A national organization focused on electing more leaders from the STEM field endorsed Montgomery County Commissioner Val Arkoosh for U.S. Senate.
The group 314 Action cited her record leading the state’s third-largest county through the COVID-19 pandemic and her record as a physician and public health advocate.
Shaughnessy Naughton, who lost Democratic primaries in 2014 and 2016 for a Bucks County congressional seat, is the president and founder of 314 Action.
“We are committed at 314 Action to ensuring that Val Arkoosh becomes the next United States senator from Pennsylvania. This Senate race is the best chance for Democrats to pick up a seat and Val is far and away the strongest candidate in this race,” she said. “Last year, Val became one of the commonwealth’s leaders on the pandemic response, and her science-first, evidence-based approach to policy making saved lives. If she’s the nominee, there’s no question this seat flips blue next year — because as 2020 showed us, voters trust and want to vote for candidates with science backgrounds. They win races, and with the majority up for grabs, we need to nominate a winner like Val in the Keystone State.”
Arkoosh said, “As a doctor, I learned early on you can’t BS your way out of a problem, you have to solve it. And if the last several months have shown us anything, it’s that we need more of that no-nonsense problem solving in Washington. I’m running for Senate to take what I’ve learned as a physician and public health advocate as well as leading our commonwealth’s third-largest county to Washington so I can get things done for workers and families across Pennsylvania. And I’m honored 314 Action Fund is joining the winning coalition we are building.”
As a physician, Arkoosh specialized in women’s health as an obstetrics anesthesiologist. She served on the faculty at Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, the Drexel University College of Medicine and the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Jefferson University. She went on to earn a master’s in public health from Johns Hopkins University and fought for passage of the Affordable Care Act as president of the National Physicians Alliance.
