Campaign finance reports show David Oxman has financial backing despite his outsider status

David Oxman, who didn’t follow the typical path to becoming a physician, is again trying something different: going from political outsider to Member of Congress. 

Oxman, an intensive care doctor and medical school professor at Thomas Jefferson University, is among several candidates throwing their hats into the 3rd Congressional District ring following U.S. Rep. Dwight Evans’ retirement announcement. And with financial backing, Oxman has a strong start to make a name for himself ahead of next year’s Democratic primary for the deep-blue Philadelphia seat. 

Born in Mount Airy, Oxman was an English and political science major in college and didn’t enter medical school until his late 20s. He trained in internal medicine at Temple University in North Philadelphia before spending time in Boston working on infectious diseases, critical care and ethics. He returned to Philadelphia in 2010 and has been working in intensive care and as an assistant professor of medicine since 2012. 

In a conversation with City & State earlier this year, Oxman said he’s been a public health advocate since going into medicine, speaking out on gun violence, addiction and preventing transmissible diseases such as HIV and hepatitis. 

“In the early 2000s, I had the privilege of working in South Africa as a doctor; this was at the height of the HIV epidemic,” Oxman told City & State. “There was a president at the time, (Thabo) Mbeki, who was otherwise an intelligent person, who was laboring under this conspiracy theory that HIV was not the cause of AIDS and people didn’t need antiretroviral drugs; they needed garlic and beetroot instead.” Oxman noted that an estimated 330,000 South Africans died unnecessarily due to government obstruction of life-saving treatment. 

“I never thought something like that may occur in my own country. Fast-forward 20-some years, and while I’ve always been upset about our broken healthcare system, the appointment of a conspiracy theorist to lead the public health efforts of this country sort of galvanized me,” Oxman said. “It’s not just not just the appointment (of U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.), but also my utter disappointment with the tepid response of so many professional societies and members of civil society, either because they lack the courage or they lack the imagination to confront the moment that we were in.”

Oxman is now trying to be a hypodermic needle in a growing haystack of candidates that includes fellow physician and public-health activist Ala Stanford – who received Evans’ endorsement – as well experienced lawmakers like Sharif Street, Chris Rabb and Morgan Cephas, and political outsiders, such as Temple University professor Karl Morris. 

Pointing out the “barbaric cuts to federal science funding,” Oxman said there’s a “growing dis-ease with expertise.”

“About 30% of the jobs in Philadelphia depend on the so-called ‘meds and eds,’” he added. “I think what’s going to happen with the Medicaid cuts is, as the uncompensated care for these medical centers and hospitals increases, they’re going to go to the state to seek funds, and the state’s going to say, ‘I'm sorry, we’re busy saving public transportation and other things – we can’t help you.’ And you’re actually going to see freezes on hiring and maybe even layoffs in the healthcare sector in Philadelphia, in the region.”

According to the Federal Election Commission, Street, an established state senator who took in more than $350,000 between July 1 and Sept. 30, has an early fundraising lead over his competitors – but he’s not as far ahead as many may have anticipated. 

The campaign finance reports from earlier this month show that Oxman brought in $107,000, spent $35,000 and still has more than $330,000 in the bank – a healthy sum for a political outsider. 

“Since Day 1, this campaign has been fueled by healthcare professionals, small business owners, and working families across Philadelphia who are ready to take power back from leaders bought by corporate interests,” Oxman said in a statement.

Oxman has backing from 314 Action, a political action committee looking to elect STEM-educated Democrats to higher office in the United States. He’s one of four Democratic doctors to launch a congressional campaign this year. 

According to the Cook Political Report, the 3rd Congressional district of North and West Philadelphia is the most partisan – regardless of party – in the nation. Coming in at +40 in favor of Democrats, the district performed about 40 points more Democratic in terms of two-party vote share than the nation did as a whole in 2020 and 2024.

Speaking about the state of the Democratic Party, Oxman told City & State the party must “put forward leaders that are going to appeal to voters.”

“I think we have relied on sort of the professional politician class for too long,” he said. Referring to the need to address affordability not only for health care but for housing and the cost of living, he added: “I think they are often seen as being either unimaginative or too afraid to break away from corporate PAC funding and so forth to truly represent Americans …  I just have different experiences than some of my potential opponents, but I think my experience caring for the community for the last 20 years gives me a unique perspective into the community’s needs. And I think people will react to that.”