Raul Ruiz ( rah-OOL; born August 25, 1972) is an American physician and politician serving as the U.S. representative for California's 25th congressional district. He is a member of the Democratic Party.
Born in Zacatecas City, Mexico, Ruiz was adopted by his father's sister in Coachella, California after his mother's death. He was the first Latino to receive three graduate degrees from Harvard University, attending Harvard Medical School, the John F. Kennedy School of Government and Harvard School of Public Health. He worked as an emergency physician at the Eisenhower Medical Center in Rancho Mirage, California. He assisted humanitarian efforts in the aftermath of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
In what was considered a major upset, Ruiz defeated redistricted incumbent Republican U.S. Representative Mary Bono in the 2012 election with 52.9% of the vote. He was reelected in 2014 with 54.2% of the vote, after what was considered one of the most competitive congressional races in the country; in 2016 and 2018, he received about 60% of the vote.
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Early life and education
Ruiz was born in Zacatecas City, the capital city of state of Zacatecas, Mexico. His mother died a few months later, and his father give him up for adoption to his sister, who raised him in Coachella, California. His adoptive uncles were farm workers. He graduated from Coachella Valley High School at age 17 and went to the University of California, Los Angeles in 1990, graduating magna cum laude before attending Harvard Medical School. He was the first Latino to receive three graduate degrees from Harvard University: a Doctor of Medicine from the Harvard Medical School, a Master of Public Policy from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, and a Master of Public Health from the Harvard School of Public Health.
Medical career
After graduating from Harvard, Ruiz spent time working abroad in Mexico, El Salvador, and Serbia, and completed emergency medicine residency training at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2006 before taking a job as an emergency physician at the Eisenhower Medical Center, a nonprofit hospital in the Coachella Valley. He founded the Coachella Valley Healthcare Initiative in 2010. In 2011, he became senior associate dean at the School of Medicine at University of California, Riverside.
In 2012, Ruiz received a Commander's Award for Public Service from the U.S. Army's 82nd Airborne Division for his humanitarian efforts for victims of the 2010 Haiti earthquake.
U.S. House of Representatives
Elections
Ruiz ran for the United States House of Representatives in 2012 as a first-time candidate in California's 36th congressional district. The district had previously been the 45th, represented by 15-year incumbent Mary Bono Mack and previously by her late husband Sonny Bono. Ruiz was initially regarded as a long shot to win. He was endorsed by Bill Clinton in October 2012. The new district was significantly more Latino than its predecessor; Latinos now made up almost half its population. Ruiz appealed to them by running Spanish-language ads. He criticized Bono Mack for not reaching out to Latino voters sooner saying, "She’s had 14 years to give them the attention that they deserve. This is unacceptable."
During the 2012 campaign, Bono Mack accused Ruiz of being a "radical" for participating in anti-Thanksgiving protests in the 1990s while at Harvard and repeatedly referred to Ruiz's 1997 arrest. Ruiz had allegedly supported "Smashing Plymouth Rock. Crush the rock and all it represents." At a debate, Bono Mack repeatedly attacked Ruiz for his participation in the protests and arrest, while Ruiz accused her of ignoring issues and tying her to the Republican presidential ticket.
At an October 2012 press conference, Bono Mack campaign officials released an audiotape on which Ruiz expressed solidarity with convicted police murderer Mumia Abu-Jamal and read a letter of support for Leonard Peltier, who was convicted in 1977 of murdering two FBI agents in South Dakota. On the tape, supposedly recorded at a 1999 Thanksgiving rally, Ruiz read aloud a letter to Peltier from a Marxist leader, "Subcomandante Marcos." It read in part: "Leonard Peltier's most serious crime is that he seeks to rescue in the past, and in his culture, in his roots, the history of his people, the Lakota. And for the powerful, this is a crime because knowing oneself with history impedes from being tossed around by this absurd machine that is in the system." A spokesman for Ruiz maintained that the candidate did not recall the incident and did not support Peltier.
He was elected with 52.9% of the vote to Bono Mack's 47.1%. "If the growing sway of Latinos in American politics was the story of election 2012", wrote Politico after the 2012 election, "Raul Ruiz's triumph in California's 36th congressional district was a dramatic subplot." Republicans "didn't seem to fully appreciate the district's fast-growing Hispanic population until it was too late." Ruiz told Politico that his victory was "a reflection of America." Upon taking office in January 2013, he became the first Democrat to represent this district since its creation in 1983 (it had been the 37th from 1983 to 1993, the 44th from 1993 to 2003, and the 45th from 2003 to 2013).
Tenure
Ruiz was sworn into office on January 3, 2013, as the U.S. representative for California's 36th congressional district. During the 113th Congress, he served on the Veterans' Affair and Natural Resources committees. In May, Ruiz voted against repealing the Affordable Care Act which he supported during his campaign.
In 2014, Ruiz voted for HR 4038, legislation that would effectively halt the resettlement of refugees from Syria and Iraq to the United States.
In 2017, Ruiz was appointed to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees healthcare policy. That year he called Obamacare "a giant step in the right direction" while acknowledging that "it is imperfect and needs to be improved." He maintained that the GOP plan would "make premiums and deductibles go up even higher, 24 million will be uninsured...and there will be reduced reimbursement rates to hospitals and doctors for patients on Medicaid...There's nothing to reduce health care costs and out-of-pocket payments." Ruiz said that Obamacare represented "one of the largest improvements in covering Latinos with health insurance."
Committee assignments
Ruiz's committee assignments for the 119th Congress include:
Committee on Energy and Commerce
Subcommittee on Communications and Technology
Subcommittee on Health
Subcommittee on Environment
Caucus memberships
Ruiz's caucus memberships include:
Congressional Equality Caucus
New Democrat Coalition
Congressional Hispanic Caucus
Congressional Doctors Caucus (co-chair)
Indian Health Service Task Force (chair)
Awards
He received in 2025 a Carnegie Corporation of New York Great Immigrant Award
Personal life
Ruiz is married to Monica Rivers, an emergency room nurse. They married in 2014 in the Coachella Valley. Their twin daughters were born in 2015. He is a member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Ruiz and his family live in Indio.