The ads ask Americans to call their representatives and demand they push back against the Trump administration’s grant funding freeze and mass firings of public health employees.
The Trump administration has ordered sweeping funding cuts to federal public health agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and launched a mass firing of federal workers as part of cost-saving efforts.
Elon Musk, the tech billionaire leading the Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has led the charge.
One recent round of firings resulted in more than a thousand NIH workers being let go from the agency.
The ad campaign, seen first by The Hill, targets districts represented by GOP Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (Iowa); David Schweikert (Ariz); Don Bacon (N.E.); Jen Kiggans (Va); Juan Ciscomani (Ariz); Tom Barrett (Mich.); Thomas Kean Jr. (N.J.); Ryan Mackenzie (Pa); Gabe Evans (Colo); John James (Mich.); Scott Perry (Pa); and Mike Lawler (N.Y.).
The ads are backed by a six-figure buy, according to the group.
Each ad features text asking readers to tell their representative to “stand up to Elon Musk” and “defend public health research at NIH and CDC.” A photograph of Musk taken at the Conservative Political Action Conference last month where he appeared onstage wielding a chainsaw over his head is located next to the text.
The scientific and medical community have decried the moves from the Trump administration warning that funding and staff cuts have halted crucial research and place national and global health at risk.
“Elon Musk’s vicious attacks on our health care system are short-sighted—and House Republicans know this,” Shaughnessy Naughton, 314 Action’s president, said in a statement. “Draconian, untargeted cuts to funding to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institute of Health will unnecessarily put millions of vulnerable Americans’ lives at risk.”
The campaign is set to run for the next two weeks.
