Although I was happy to learn that Dr. Nirav Shah might run for governor, I found myself wondering if he wouldn’t take on an even bigger challenge.

Dr. Shah, who spearheaded Maine’s successful effort to fend off COVID-19 during the pandemic, told the Press Herald last week that he feels “we’re in a moment where all of us should be considering running for something.”

As someone with a high name recognition among Mainers, Shah would stand out in a crowded field with 17 confirmed candidates — and more on the way — including one who sued him for the efforts he made to protect Maine residents during the pandemic.

Taking the case against Dr. Shah, the gubernatorial candidate who unsuccessfully sued him, Republican David Jones of Falmouth, said, “Him and his boss, Janet Mills, caused irreparable harm to our state. Mainers haven’t forgotten.”

For Shah’s sake, I hope they haven’t forgotten what happened — and how ably he did his job during that time.

Tobey Crawford, one of two administrators of the 36,200-member Facebook group Fans of Dr. Nirav Shah, spoke for many others when she told me Shah was “familiar and widely respected, and has proven himself as a fair and capable leader without the hype and hyperbole of political theater, Not to mention he’s already got a sizable fan club thanks to his role in keeping Mainers informed and safe during the pandemic.”

During a televised interview with WABI last month, Shah recalled the days he served as communicator-in-chief as “the darkest of times.”

Lucky for us, one of the lights in those dreary years of sickness and shutdowns was Shah himself. As director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, he held nearly 300 televised briefings that sought to keep people informed as events unfolded.

A steady presence who provided solid scientific and medical information in language we could all understand, Shah managed to throw in some humor, too, which helped take the edge off the horror of what was happening. His calm credibility eased the fear of what was happening to us. Even now, it’s difficult to process the fact that more than 3,600 Mainers perished from COVID-19 and another 10,000 patients suffered badly enough to require hospitalization.

In 2023, as the pandemic waned, Shah left Maine to work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta before returning home this year to serve as a visiting professor at Colby College. Now, he’s itching to do more.

One point in Shah’s favor is that he’s already proven himself in a crisis. If he opts to run — and few public people mull a campaign without following through — Shah will prove a formidable candidate, enjoying high name recognition and few detractors among Maine Democrats. In a ranked-choice primary, he would be among the top choices of nearly every voter, which might be enough to nudge aside competing politicians.

What’s getting me, though, is that the real battle now isn’t in Augusta. It’s in the nation’s capital.

I’m sure a respected 48-year-old doctor with a law degree could credibly take on Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins next year. I asked Shah if he’d consider it. He didn’t seem interested.

“For over 10 years, I’ve worked in different levels of executive branch offices and my focus has been on leading, managing and executing programs that deliver services to people,” he said. “If I choose to run, I’ve found that type of experience is foundational to what it means to serve as governor.”

Oh, well. It’s not as if we don’t need a good governor.