Update: Eastern WA attorney who fought gun laws, COVID mandates plans run for state AG
An Eastern Washington attorney at the forefront of legal challenges to the state’s gun control laws and COVID health mandates announced this week his candidacy for state attorney general.
Pete Serrano is the first major 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, 43, 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 lawsuit.
“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.
In a Wednesday interview, Serrano told the Tri-City Herald that he believes his experience in environmental law and government transparency and a belief in “common sense regulation,” will help him stand out to Washington voters.
“The bulk of my career has been about open and transparent government, and making it work for the people who it needs to serve,” he said. “I’m excited to do this. I think I bring a reasoned voice to protect the people of Washington, to stand for their rights and make sure that justice is accessible for all.”
Since 2017, Serrano has also served as a Pasco city councilman representing northwest parts of the city.
And Tuesday night, he was elected by his own council to serve two years as mayor of the city of 80,000. He does not plan to step down from any of his current commitments.
Silent Majority Foundation
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, requested a judge throw out the mandate, arguing that it would impact the minimum number 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.
Hanford site and environmental law
Serrano and his family moved to Washington state from the Sacramento area in 2015.
Before establishing the Silent Majority Foundation, Serrano worked as an environmental lawyer at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford nuclear site near Richland.
There he helped transfer 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. He also worked for the DOE’s legal team during the 2017 PUREX tunnel collapse.
Serrano believes his experience in environmental law will play a “really critical piece” in helping to preserve the state’s natural resource.
He started his career at a “small boutique” water firm that sued states over the Clean Water Act.
Around 2010, as an attorney with Washington, D.C.-based Hall & Associates, he helped sue the Environmental Protection Agency over public records access and rule making that changed rules around secondary treatment of waste water. He said the case opened his eyes to the lack of transparency governments sometimes undertake to establish procedures.
Serrano doesn’t just sit across the political aisle from his opponents in the race for attorney general. He’s also sat behind opposing counsel tables, as well.
In Silent Majority Foundation’s challenge to House Bill 1240, known as the “assault weapons ban,” Brown has represented the Alliance For Gun Responsibility as an intervener in the suit, Serrano said. And Dhingra, in her capacity as a state senator, has sponsored legislation that’s come under scrutiny by Serrano’s nonprofit.
“I think it makes for a very intriguing race,” he said.
This story was originally published January 2, 2024 at 12:34 PM.
