Dr. Tina Shah, a practicing Indian American physician, is seeking Democratic nomination for Congress in New Jersey’s 7th district in a bid to unseat two-term Republican Rep. Thomas Kean, Jr. in one of the most competitive districts in the nation.
“I’m running for Congress because America is in critical condition and enough is enough,” said Shah announcing her bid on July 1. “As a physician I took an oath to first do no harm, but when I go to work in the Intensive Care Unit, I’m up against a system that is designed to make patients broke and sicker, prioritize insurance companies’ profits above all else, and burn out a workforce trying to save lives.”
Shah, a former Obama and Biden administration appointee, joins a large field of Democrats who want to take on Kean: former U.S. Navy helicopter pilot Rebecca Bennett; former Biden administration official Michael Roth; businessman Brian Varela; and former Summit Councilman Greg Vartan.
Former Rep. Tom Malinowski, now the Hunterdon County Democratic chairman, will not seek a rematch with Kean, who ousted him in 2022. Instead, he is eyeing a run in the next-door 11th district next year if Rep. Mikie Sherrill is elected governor.
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Accusing Kean of doing nothing to lower healthcare costs or expand access to care, Shah said, “Instead, he’s dodging his constituents while casting the deciding vote to gut Medicaid and attacking access to essential care, including abortion, in New Jersey.”
Four years ago, Shah became a senior advisor to the U.S. Surgeon General and developed a national strategy to address worker burnout and departures in health care in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic.
During the Obama administration, Shah served as a White House Fellow and a special advisor to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, becoming the first director of Clinician Wellbeing.
Shah slammed Kean for supporting President Donald Trump and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., “who, with no medical training, are actively gutting lifesaving medical research and putting vaccine deniers in charge of our vaccine system.”
“If we keep going down this road, there’s only one outcome: people will get hurt. What we do next is critical,” Shah stated. “I’m running for Congress to fix what is fundamentally broken and stand up for my patients, my neighbors, my community, and New Jersey.”
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Shah grew up in New Jersey and is a practicing physician triple board-certified in internal medicine, pulmonary medicine, and critical care medicine. She has spent her career fighting for her patients’ lives in the ICU and working to find solutions to improve patient outcomes in both the private sector and at the highest levels of government, according to her profile.
Her campaign begins at the start of the third fundraising quarter, giving her three months to show her ability to raise money as Democrats mull who they want to take on Kean in a district that voted for Joe Biden in 2020 and narrowly for Donald Trump in 2024, according the New Jersey Globe.
“We’re in an unprecedented time. We’ve gutted medical research. We’ve gutted things that keep people alive,” Shah told the Globe. “I’m a doctor and I’m going to prosecute the case against Tom Kean, Jr. No one else can do this.”
Kean, the son of former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, served as minority leader of the New Jersey State Senate before he unseated Malinowski in 2022 by three percentage points. He held the seat by five points in 2024.
“My goal is to demonstrate that I am the right candidate, and I intend to outperform everybody on day one,” Shah said. “People know I can beat Kean.”
Tina Shah
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