Steve Bergquist (D)

Steve Bergquist is one of the only working classroom teachers in the Legislature, and he’s used that rare vantage point to become one of Olympia’s most persistent advocates for public education. He chairs the Early Learning and Human Services Committee, and after more than a decade representing the 11th District, he’s built a record of delivering for students and working families instead of just talking about them.

His record is concrete. He fought to increase special education funding, expanded school meal and summer nutrition programs so fewer kids go hungry, and raised the local levy cap to help districts keep essential services running. He championed the Tukwila and Renton Promise programs, which send local graduates to community college for free, and wrote legislation aligning them with the Washington State Opportunity Scholarship to widen access. Enrollment in Tukwila’s program more than tripled in its first year, and he’s now working to build a Kent Promise Program on the same model.

A fourth-generation resident of the district who still teaches history at Renton’s Lindbergh High School, Bergquist ran a small business before he got to Olympia and knows what it takes to make a budget work for real people. He coaches tennis and golf, co-founded a nonprofit to support students outside the classroom, and once raised more than $100,000 to save the district’s golf programs when the funding disappeared. He’s a practical, effective Democrat who keeps students at the center of the state budget, and he’s earned another term in the 11th.