Nirav Shah, the former director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention and a top federal health official during the Biden administration, announced Monday that he is entering the race for governor.

The Democrat joins a crowded field of nearly two dozen candidates vying to replace Gov. Janet Mills, who is term limited, in 2026.

In an interview with the Press Herald, Shah said his career in public service and experience leading Maine through the COVID-19 pandemic have uniquely situated him to become the state’s next leader. His resume and name recognition are likely to land him as a front-runner among Democrats.

“Maine has to be ready for whatever comes our way and that requires someone with experience and a trusted background in leadership and delivering for people, whether it’s communicating with them or figuring out what direction to go in and getting there,” Shah said. “That’s what the next governor needs to bring and that’s what I offer.”

Shah, 48, became well known throughout Maine during the pandemic, appearing online and on TV for daily briefings to answer journalists’ questions and update the public on the coronavirus.

In 2023, he was tapped by the Biden administration to become principal deputy director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, where he also served for a time as acting director before departing the agency in February.

Shah announced in March that he would be returning to Maine and working to launch a public health program at Colby College, where he is now a visiting professor. He said he and his wife, Kara, had always intended to return to Maine and the change in federal administration offered them the chance to do so.

If elected, Shah said his top priorities are housing affordability and availability, health care, access to food for kids and economic growth. And he said it will be important to him to communicate with the public about problems the state is facing and solutions that are being worked on.

At a campaign launch event in Portland Monday, Shah said his administration would start a homeownership fund to help working families afford down payments and establish a state training program to tackle workforce shortages in health care, paying for those investments by growing the economy and broadening the tax base.

While he has not held elected office before, Shah said his career in government to date has prepared him well.

“The job entails running something big, often in a time of crisis, and that is what I’ve done as a public servant for the past 11 years,” Shah said.

Shah, who is originally from northern Wisconsin and now lives in Brunswick, has a medical degree and a law degree, both from the University of Chicago, and also studied economics at Oxford University. He served as director of the Illinois Department of Public Health, under a Republican governor, before being named by Mills in 2019 to lead the Maine CDC.

While leading the Illinois agency, Shah was at the center of a controversy over a Legionnaire’s disease outbreak that resulted in some calling for his ousting. He told the Press Herald in 2019 that his department’s actions “followed a playbook” for a “robust” response to the crisis, and the Mills administrations said at the time that it was aware of Shah’s background and had confidence in his ability to lead the Maine CDC.

Shah’s leadership during the pandemic could also come into play on the campaign trail. His communication style — he often broke up dry discussions with humor and pop culture references, making them more digestible for the public — contributed to his popularity, but he was also part of an administration whose restrictions such as mask mandates and limits on gathering sizes drew pushback, particularly among conservatives.

As a result of the state’s response to the pandemic, Maine had one of the highest COVID-19 vaccination rates in the nation, at more than 80% fully vaccinated.

CROWDED FIELD

Shah joins 18 other candidates who so far have registered with the state to run for governor.

The Democratic field includes Secretary of State Shenna Bellows; Troy Jackson, a former Senate president; Hannah Pingree, a former House speaker who is the daughter of U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree; and Angus King III, a renewable energy entrepreneur and businessman who is the son of U.S. Sen. Angus King.

Republicans include Jonathan Bush, a businessman and the cousin of former President George W. Bush; Bobby Charles, a lawyer who served as a U.S. assistant secretary of state; Owen McCarthy, a medical technology entrepreneur; David Jones, a real estate broker; state Sen. Jim Libby; and Ben Midgley, a former fitness franchise executive.

State Sen. Rick Bennett, I-Oxford, a longtime Republican who recently unenrolled from the party, is also running, as is state Rep. Edward Crockett of Portland, who unenrolled as a Democrat.

Dan Shea, a professor of government at Colby College, said Monday he would be surprised if any other “top tier” Democrats get in the race.

And while Maine voters tend to favor candidates with a deep understanding of and ties to the state, he said it might not be a problem for Shah that he is relatively new to Maine compared to others in the field.

“He has very broad statewide name recognition and that’s a big deal,” Shea said. “He’s coming out of the gate known by most Mainers … and is known for bringing calm and stability during a turbulent time.”

In general, Shea said the governor’s race is attracting a large number of candidates from both parties because there’s no incumbent. In addition, the state is in a time of transition because it absorbed a large number of newcomers during the pandemic and is now grappling with issues like affordability, he said.

The primaries, scheduled for June 9, 2026, also will feature ranked choice voting. Lawmakers are also considering a bill to expand ranked choice to the general gubernatorial election, though it’s unclear if that proposal could be approved in time for the 2026 race.