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Feature|Videos|July 24, 2026

Healthcare on the Ballot: The 2026 Midterm Elections

Key Takeaways

  • Learn why onshoring of manufacturing and clinical trials has strong bipartisan momentum, and how the FDA user fee reauthorization could serve as its legislative vehicle.
  • Understand why connecting business decisions to patient impact, not just corporate rationale, is essential to stakeholder trust.
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Leavitt Partners' Julie Tierney and RC Resolve's Maggie Farley look at which pharma policies could actually pass — and how companies should talk to stakeholders if pricing or manufacturing becomes a flashpoint heading into the midterms.

Episodes in this series

In this segment of "Fault Lines: Business, Reputation, and the Politics Reshaping Pharma," the conversation turns to the broader policy landscape shaping the run-up to the 2026 midterms. Julie Tierney of Leavitt Partners and Maggie Farley of RC Resolve join moderator Leslie Isenegger to discuss which policies are likely to move forward and how companies should prepare to communicate if pricing or manufacturing becomes a flashpoint.

Tierney points to HHS's recent "Operation Trailblazer" bundle of policies aimed at bringing early-phase clinical trials back to the U.S. as evidence of bipartisan momentum behind onshoring, and highlights the FDA user fee reauthorization, due by September 2027, as a legislative vehicle where related supply chain and national security policies could realistically attach, regardless of which party controls Congress. Farley then shifts the conversation to preparedness, explaining that companies need to start with the stakeholder's mindset rather than the business rationale, connecting decisions to what they mean for patients and employees. She walks through how scenario planning should identify which stakeholders will be affected and which channels will resonate, and why anchoring every message in patient value gives companies solid ground to stand on amid political polarization.

Policy, government affairs, and communications teams will come away with a clearer view of which legislative vehicles are most likely to advance, along with practical guidance on preparing stakeholder messaging before a pricing or manufacturing crisis unfolds.