Vicky Cayetano, the former first lady of Hawaii who was born in Manila, is running for governor in her state.
Cayetano announced her gubernatorial bid on Aug. 30 at the Hawaii State Capitol in Honolulu.
Hawaii news channel KHON2 reported that Cayetano wanted to “create new approaches to respond to the pandemic,” particularly in addressing the challenges faced by businesses.
“Like most businesses, it was very painful. We're not the exception, and having gone through that, I will say that businesses cannot go through what we went through last year. I don't know how many would be left to survive that," Cayetano, who is also the president and chief executive officer (CEO) of United Laundry Services in Hawaii, said in her campaign launch.
"Having said that, I do think we need to recognize that our world has changed and it's not going to go back to what it was before,” she added.
The businesswoman will be running under the Democratic Party.
Cayetano is the wife of Ben Cayetano, Hawaii's first governor of Filipino ancestry.