform: His “Badger Basics” plan would open the state’s Medicaid program to every Wisconsin household as a public option. The state never expanded its Medicaid program and its Badger Basics covers low-income children, parents and caretakers, pregnant people, and adults without dependent children. Crowley also calls for creating a “No Wrong Door” mental health system featuring mental health navigators, guaranteed subsidized childcare for every family with a child under five, and capping childcare costs at 7 percent of household income.
Florida: Rep. Byron Donalds
An endorsement from President Donald Trump helped secure Donalds’s win in the Republican gubernatorial primary. A Naples resident and Trump loyalist, Donalds took nearly 50% of the GOP primary vote despite 10 candidates competing for the nomination. He faces Democrat David Jolly, a former Republican congressman; if Donalds wins, he would be Florida’s first Black governor.
Raised by a single mother in Brooklyn, Donalds was elected to the Florida state legislature in 2016; he won his U.S. House seat in 2020. During his tenure, hardline Republicans nominated him for House speaker against Kevin McCarthy, and he also voted to overturn the 2020 presidential election won by President Joe Biden.
Health platform: Titled “Your Doctor, Your Price,” Donalds’ health agenda would require doctors and hospitals to post fixed cash prices for the most common tests and procedures. The plan also would give cash-paying patients the lowest rate hospitals offer large insurers, count out-of-network payments toward deductibles, require insurers to approve common treatments within three days, and disclose how much pharmacies pay for PBM costs.
Nevada: Attorney General Aaron Ford
A former state senator, Ford is the first Black person elected to statewide office in Nevada and is now the Democratic nominee for governor. A teacher by profession, Ford grew up in humble beginnings, became a father while in college, and relied on government aid while raising his child alone for a time. If he defeats Gov. Joe Lombardo, the Republican incumbent, he would be the state’s first Black person to hold the office. Political analysts call the race one of the nation’s most competitive; Ford won endorsements from former President Barack Obama and Rory Reid, the son of the late Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, as well as a slew of politically active organizations.
Healthcare platform: His “Affordable Nevada” health plan would cap many prescription drug prices at Medicare-negotiated rates, which is legislation the current governor has vetoed twice, require PBMs to pass rebates onto patients, partner with nonprofits to cancel medical debt, ban medical-debt credit reporting, and bar insurers from relying solely on AI to deny prior authorizations. Ford also pledges to protect Medicaid, which covers roughly one in four Nevadans and 42% of births, and to keep rural hospitals open.
Preparing to Vote
Early voting continues through next week in Georgia and Tennessee. In Georgia, voting ends on Oct. 30, and the Georgia Election Guide lists locations. Early voting ends on Oct. 29 in Tennessee, and because of the new congressional map, many Memphis-area voters are in a different district than in 2024.
Organizations including The Brennan Center for Justice have comprehensive details on voting early, as well as on Election Day. Individuals can also track their ballot applications/requests, as well as a provisional ballot if needed, at the vote.org website.
