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Dr. Daniel Mongiardo, M.D. (born July 4, 1960) is a Democratic U.S. politician from the state of Kentucky.
Born to Italian immigrants in Hazard, Kentucky, Mongiardo attended Transylvania University and completed a medical doctorate at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in 1986. From 1986 to 2000, Mongiardo worked as a physician, first as a medical resident in Lexington, and later in his hometown of Hazard.
In Hazard, he helped to establish a free clinic for the poor, volunteering his time while working at the Appalachian Regional Medical Center, where he became Chief of Surgery and, later, Chief of Staff. The ARMC became a major health care center in eastern Kentucky, growing to house over a hundred doctors.
In 2000, Mongiardo entered politics, challenging Hazard's state senator with a campaign to reform health care in Kentucky. He won, and was soon appointed to the Health and Welfare Committee and a leadership role in the joint Medicaid Oversight Task Force. Due to partisan politics, he was removed from the Task Force chair shortly thereafter, and his health care proposals were blocked by the Republican Senate leadership. After Kentucky's state districts were redrawn in 2002, Mongiardo found himself running for reelection in heavily Republican northern Kentucky, hundreds of miles away from Hazard. He won by a large margin despite these obstacles.
In 2004 Mongiardo declared that he would run to unseat Jim Bunning, a former baseball player and 1st-term U.S. Senator from Kentucky. Although early polls showed Mongiardo to be the decided underdog against the fairly popular and well-financed Bunning, he has gained support in September and October due to Bunning's controversial remarks and erratic behavior, and the race was tied in a mid-October poll. But after being outspent by many millions as well as repeatedly smeared with homophobic attacks (http://www.southernvoice.com/2004/11-5/view/ontherecord/otr.cfm), Mongiardo was narrowly defeated in the election on November 2.
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