Getting postgres date type from Database query

[t-raver9]

Hey all, long time lurker, huge fan of the framework

I'm on postgres, and have fields start_date and end_date which are data type date in the DB.

Running this query using Database (going through the model isn't the preferred option here, doing reporting code so the queries get pretty gnarly)

const customerQuery = Database.from('account_customers')
      .where('account_id', accountId)
      .whereNull('deleted_at')
      .where((query) => {
        query
          .where((query) => {
            query.whereBetween('start_date', [from.toSQLDate()!, to.toSQLDate()!])
          })
          .orWhere((query) => {
            query.whereBetween('end_date', [from.toSQLDate()!, to.toSQLDate()!])
          })
          .orWhere((query) => {
            query.where('start_date', '<=', from.toSQLDate()!).andWhere('end_date', '>=', to.toSQLDate()!) // Customer date range fully encompasses filter range
          })
          .orWhere((query) => {
            query.where('start_date', '<=', to.toSQLDate()!).andWhereNull('end_date') // Active customers
          })
      })
      .select([
        'id',
        Database.raw('DATE(start_date) as "startDate"'),
        Database.raw('end_date as "endDate"'),
        'termination_reason as terminationReason',
      ])

Tried a few different things (hence the DB raw + DATE cast) but it always serializes into a DateTime object. Am I doing something wrong here? Or do I need to use the model query builder if I want it to come back as a Date object?

Some questions are too dumb for this world, pls ignore me