Arvind Venkat (born ) is an American physician and politician. A member of the Democratic Party, he represents the 30th district in the

Pennsylvania House of Representatives The Pennsylvania House of Representatives is the lower house of the bicameral Pennsylvania General Assembly, the legislature of the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. There are 203 members, elected for two-year terms from single member districts. It ...

, which comprises the North Hills suburbs of Pittsburgh in

Allegheny County Allegheny County () is a County (United States), county in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. It is located in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,250,578, making it the state's seco ...

. Before entering politics, Venkat was an attending physician at Allegheny General Hospital, specializing in

emergency medicine Emergency medicine is the medical speciality concerned with the care of illnesses or injuries requiring immediate medical attention. Emergency physicians (often called “ER doctors” in the United States) continuously learn to care for unsche ...

Early life and education

Venkat was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan by Indian immigrant parents. He attended Detroit Country Day School for high school, graduating in 1992. Venkat graduated from Harvard University in 1996 with a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and Science and a Master of Arts degree in History of Science. He then attended Yale School of Medicine where he graduated with a medical degree in 2000.

Medical career

Venkat completed his residency in

at the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center in 2004. Venkat is an

emergency room An emergency department (ED), also known as an accident and emergency department (A&E), emergency room (ER), emergency ward (EW) or casualty department, is a medical treatment facility specializing in emergency medicine, the acute care of pati ...

physician affiliated with the Allegheny Health Network, which includes Allegheny General Hospital as its flagship hospital. He is also a professor of emergency medicine at Drexel University College of Medicine. From 2019 to 2020, Venkat served as president of the Pennsylvania chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), and in 2020, he was elected to the board of ACEP.

Pennsylvania House of Representatives

Elections

2022

On February 24, 2022, Venkat announced his campaign for the

in the 30th district, which contains

Ben Avon Ben Avon ( gd, Beinn Athfhinn, 'mountain of the Avon') is a mountain in the Cairngorms of Scotland. It is a sprawling mountain with a broad summit plateau dotted with granite tors. One of these marks the summit, called ''Leabaidh an Daimh Bhuid ...

, Ben Avon Heights, Emsworth, Franklin Park, Kilbuck Township, McCandless, and Ohio Township, as well as parts of Hampton Township. The 30th district was an open seat in 2022, since Republican incumbent Rep.

Lori Mizgorski Lori A. Mizgorski (née Voegtly; c. 1967–) is an American politician who currently represents the 30th Legislative District in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives. She is a Republican. Early life and education Mizgorski is a native of ...

, who due to redistricting no longer resided in the district, opted instead to run for the state senate against incumbent Lindsey Williams. Election analysts predicted that the general election would be competitive and presented a pickup opportunity for the Democratic Party. In his announcement, Venkat said that he was motivated to run to address issues that often intersected with his work as an emergency physician, especially those that were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic; he identified strengthening emergency medical services and other

first responder A first responder is a person with specialized training who is among the first to arrive and provide assistance or incident resolution at the scene of an emergency, such as an accident, disaster, medical emergency, structure fire, crime, or terr ...

services, expanding access to affordable healthcare, and upgrading infrastructure as some of his priorities. Venkat also voiced his support for voting rights protections,

gun control Gun control, or firearms regulation, is the set of laws or policies that regulate the manufacture, sale, transfer, possession, modification, or use of firearms by civilians. Most countries have a restrictive firearm guiding policy, with on ...

, and efforts to combat climate change. In the aftermath of the U.S. Supreme Court decision ''

Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization ''Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization'', , is a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the court held that the Constitution of the United States does not confer a right to abortion. The court's decision overruled both ''R ...

'', which overturned '' Roe v. Wade'' and threatened abortion rights in many states where the Republican Party controlled one or more branches of state government,Republican former Allegheny County councilmember Cindy Kirk in the general election, prevailing by a margin of over 10 percentage points.

Committee assignments

Tenure

Upon taking office, Venkat became the first state representative of Indian-American descent in state history, as well as the first licensed physician in the state legislature in 60 years.

Personal life

Venkat resides in

McCandless, Pennsylvania McCandless is a township with home rule status in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States. The population was 29,709 at the 2020 census. Though McCandless no longer operates under the First Class Township Code, it is classified as a first- ...

with his wife Veena and their three children.

Electoral history

, colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", Democratic primary election , colspan="6" style="text-align:center;background-color: #e9e9e9;", General election

References

External links

Campaign website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Venkat, Arvind Living people 21st-century American physicians 21st-century American politicians American emergency physicians American physicians of Indian descent American politicians of Indian descent Asian-American people in Pennsylvania politics Democratic Party members of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives Drexel University faculty Harvard College alumni Pennsylvania Democrats People from Allegheny County, Pennsylvania Physicians from Detroit Physicians from Pennsylvania Politicians from Detroit Yale School of Medicine alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Physicians from Michigan