KENNEWICK — An Eastern Washington attorney at the forefront of legal challenges to the state’s gun control laws and COVID health mandates announced Tuesday his candidacy for state attorney general.
Pete Serrano is the first prominent Republican to throw his name into this year’s open race for Washington attorney general. He’ll join former U.S. Attorney Nick Brown and senior King County deputy prosecutor Manka Dhingra in the race, both Democrats.
If elected, Serrano would be the first Republican to hold the office since Rob McKenna vacated the seat in 2012.
The Pasco-based attorney announced his candidacy in an interview with attorney William Kirk, host of the Washington Gun Law blog.
“First, I’m not going to get you checks from chicken and tuna and then endorse myself,” Serrano said in an apparent jab at Attorney General Bob Ferguson over restitution checks won in a price fixing suit.
“We want what’s right for Washington. We want a safe place, we want a place where the law is enforced and where the laws are constitutional, and that’s my promise to the people,” he continued.
The attorney general serves as the chief law enforcement officer of Washington state.
The office pursues legal cases in the public’s interest, proposes bills to the state Legislature, represents the state in certain cases, advises state bodies and the governor on legal issues and provides written opinions on Washington constitutional or legal opinions.
Serrano is the director-general counsel of Silent Majority Foundation, a conservative nonprofit that has filed legal challenges to the state’s COVID-19 emergency order, vaccine mandates and gun control legislation.
Silent Majority Foundation challenged Gov. Jay Inslee over his continued use of emergency powers to dictate public health mandates during the pandemic, arguing in March 2022 that the governor failed to find a state of emergency in all 39 Washington counties before amending two mandates related to face masks and vaccine requirements.
An appeals court dismissed the case in September after a Thurston County judge sided with Inslee.
Serrano and the nonprofit also organized a federal lawsuit in 2021 in an effort to overturn a federal COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
More than 300 workers at the Hanford nuclear site and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, both in Richland, Wash., requested a judge throw out the mandate, arguing that it would impact the minimum amount of workers needed to keep the Superfund site safe and secure.
But a U.S. judge ultimately dismissed the lawsuit after finding that the workers had not provided clear arguments, nor specific information, to make their case and show they were being harmed.
Silent Majority Foundation is currently representing Gator Customs Guns in a consumer protection lawsuit filed by Ferguson. The Kelso retailer was accused last year of continuing to sell thousands of high-capacity magazines after a ban went into effect. In a separate suit, the nonprofit is also challenging the state’s new restrictions on “ghost guns.”
In a video posted to the nonprofit’s Facebook page, Serrano said he planned to remain “actively engaged” in Silent Majority Foundation’s day-to-day work during the campaign, and that he would retain his positions as general counsel and a board member.
Serrano and his family moved to Washington state from the Sacremento area in 2015.
Before establishing the Silent Majority Foundation, Serrano worked as an environmental lawyer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford site. There he helped transform 1,500 acres of government land into a solar farm and worked with the department to ensure safe and effective cleanup at the site that produced plutonium for the nation’s nuclear weapons program during the Cold War.
Since 2017, Serrano has also served as a Pasco city councilman representing northwest parts of the city.
