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FACT BRIEF

Did support for 'Medicare for All' cost any House members their seats in the 2020 election?

Saturday, November 14, 2020
By Austin Tannenbaum
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NO

No incumbent House Democrats who supported a 2019 "Medicare for All" bill have yet lost their 2020 reelection campaign. Freshman California congressman and Medicare for All supporter T.J. Cox is trailing in a race that's still too close to call.

The eight House Democrats who lost their seats did not support the health care proposal. Additionally, in each of the three Democratic primaries in which a challenger defeated an incumbent, the challenger supported Medicare for All. Seven Democrats in battleground races who did not support Medicare for All did win reelection.

The goal of extending health care insurance to all Americans has gained popularity steadily in recent years. An October poll by KFF found 53% of respondents support the House proposal to create a national system.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.
Sources
Ballotpedia: US House battlegrounds, 2020
Google Docs House Medicare for All support and 2020 battleground results
KFF: Public opinion on the idea of a national health plan
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Between 2020 and 2022, under close editorial supervision, Gigafact contracted a group of freelance writers and editors to test the concepts for fact briefs and provide inputs to our software development process. We call this effort Gigafact Foundry. Over the course of these two years, Gigafact Foundry writers published over 1500 fact briefs in response to claims they found online. Their important work forms the basis of Gigafact formats and editorial guidelines, and is available to the public on Gigafact.org. Readers should be aware that while there is still a lot of relevant information to be found, not all fact briefs produced by Gigafact Foundry reflect Gigafact's current methods and standards for fact briefs. If you come across any that you feel are out of date and need to be looked at with fresh eyes, don't hesitate to contact us at support@gigafact.org.
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.