Yakima physician Raul Garcia announced Friday that he will run for governor as a Republican.
Garcia, the medical director at Astria Toppenish Hospital, has spent years practicing medicine in the Yakima Valley. He is a Cuban immigrant who lived in Spain before moving to the United States when he was 11.
"My family and I are honored to announce my candidacy to become the next governor of Washington," Garcia said during his campaign announcement in Seattle. "I am here to bring health to our state, to bring present, effective, and efficient leadership, and to create a government by the people of different walks of life and united by one common goal, to restore the safe and prosperous lives of our Washington families."
State Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Commissioner of Lands Hilary Franz, both Democrats, also plan to run for governor.
Garcia worked to promote vaccination among the state's Latino population in 2020, and is the founder of the Partnership for Our Food Security, an organization that sought to educate and protect farmworkers against COVID-19, a campaign news release said.
Garcia also ran for governor in 2020, but didn't make it out of the primary to the general election, where Democrat Jay Inslee won against Republican Loren Culp.
