OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) – Washington Lt. Gov. Cyrus Habib said Thursday that he is not running for re-election and will start the process of becoming a priest.

Habib, the state’s first blind lieutenant governor, said the decision comes after “two years of careful and prayerful discernment.”

He previously served in the state House and Senate.

Habib lost his eyesight to cancer at age 8.

He went on to become a Rhodes Scholar and an editor of the law review at Yale before becoming an attorney.

Gov. Jay Inslee calls Habib’s life and career “an inspiration to many.”

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