SGV Pulmonologist Runs For Lt. Gov As 'Triple Threat' To Trump

LOS ANGELES, CA — Pasadena-area pulmonologist Asif Mahmood announced his candidacy for lieutenant governor Wednesday, describing himself as "a triple threat to" President Donald Trump as a Muslim immigrant to California.

"I'll be a strong voice for all the people he is trying to silence," Mahmood, a Democrat, said outside the downtown Los Angeles office of U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, known by its acronym ICE.

``Let's get tough on the right things -- on hate, division, poverty and poor health care."

According to biographical information supplied by his campaign, Mahmood was raised in a poor village in rural Pakistan, where most of his elementary school classes took place outside under trees because the local school had no roof or desks.

Mahmood became the first student in his village to be accepted to medical school. He immigrated to the U.S. two decades ago.

Mahmood said he supports a single-payer health care system and free community college.

Mahmood resides with his wife and three teenage children in the San Gabriel Valley community of Bradbury.

Mahmood is the second doctor from the San Gabriel Valley to declare his candidacy for lieutenant governor, following Sen. Ed Hernandez, D-West Covina, an optometrist.

There was no immediate response to an email sent late Wednesday to the Hernandez campaign seeking comment.

Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom is barred from running for re-election because of term limits and is running for governor.

City News Service; Photo: Dr. Asif Mahmood, right, a physician who came to the U.S. from Pakistan, greets supporters as he announces he is joining the 2018 race for California's lieutenant governor in front of the downtown federal building that houses a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Los Angeles Wednesday, March 29, 2017. Mahmood is promising to run on his Muslim faith, immigrant past and career as a health care provider. (Nick Ut/Associated Press)