Maine could soon see its first Asian American governor

Dr. Nirav Shah, a former public health official who guided Maine through the COVID-19 pandemic, has taken the lead in the state’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, putting him within reach of becoming the state’s first Asian American governor and the first Indian American Democrat elected governor anywhere in the country.

Tuesday’s gubernatorial primaries in Maine sent both the Democratic and Republican races into ranked-choice runoffs after no candidate in either field secured a majority. Shah led the five-way Democratic contest with about 27% of the vote as of Wednesday afternoon, when 93% of ballots had been tallied, with former House Speaker Hannah Pingree (23.3%), former state Senate President Troy Jackson (21%), and Secretary of State Shenna Bellows (20.7%) all running close behind.

The son of Indian immigrants, Shah, 49, was born and raised in Wisconsin before moving to Kentucky for junior high school, where he went on to become his high school’s valedictorian. He studied economics at the University of Oxford before earning dual degrees in medicine and law at the University of Chicago, then spent roughly a decade practicing healthcare law. He then went to lead the Illinois Department of Public Health and earned his 2019 appointment as director of Maine’s CDC.

In that role, Shah secured personal protective equipment for frontline workers early in the pandemic and expanded the state’s testing capacity. Maine’s vaccine rollout ultimately drew national recognition as a model for other states, and the state recorded one of the nation’s lowest COVID-19 death rates during the pandemic.

The Biden administration subsequently appointed him Principal Deputy Director of the U.S. CDC, a role in which he also briefly served as acting director. He resigned the post in February 2025 following the change in administration, returned to Maine to teach public health at Colby College, and launched his gubernatorial bid on a platform of addressing housing costs, stabilizing rural hospitals and countering what he has called Trump administration overreach.

A Shah victory in November would mark an unprecedented milestone for Indian Americans in Democratic politics, as he would be the first to serve as governor of any state. The only two Indian Americans previously elected to a governorship, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Nikki Haley of South Carolina, were both Republicans.

The Indian American Impact Fund, which endorsed Shah earlier this year, summed up the significance. “We are proud to endorse Nirav Shah’s candidacy to become the first South Asian Governor of Maine because he is the exact type of leader needed in this moment,” said Executive Director Chintan Patel.