​ANA-PAC Congressional Endorsement Process

ANA-PAC endorses a handful of candidates that demonstrate exemplary support of nurses and will continue to champion the profession in Congress. While rigorous, the endorsement process allows ANA-PAC to only endorse the most esteemed candidates, who will look to influence health policies.


Step 1: Candidate Identification and Information Gathering

Senior Political Action Specialists in ANA's Government Affairs Department work to identify candidates who may merit consideration for endorsement by monitoring and gathering information on candidates and campaigns across the country.

Each candidate is required to fill out a questionnaire and sit down for an interview with ANA staff. If possible, a candidate's legislative record pertaining to nursing issues is assessed to ensure the candidate supported nursing issues in the past. ANA staff also reviews campaign polling and fundraising information.


Step 2: Preparing Endorsement Rationale

Candidates under consideration for endorsement are judged using concrete endorsement criteria, which is set forth by the ANA-PAC Board.


Step 3: ANA-PAC Board Consideration

The ANA-PAC Board of Trustees reviews all relevant information and determines which candidates will be recommended for ANA-PAC endorsement. While the PAC Board votes on whether to ultimately endorse a candidate, the C/SNAs are also required to have a process for final approval. Currently, each C/SNA has different processes for final endorsement, while some chose to forego the process all together and not endorse candidates. Regardless, ANA-PAC is the only entity, not the C/SNAs, which endorse candidates running for federal office.

Once approval is received, staff will notify the candidate of ANA's endorsement.