Washington Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib announced Thursday afternoon that he will not seek reelection and instead will join the Society of Jesus, a Catholic religious order.
Habib wrote in the Jesuit magazine America that his decision came after “two years of careful and prayerful discernment” about his vocation.
“I have felt called to a different vocation, albeit one that is also oriented around service and social justice,” he wrote. “I have felt a calling to dedicate my life in a more direct and personal way to serving the marginalized, empowering the vulnerable, healing those who suffer from spiritual wounds and accompanying those discerning their own futures.”
Habib, a 38-year-old Democrat, was elected in 2016 and serves under former presidential candidate Gov. Jay Inslee. Habib said his reasons for running were “rooted in Catholic social teaching, which places the poor, the sick, the disabled, the immigrant, the prisoner and all who are marginalized at the center of our social and political agenda.”
But now, he wrote, he feels a calling to give people “spiritual support and companionship” through a religious life.
“From our throwaway culture that treats workers and our environment as disposable to a new generation of young people eager to change the world but struggling with unprecedented anxiety, alienation and other mental health challenges to the fear and isolation we are all experiencing as a result of the coronavirus, this is a time when we need to ground ourselves in the wisdom of those who came before and cultivate new forms of wisdom forged in the fires of our present moment,” he wrote.
State Democrats are looking for Habib’s successor.
