Republican Shah enters race for Three Chopt supervisor seat

Henrico physician Dishant Shah will challenge incumbent Republican Tommy Branin for the party's nomination for the Three Chopt District seat on the Henrico Board of Supervisors. Voters in the district will choose the party's nominee June 11.

Shah, a neuroradiologist who specializes in brain and spine imaging, is a political newcomer who has lived in Henrico for a decade. He is championing a fiscally conservative approach to governing and has vowed to make protection of green space a priority in the district, which is Henrico's most crowded.

Branin is completing his first four-year term as a supervisor after serving on the Henrico Planning Commission for 10 years prior to that.

Shah became engaged in the community when his children began attending school in the county and said his experience attending PTA meetings and other county meetings helped lead him to the eventual decision to seek public office. He is motivated by a desire to serve and give back to the community, he said, and believes his integrity and ethics as a physician will make him the right candidate for the position.

"The direction that I think the county should be going is preserving our green spaces, continuing to maintain our growth and development and making sure that our small businesses are our champions," Shah said, "[that] the people that are running those small businesses are given all the opportunities to nurture their businesses, to grow."

In addition to his medical practice, which provides sub-specialty telemedicine services to hospitals and outpatient centers, Shah also spends more than 20 hours a week as a community volunteer and advocate for affordable healthcare, he said.