Raul Ruiz
Raul Ruiz, a Democrat and emergency physician who has served in the U.S. House since 2013 and represents California's 25th congressional district, faces Republican Joe Males, a Hemet city councilor, in 2026.
2026 Races & Market Forecast
Live TruthIndex™ and prediction market consensus for races contested by Raul Ruiz.
- Born
- August 25, 1972
- Birthplace
- Zacatecas City, Mexico
- Education
- Coachella Valley High School
University of California, Los Angeles
Harvard Medical School (Doctor of Medicine)
John F. Kennedy School of Government (Master of Public Policy)
Harvard School of Public Health (Master of Public Health)
Biography & Campaign Analysis
Background
Raul Ruiz was born on August 25, 1972, in Zacatecas City, Mexico. After his mother died a few months later, his father gave him up for adoption to his sister, who raised him in Coachella, California, where his adoptive uncles were farm workers.
He graduated from Coachella Valley High School at 17 and entered the University of California, Los Angeles, in 1990, graduating magna cum laude.
He became the first Latino to receive three graduate degrees from Harvard University: a Doctor of Medicine from 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.
He is married to Monica Rivers, an emergency room nurse, and the family lives in Indio.
Career
Ruiz completed emergency medicine residency training at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2006 and then worked as an emergency physician at the Eisenhower Medical Center in the Coachella Valley.
He founded the Coachella Valley Healthcare Initiative in 2010 and became senior associate dean at the School of Medicine at the University of California, Riverside, in 2011.
In 2012, as a first-time candidate, he defeated Republican incumbent Mary Bono Mack in California's 36th congressional district with 52.9% of the vote, and he was sworn in on January 3, 2013. He was reelected in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2020.
After redistricting he ran in the newly drawn 25th district in 2022, defeating Republican Brian Hawkins with 57%, and in 2024 he defeated Republican Ian Weeks with 56.3%. In the 119th Congress he serves on the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and he co-chairs the Congressional Doctors Caucus.
2026 race
Raul Ruiz is the Democratic incumbent in California's 25th congressional district. In the 2026 top-two primary he finished first with 88,699 votes, or 60.01%, and Republican Joe Males, a Hemet city councilor, placed second with 18.89%. Republicans Ron Huffman, a retired electrical worker, and Ceci Truman, a businesswoman who had run for the district in 2022 and 2024, were eliminated. Ruiz faces Males in the general election on November 3, 2026.