By The Herald Editorial Board
The first debate between Washington’s U.S. Senate candidates — incumbent Democrat Maria Cantwell and Republican challenger Dr. Raul Garcia — was described in media reports as cordial, with significant areas of agreement.
That stands in contrast to the previous two races for both Cantwell and fellow Sen. Patty Murray and the challengers they faced.
Credit is due both Garcia and Cantwell for setting an example of how campaigns ought to be conducted.
Yet, voter still have a choice to make.
Garcia has worked in emergency medicine for 26 years and currently serves as the chief medical officer at the Astria Toppenish Hospital, south of Yakima, and serves with national medical associations. He has owned medical practices, was the dean for two medical schools — starting one in Yakima — and medical director at two hospitals. His medical degree is from the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine.
Garcia fled to Miami with his single mother from Cuba as a child in 1982.
Garcia previously ran for governor as a Republican in 2020 but was eliminated in the primary.
That run woke him and his family to the possibilities of politics and what’s achievable through public service, he said.
“My wife and I stayed involved. We opened up a couple of not-for-profit organizations to help Washington,” regarding food and economic security, he said. “It gave us a vehicle to go around and hear what people’s concerns were around the state.”
Rather than run again for governor, with fellow Republican and friend Dave Reichert having already announced, Garcia drew on his past experience as a young aide for Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan., whom he considered a mentor because he worked for solutions among Republicans and Democrats, noting in particular Dole’s work to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, and hoped to follow his path.
“Well, what do you have to think about?” Garcia’s wife told him. “You wanted to be Bob Dole. Here’s the opportunity.”
Garcia said he has modeled the moderate ethic of Dole and fellow Republican Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah, seeking solutions regardless of party or circumstance.
“It’s the same way that I’ve lived as an emergency physician,” he said. “In the Bronx, once, I treated a criminal and a police officer that had shot each other,” providing each the same level of care.
In his work in emergency medicine, Garcia sees two to five overdoses each day, putting the fentanyl crisis at the top of his concerns.
Garcia supports some harm-reduction efforts, in particular the availability of Narcan to halt overdoses, but is not supportive of similar measures, including the “housing first” model of moving those with addictions into housing without barriers. Citing the example of Portugal’s efforts in the early 2000s, Garcia supports harsh punishments for dealers and involuntary treatment for more with addictions, recognizing that addiction is a disease, isn’t a choice and can’t be reasoned with.
Stemming the flow of drugs also will take more persistent work to get China to crack down on the flow of fentanyl’s chemical precursors into the country, he said.
On abortion, though he thinks it unlikely to come to the Senate floor, he would not vote for a nationwide abortion ban. Washington residents have already spoken to that. “There’s no need for further discussion,” he said.
However, Garcia, would support measures that better assure the health and safety of women facing complications during pregnancies. He also is concerned with the rate of closure of OB-GYN services, particularly at rural hospitals, including two where he worked. Restoring a “critical access designation” for rural hospitals, he said, could better retain those and other services, he said.
Where Garcia and some Republicans might part ways regards the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare. Garcia supports a review and look at potential reforms, but said “the intent of the ACA was great.”
On immigration, Garcia again seeks a moderate path, rejecting calls for “mass deportation,” instead supporting citizenship for the nation’s “Dreamers,” those brought to America as children, and permanent residency for those who are here and part of the workforce, economy and society, reserving deportation for those with criminal records.
Cantwell, with some 30 years of legislative service including six years in the Washington state Legislature and two years in the U.S. House, has served as U.S. senator since 2001 and is seeking her fifth six-year term. She currently serves as chair of the Senate’s Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
Her professional resume includes leadership with the technology and internet firm RealNetworks. She has a bachelor’s degree in public administration from Miami University of Ohio.
Her most recent term has been a very busy six years, Cantwell said, with “a lot getting over the goal line,” with Democrats in the majority only for the last two years. Among her accomplishments, Cantwell sponsored legislation or provisions, including:
2019’s Natural Resources Management Act, including provisions for water resources and salmon recovery for the Yakima River Basin, permanent reauthorization of the Land and Water Conservation Fund that had expired in 2015, and protection of 340,000 acres of Methow Valley;
Passage of reforms to aircraft safety and certification following the Boeing 737 Max crashes and their grounding, which returned more oversight of aircraft certification to the Federal Aviation Administration and more stringent safety reviews;
The surface transportation element of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, including federal funding for removal of salmon-blocking culverts, authorization of mega-project grants for projects including the new I-5 bridge over the Columbia River, investments in port infrastructure and $10 billion in borrowing authority to increase electric grid transmission for the Bonneville Power Authority;
2022’s Chips and Science Act, including $10 million to the University of Washington to train workers for semiconductor manufacturing, and investments in STEM education;
Provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act, including a tax credit to aid development of Sustainable Aviation Fuel production and manufacturing, a clean ports program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and funding for new construction and repair of tribal hatcheries for salmon recovery; and
This year’s FAA reauthorization, to further enhance the agency’s safety oversight, strengthen workforce development, promote aviation innovation and increase consumer protections for refunds for canceled flights and other issues.
Also significant in the Inflation Reduction Act, Cantwell said, is the provision that will allow Medicare to negotiate with pharmaceutical makers over drug prices, work that has started this year with 10 medications and has capped the cost of insulin at $35.
The investments above in infrastructure, workforce and scientific development are of particular importance to Washington state, she said.
“Advanced manufacturing is meeting cheap electricity is meeting AI,” she said. “I want people to understand … we will be back to growing the middle class again.”
Cantwell has concerns for the growing comfort with tariffs from both parties, and their potential impacts for Washington state, which depends on foreign markets for a range of exports, including apples, lentils, software and Boeing jets. Last year she worked to get the U.S. and India to reach agreement on tariffs that reopened India to Washington apples and other crops.
Looking forward, Cantwell said she’ll continue a focus on housing affordability, pointing to recent funding for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit that has recently helped build more than 6,100 units of low-income housing in Everett alone, and $1.5 million used by Housing Hope to build 52 units of housing for families within the Edmonds School District.
On abortion, Cantwell does support legislation that would codify the protections for abortion access that were established in Roe v. Wade. Why, Cantwell asks, should freedoms be determined by the state where one lives?
“My opponent thinks that we’re not being impacted,” she said. But the loss of access in other states “is straining the delivery system we have here.”
Garcia refreshingly hearkens to a time when the words “moderate” and “Republican” weren’t a surprise to see next to each other. His positions are informed by the practical experience of his medical career and his family’s own immigration story. And his sincerity to seek the best outcomes through compromise is clear.
But that ethic is one already long practiced by Cantwell during her four terms in Congress; most of her recent legislative accomplishments have been achieved through negotiations and partnership with Republican colleagues, among them Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Roger Wicker of Mississippi and even Ted Cruz of Texas.
At the same time, Cantwell has held fast to her own principles and the best interests of her constituents in pushing for policy and investments and winning passage for both regardless of which party held the majority. Particularly regarding some of the issues ahead — housing affordability, workforce development, clean energy, the climate crisis, AI and social media — Cantwell has the background and negotiating skills to assure good results for the lot.
The state’s voters should return Cantwell to the Senate.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.