Democratic congressional candidate Amish Shah has a reported history of taking out his political frustrations on patients.
At least two patients have characterized Shah, an emergency medicine doctor, as dismissive of patient pain in reviews left on Healthgrades, a healthcare provider information platform.
One patient admitted for “severe abdominal pain, jaundice and brown urine” complained that Shah was “insensitive” and “downplayed” the patient’s concerns. Shah immediately said he would be discharging the patient and issuing a referral to a gastroenterologist.
When the patient pushed back and advised Shah that the earliest appointment for a gastroenterologist was nearly two months later, Shah allegedly launched into a politicized rant about healthcare.
“When telling him I had already attempted to make an [appointment] with multiple [gastroenterologists] only to find out 1.5 months out was the soonest [appointment] I could get, he yelled ‘welcome to the American health system’ and went on this very inappropriate rant of how broken our system is,” said the patient. “Extremely unprofessional and insensitive. There’s no place in the system for a [doctor] like this.”
That patient alleged Shah didn’t listen or answer questions, didn’t explain conditions well, rushed the appointment, and was untrustworthy in his decision making.
That patient’s review was left a little over two months before Shah announced his second attempt at the 1st Congressional District seat.
Shah has campaigned on a platform to advance socialized medicine, or universal healthcare. He has publicly thrown his support behind socialist policies and advocated for the demise of the free market for years; as widely reported, Shah provided backing for socialist Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2020 presidential campaign.
Another patient review left in February of this year claimed that Shah left their wife waiting in pain without treatment or consultation for three hours.
“He never came to see my wife to her room, she waited three hours in the emergency room, and told the nurse that she is in pain,” said the complainant.
Along with universal healthcare, Shah has advocated for other healthcare theories that some have found concerning.
Shah, a vegan, has maintained that the consumption of meat and animal byproducts cause adverse health effects such as “DNA damage” and cancer. In one recovered video from 2015, Shah said that “the science” supports that meats are carcinogens that lead to DNA damage, cancer, endothelial cell damage, and cardiovascular disease.
Shah also claimed that human cells are intolerant of certain nutrients found in meats and animal byproducts, such as saturated fats.
“They’re pulling meat and they’re pulling cheese out of that coronary artery,” said Shah in the video. “The mechanisms of disease are pretty well established by this point.”
Vegetarianism is a common practice among Indian adults. Shah’s parents immigrated from India in the 1960s, his father being Jain and his mother being Hindu.
While Hinduism does not forbid the consumption of animal byproducts — as noted by the practice among some of panchagavya, or the consumption of a mixture consisting of cow dung, urine, milk, curd, and ghee — Jainism practices lacto-vegetarianism, which is similar to Shah’s veganism.
Shah is fluent in Gujarati, but has not publicly identified himself as practicing either of his parents’ religions.
Since winning the Democratic primary election, Shah has earned the support of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which had initially endorsed his primary opponent, Marlene Galan-Woods. The DCCC has added Shah to its 2026 Red to Blue program, which provides organizational and fundraising support to Democratic candidates vying for Republican-held seats.
Jonathan Nez and JoAnna Mendoza are also part of the program.
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