Health care on the ballot, Super Tuesday edition

The Democratic presidential primary has dominated headlines in the runup to today’s “Super Tuesday” elections, but a few key races highlight the immense role health care continues to play in politics at the national and local levels. Lev's got two to watch:

Jessica Cisneros is taking on incumbent Rep. Henry Cuellar in Texas, in yet another Democratic primary with “Medicare for All” front and center. While Cisneros has campaigned aggressively on enacting a single-payer health care system, Cuellar has received campaign contributions from political committees representing the Texas Medical Association, as well dentists, anesthesiologists, optometrists, and compounding pharmacies, none of which support single-payer. Left-wing media has also skewered Cuellar for signing onto a letter advocating for patent protections in Mexico and Canada that progressive lawmakers eventually stripped from a new trade agreement between the three countries.

And in Maine, voters will head to the polls to decide whether to repeal a new state law that requires schoolchildren to receive standard vaccinations unless granted an exemption by a medical professional. The campaign to repeal the law is urging voters to “Reject Big Pharma,” channeling voters’ anger toward drug companies over price hikes and the opioid crisis toward an effort largely funded by anti-vaccine activists. The group’s biggest funder is the Minnesota-based Organic Consumers Association, a conspiracy-toting organization whose anti-vaccine disinformation campaign helped fuel a measles outbreak in Minneapolis in 2017. Read more about the fight in Maine here.