On Tuesday, AIDS United and more than 50 allied organizations released the results of a 2016 Presidential HIV/AIDS Questionnaire. The survey assesses the positions of all candidates running for President on 10 HIV-specific topics important to people living with and impacted by HIV:

  1. HIV research
  2. HIV issues and opioid epidemic
  3. The National HIV/AIDS Strategy
  4. The Office of National AIDS Policy
  5. The future of the Ryan White Program
  6. Housing Opportunities for People with AIDS (HOPWA)
  7. The Affordable Care Act (ACA)
  8. Global HIV targets under PEPFAR
  9. HIV criminalization
  10. HIV and military service.

Former State Department Secretary Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VT) responded to the survey. While Republican candidates have not yet responded, the sponsors of the survey will continue to request and publish any future responses from other candidates.

Publication of the questionnaire came after a weekend in which HIV issues were raised to the national spotlight as a result of former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s misstatement that former First Lady Nancy Reagan had been a strong advocate in raising the profile HIV. Secretary Clinton quickly issued a correction that she “misspoke about [the Reagan’s] record on HIV and AIDS.” She also added additional information about her HIV policy in a statement while Senator Sanders added a page about HIV to his website.

In light of the controversy, HIV advocates sought to ensure that HIV remained in the news. A number of organizations and advocates commented specifically about the controversy and how to move forward on these issues. An effort is underway to send letters to all of the campaigns asking that they each appoint an HIV advisor, convene a meeting that includes people living with HIV, commit to ending AIDS as an epidemic in the U.S. (by 2025), and increase funding to the global PEPFAR program by at least $2 billion per year starting no later than 2020.

The survey was presented by the AIDS Foundation of Chicago, AIDS United, amfAR: The Foundation for AIDS Research, Gay Men’s Health Crisis (GMHC), Health GAP, Project Inform, Southern AIDS Coalition, Southern HIV/AIDS Strategy Initiative, Treatment Access Expansion Project and United States People Living With HIV Caucus and supported by 50 organizations.

Please note that all answers in the survey are direct and unaltered from the campaigns that responded and that any future responses will be included as soon as the coalition receives and is able to publish them. Although we are proud to present the candidate questionnaire, we wish to be clear that AIDS United does not endorse candidates. AIDS United will continue to review information about HIV and the election and urges candidates to continue to highlight HIV as a campaign issue.