Adam Bernbaum came to Olympia to deliver for the Olympia Peninsula, and in just one term, he already has. He grew up in rural Washington, where his father’s job as a high school counselor gave the family stability. He earned a PhD in political science and worked as an organizer for Congressman Derek Kilmer and as a legislative aide before winning the seat.

In one term he passed five bills, most across the aisle. He worked with childcare providers on HB 1351 to open up empty childcare slots, with foresters and conservationists on HB 1563 to stabilize insurance for prescribed burns, and with the Grays Harbor Chamber of Commerce and the Environmental Priorities Coalition on HB 2426 to streamline business permitting. He also passed HB 2269 to make it easier to build housing in rural Washington and a bill letting families bury loved ones on their own property.

It’s a record of growing the economy without giving up the forests, rivers, and beaches that make the Peninsula what it is. He works hard and he takes the budget seriously, and he’s earned another term.

Endorsements include the Washington Education Association, the Washington State Labor Council, AFT Washington, and Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates.

Adison Richards grew up on the Kitsap Peninsula, graduated from Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor where his mother taught, and worked his father’s landscaping business before college. As a nonprofit attorney, he served survivors of domestic violence and human trafficking at the Northwest Justice Project, then practiced housing law at Kitsap Legal Services — work with families struggling to keep up with rent and mortgages that directly shaped his focus on affordability and public safety. He won the 26th District seat in 2024 after falling just 756 votes short in 2022, one of the closest legislative races in the state.

That firsthand experience drives a record built around cost of living, housing, and making government work at the local level. As Vice Chair of the House Housing Committee — and a member of the Agriculture & Natural Resources and Transportation committees — he has focused on bills with a direct nexus to his district, from streamlining state permitting to clearing derelict vessels from local waters. Public safety has been a priority since day one: he has fought to direct state dollars to county law enforcement and public defense, and crossed the aisle to work with Republican Sen. Nikki Torres to fund more public defenders. He backs affordable housing and homelessness solutions, environmental protection, public education, and reproductive freedom — while choosing bipartisan results over party-line fights.

Richards treats the job as a two-year contract up for review: a legislator who shows up, listens, and ties his work to what constituents are actually asking for. Rooted in the community he grew up in and pragmatic about serving a genuine swing district, he has earned another term in the 26th.

Endorsements include U.S. Rep. Emily Randall, Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello, Kitsap County Prosecutor Chad Enright, Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler, Gig Harbor Mayor Mary Barber, Port Orchard Mayor Rob Putaansuu, the 26th District and Kitsap County Democrats, AFT Washington, the Washington Council of Police & Sheriffs (WACOPS), and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility.

Alicia Rule is a social worker, mental health professional, and small-business owner whose family has called Whatcom County home for five generations, going back to a Dutch family farm in Sumas. She’s an experienced professional community therapist, and she’s brought that frontline experience to Olympia since 2021.

This year Governor Ferguson signed her bill, HB 1287, to speed up the state’s response to mental-health crises. She’s built bipartisan coalitions on healthcare, including a measure to stop insurers from shortchanging anesthesia coverage, and she’s worked to bring down the cost of childbirth. She’s reduced taxes on small businesses, expanded housing working families can afford, secured disaster-recovery money after the 2021 Nooksack floods, and sponsored legislation for kids experiencing homelessness, more school nurses and counselors, and her Outdoor School for All program.

Running a mental-health practice while she serves, Rule knows firsthand what working families are up against. She’s practical, she listens, and her roots in this community run five generations deep.

Endorsements include the Washington State Nurses Association, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, Moms Demand Action, the National Women’s Political Caucus, the Washington Council of Police & Sheriffs, and Whatcom County Sheriff Donnell “Tank” Tanksley.

Amy Walen is the rare legislator who pairs Democratic priorities with the skill to actually pass them, and she’s built the broad support to show for it. She chairs the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee, and her backers run from former Governor Christine Gregoire and Congressman Adam Smith to mayors and councilmembers across the Eastside.

Her record is concrete. When the Trump administration threatened Washington’s immigrant families, she co-sponsored the Keep Washington Working Act and wrote the law letting Dreamers earn professional licenses here. She wrote HB 1757 to turn empty commercial buildings into housing, took on the predatory collectors who chase families for debt they no longer owe, and has fought for affordable childcare, paid family leave, and tax relief for working families. 

A former Kirkland mayor who ran a company before she got to Olympia, Walen knows how to balance a budget without losing sight of who it’s for. We were glad to back her last cycle, and the case has only gotten stronger. She’s an effective, pragmatic Democrat who delivers, and she’s earned another term in the 48th.

Endorsements include former Governor Christine Gregoire, Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck, Congressman Adam Smith, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility Victory Fund, Moms Demand Action, the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington, FairVote Washington, the Children’s Campaign Fund, Democrats for Diversity & Inclusion, and IUPAT DC5. 

Chipalo Street came up through code, not the party ladder. A Brown-trained computer scientist, he helped launch Azure IoT Edge at Microsoft and earned four patents before turning to public service. He co-founded a program teaching computer science to South Seattle kids who lacked access and ran a small rental business built on partnership with tenants—keeping every one of them housed through the pandemic, even after nearly a third lost work.

In Olympia, he has trained an engineer’s eye on the cost of living and the systems behind it. He sponsored the nation’s most effective battery recycling program and co-sponsored the My Data My Health bill to shield patients’ health data. He voted for Washington’s assault weapons ban, the Missing Middle Housing bill that ended exclusionary zoning near transit, and the largest-ever investment in the state Housing Trust Fund, all while holding a 100 percent labor voting record and steering tens of millions in capital dollars back to 37th District projects.

A former international soccer referee who once struck alongside his union for fair pay, Street brings those same standards to the Capitol. Having lost friends and neighbors to gun violence, he carries a personal urgency for safer communities. Now he’s running for the 37th’s open state Senate seat to keep the work going.

Endorsements include state Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos, House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, Attorney General Nick Brown, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, the Washington State Labor Council, SEIU 775, UFCW 3000, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility.

Clyde Shavers built a life around service long before he ever considered public office. A Washington native, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and spent eight years in the U.S. Navy, deploying to the Middle East with U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. 5th Fleet and to Southeast Asia with Destroyer Squadron 7. Watching his country fracture into bitter partisanship while he served overseas, he resolved to keep serving in a different capacity. He used the GI Bill to attend Yale Law School, where he studied environmental law with the Natural Resources Defense Council and founded the Yale Coalition to End Homelessness, then came home to serve on the boards of Skagit’s Friendship House, South Whidbey’s Goosefoot, and the Whidbey Veteran Resources Center.

First elected in 2022, he has sponsored legislation to expand the state’s Veterans Service Officer program, position Washington as a national leader in fusion energy, build maritime career-training pathways for high school students, and smooth school transfers for military children through the Purple Star program. He has also steered millions of dollars to projects across the district, from childcare on Camano Island and workforce housing in Coupeville to flood mitigation in Stanwood and affordable housing for people with disabilities in Arlington.

With nearly a decade of service to his country and years more to his state, Shavers pairs a veteran’s discipline with a deep instinct to help others. He is running for re-election in 2026 on a promise to keep lowering everyday costs, defend reproductive freedom, protect the environment, and champion veterans and military families throughout the 10th District.

Endorsements include the Washington State Labor Council, the Washington Education Association, the Washington State Nurses Association, Teamsters 117, AFSCME Council 28/WFSE, the Washington State Building and Construction Trades Council, the ILWU, Washington Conservation Action, FairVote Washington, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, and Washington Stonewall Democrats.

Dan Bronoske has spent his entire life in Pierce County, and his career reads like a résumé built for public service. He served six years in the Washington Army National Guard and spent 23 years as a firefighter before voters sent him to Olympia in 2020 to represent the 28th Legislative District. He holds a bachelor’s degree from Eastern Oregon University and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington. He has lived in the district his whole adult life — in Fircrest, Steilacoom, and now Lakewood, where he lives with his spouse and their dog.

In the House, Bronoske has built a record around the practical concerns that shape everyday life in South Pierce County. He chairs the House Health Care & Wellness Committee, where he has worked to expand access and drive down costs, championing the state’s cap on insulin at $35 for a 30-day supply and pushing to steer patients toward appropriate primary care rather than the emergency room. He has pressed to make housing more attainable by streamlining permitting and allowing a wider range of housing types, worked to improve childcare affordability and wages for childcare workers, and approached public safety through the eyes of a first responder, backing investments in officer training while pairing them with substance-use and mental health resources and a commitment to accountability. His broader agenda has centered on stronger schools, better-paying jobs, lower healthcare costs, and support for seniors and the most vulnerable.

What ties it together is a straightforward, service-first ethos rooted in decades spent answering calls and showing up for his neighbors. Bronoske frames his work in Olympia as an extension of the same job he held as a firefighter, supporting the community at every level and being there when people need help. Now seeking re-election, he continues to run on that record of steady, results-oriented work for the district he has called home his entire life.

Endorsements include U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck, Congressman Derek Kilmer, Congresswoman Marilyn Strickland, House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, Rep. Mari Leavitt, Sen. T’wina Nobles, and firefighter unions across the state

Daria Ilgen’s mother’s family fled Iran during the revolution and rebuilt their lives in America, and that story of starting over runs through everything he does. He spent nearly twenty years building global partnerships and helping large organizations solve complex problems, then made a different choice: when his wife launched a small business, he stepped back from his career to raise their two kids in Poulsbo as a full-time dad, tending the family’s small farm between school drop-offs and barn chores.

That’s the vantage point he brings to this race. Ilgen knows the squeeze on Kitsap families firsthand, from childcare and healthcare to ferries and housing, because he’s been living it. He serves on the board of the Kitsap Economic Development Alliance, holds elected leadership roles in the local and state Democratic Party, and was one of just ten members statewide chosen to help redraft the party’s 2026 platform.

Ilgen isn’t a career politician, and that’s the point. He’s practical, steady, and focused on making everyday life more livable for working families. He’s the right choice for Position 1 in the 23rd.

Endorsements include Washingtonians for a Brighter Future, Washington Council of Police & Sheriffs, former State Senator Phil Rockefeller, Poulsbo Mayor Ed Stern, Poulsbo City Councilmembers Doug Newell and Doug Taber, former Kitsap County Sheriff Gary Simpson, and Jefferson County Prosecuting Attorney James Kennedy. 

Dave Paul built his career around the belief that a good education changes the arc of a person’s life. He earned degrees from Seattle University, Miami University in Ohio, and the University of Illinois, then spent more than a decade at Skagit Valley College, ending as vice president of institutional planning, work that put him alongside veterans, first-generation students, and DREAMers trying to finish school and find jobs that pay the bills. That experience shaped a focus on affordability, workforce training, and opportunity that he carried into office in 2018.

As Chair of the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee, and a member of the Transportation and Technology, Economic Development and Veterans committees, he created a summer Running Start program for tuition-free community college, passed landmark legislation to clear derelict boats from local waters, and secured historic ferry investments through Move Ahead WA, including $1.3 billion for three new hybrid-electric vessels — a lifeline for Island County commuters. With Naval Air Station Whidbey anchoring the district, he has made veterans a priority, delivering in-state tuition and full retirement benefits for service members and their families, and he has steered more than $200 million into community reinvestment and law enforcement training.

Paul treats the job the way voters in a purple-leaning district expect: pragmatic, collaborative, and measured by whether the services people rely on — ferries, schools, and safe communities — actually work. Rooted in Northwest Washington and focused on results over party-line fights, he has earned another term in the 10th.

Endorsements include the Washington State Labor Council, Machinists District 751, Teamsters 117, SEIU 775 and Local 925, the Washington Federation of State Employees, the Washington State PTA, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates of Washington, FairVote Washington, Washington Conservation Action, the Sierra Club, and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility.

David Hackney has represented the 11th District since 2020, and he brought an unusually deep résumé to Olympia. He tried more than 25 felony cases as a federal prosecutor, trained prosecutors and judges in Kosovo, and served with the United Nations in The Hague on a team that convicted a detention-camp commander of crimes against humanity. He later became lead employment attorney for The Nature Conservancy, and he holds a law degree and a master’s in public administration from Harvard.

That background shows up in a record built on results and reaching across the aisle. As Vice Chair of the House Consumer Protection and Business Committee, he has led on consumer bills to modernize pawnbroker lending for low-income borrowers and curb predatory insurance-claim practices, and he authored a state False Claims Act to recover taxpayer dollars lost to fraud. He co-chairs the bipartisan Public Safety Caucus, where he’s worked to protect kids from fentanyl exposure and reform juvenile sentencing around brain-development science, and co-founded the Hydrogen Caucus alongside Republican Rep. Peter Abbarno to grow the state’s clean-energy economy.

Hackney takes the work of making government function seriously, from rooting out fraud to protecting consumers, and he builds the coalitions to get it done. He’s a pragmatic, effective legislator who has earned another term in the 11th.

Endorsements include Governor Bob Ferguson, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, Attorney General Nick Brown, Speaker Laurie Jinkins, former Governor Chris Gregoire, The Seattle Times, the Washington State Labor Council, UFCW 3000, the Washington State Nurses Association, and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility Victory Fund.

Deb Krishnadasan came up through the schools, not the party ladder. A PTA volunteer who became a Peninsula School District board member and president, she led the community campaign that finally delivered six new schools after decades of failed attempts. Appointed to the Senate in 2024, she won a full-fledged battle for the seat last November, prevailing in the closest legislative race in Washington against a six-term Republican.

In Olympia she has been laser-focused on lowering costs. Her bill expanding the property tax relief program, signed this spring, extends help to tens of thousands of seniors, people with disabilities, and disabled veterans so they can stay in their homes. She voted to establish energy-bill assistance for low-income families, proposed the first sales tax cut in Washington in over 40 years, and voted against the gas tax hike. Every bill she has passed drew support from both parties.

The 26th is a true swing district, and it rewards exactly what Krishnadasan delivers: independence, pragmatism, and results. She’s earned a full term.

Endorsements include the Washington State Labor Council, the Association of Washington Business, the Washington Education Association, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, SEIU 775, UFCW 3000, the Sierra Club, and the Washington Food Industry Association.

Greg Nance grew up in Kitsap, the son of a social worker and a public defender, and worked as a landscaper, house painter, and firewood splitter to make ends meet. He earned scholarships to the University of Chicago and Cambridge, then spent fifteen years building nonprofits, including Moneythink, which President Obama recognized at the White House as a “Champion of Change.” Drawing on his own recovery from addiction, he founded the Run Far Foundation to help young people facing mental-health and substance-abuse struggles, once running 3,156 miles across the country to make the point.

In Olympia, Nance has made the ferries his signature fight. He helps lead the Maritime Caucus and helped secure $895 million this session for new vessels, better reliability, and a mariner workforce pipeline, a lifeline issue for a district that rides the boats to work. He’s also focused on youth mental health, more affordable childcare, and support for small businesses, and the Children’s Campaign Fund named him Freshman Legislator of the Year.

Nance shows up: for the district, for Kitsap kids, and for the unglamorous work of making the system function. He’s earned another term in the 23rd.

Endorsements include Governor Bob Ferguson, Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck, State Superintendent Chris Reykdal, Attorney General Nick Brown, Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove, State Senator Drew Hansen, Speaker Laurie Jinkins, and former opponent Dr. John Gibbons.

Jake Fey has represented the 27th District since 2013, and he came to Olympia after a long career built around energy, transit, and public service. He directed Washington State University’s alternative-energy and energy-efficiency program for nearly two decades, served on the Sound Transit and Pierce Transit boards and the Pierce County public health board, and chaired clean-air efforts at the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency. Before the Legislature, he served on the Tacoma City Council and as the city’s Deputy Mayor.

That background shows up in a record defined by big, durable investments. As Chair of the House Transportation Committee, he led negotiations to pass Move Ahead Washington in 2022, a historic 16-year, $16 billion package pairing infrastructure preservation with record funding for transit, hybrid-electric ferries, and active transportation like walking and biking. He drove the earlier Connecting Washington package that brought light rail to Tacoma, sponsored groundbreaking climate and clean-energy laws targeting greenhouse gas emissions and holding oil-spill polluters accountable, and wrote the Homeless Student Stability and Opportunity Gap Act to support students without stable housing. He has also championed prison-to-postsecondary education pathways to cut recidivism and measures to expand affordable childcare for working families.

Fey takes the long view on the work of governing, making decisions today that shape what gets left to the next generation, and he has spent his career mentoring young people through the Boys and Girls Club, First Place for Children, and Big Brothers Big Sisters. He’s a steady, results-driven legislator who has earned another term in the 27th.

Endorsements include House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards, the Washington State Labor Council, Washington Conservation Action, the Washington Education Association PAC, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, Transportation for Washington, UFCW 3000, and the Washington State Nurses Association.

Jesse Salomon gets results, and the 32nd can’t afford to lose him. A former King County public defender and seven-year Shoreline City Council member, he’s spent two terms in the Senate writing bills that actually become law, including a gun-safety measure protecting domestic violence survivors that drew support from both parties. As chair of the Senate Local Government Committee, he closed special-interest tax loopholes to make the system fairer, delivered major new money for public schools and special education, protected renters from runaway rent hikes, and cut red tape to build more housing near transit.

This year he faces a primary challenge from his own side of the aisle, with critics criticizing him as too moderate. The record tells a different story: a lawmaker who reads the fine print, weighs every concern, and cares more about fixing the problem than scoring points. He calls himself a “pragmatic progressive,” and Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen and colleagues across the caucus are standing with him.

In a safe-blue district, the real choice is who can actually get things done. That’s Jesse Salomon, and the 32nd would be smart to keep him.

Endorsements include The Seattle Times, Congressman Adam Smith, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility Victory Fund, the Washington State Nurses Association, the Children’s Campaign Fund, the Boeing Machinists (Local 751), UFCW 3000, SEIU Local 925, and the Washington State Building & Construction Trades. 

Chanjolee “Joe” Bushnell is Tacoma’s Deputy Mayor, running for the House in the 29th Legislative District. A lifelong Tacoman and Marine Corps combat veteran, he was elected to the city council in 2021 as Washington State’s first Cambodian-American councilmember and was chosen by his colleagues to serve as Deputy Mayor for 2026.

His record is grounded in local governance and community service. A longtime small-business advocate, he worked on behalf of local businesses through the Washington Hospitality Association in Pierce County and served as a Travel Tacoma board member and on the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department Food Advisory Board. Before his council tenure, he chaired the South Tacoma Neighborhood Council and volunteered with neighborhood cleanups, tree-planting projects, and Toys for Tots. His legislative platform centers on three priorities: affordability for working families squeezed by rising costs, universal healthcare so no family loses coverage based on employer or income, and better-resourced community safety through mental health and addiction treatment.

Bushnell casts himself as a servant leader who believes the highest-impact change happens at the local level and wants to carry that bottom-up orientation to Olympia. He’s a pragmatic local official with a commanding electoral base in his district and a coalition that stretches across the Democratic establishment, labor, and business.

Endorsements include Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, State Auditor Pat McCarthy, Tacoma Mayor Anders Ibsen, former Mayor Victoria Woodards, State Representatives Jake Fey and Dan Bronoske, a near-complete slate of current and former Tacoma councilmembers, the Tacoma firefighters (IAFF Local 31) and police (IUPA Local 6), Teamsters Local 117, the Tacoma-Pierce County Association of Realtors, VoteVets, and New Politics.

Joe Timmons is a proud Western grad who worked in Governor Inslee’s office before running for the seat. In his first term he passed a lot of bills, most with bipartisan support — a clear sign of an effective legislator — and now serves as vice chair of the House Transportation Committee and as an Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore. 

His record is built on practical, local wins. He passed laws to make meals more affordable for seniors in assisted living and to create an emergency medical reserve corps, and made sure high school seniors could still receive their diplomas under difficult circumstances. This year he got a bipartisan bill through both chambers unanimously to keep dangerous nitrous-oxide products away from kids, won new authority for Whatcom County’s Lummi Island Ferry, and extended collective-bargaining rights to student workers at Western.

Timmons has also brought real money home, including millions for flood recovery after the 2021 Nooksack disaster and funding for housing, behavioral health, and childcare. He listens first and works for everybody, party label aside.

Endorsements include Governor Bob Ferguson, former Governor Jay Inslee, Congressman Rick Larsen, Attorney General Nick Brown, 42nd District Senator Sharon Shewmake and Representative Alicia Rule, Lummi Nation Chairman Anthony Hillaire, Whatcom County Sheriff Donnell “Tank” Tanksley, the Washington Education Association, and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility.

Few Washington lawmakers can match the breadth of John Lovick’s record in public service. Born in Shreveport, Louisiana, and a Snohomish County resident for 49 years, Lovick built a career in uniform long before he built one in the Legislature. He served 13 years in the U.S. Coast Guard, including patrols off the coast of Alaska, before joining the Washington State Patrol, where he earned Trooper of the Year honors in 1992. He went on to serve as Snohomish County Sheriff and, from 2013 to 2015, as Snohomish County Executive. A former Mill Creek City Council member, he has represented the 44th District in Olympia across two chambers, joining the state Senate in December 2021 to fill the vacancy left when Steve Hobbs became Secretary of State.

That law enforcement background shapes a legislative record built on public safety and results. During his years in the House, Lovick sponsored the Primary Seat Belt Law, which drove seat belt use in Washington from 81 to 97 percent, and authored the legislation creating the Auto Theft Prevention Authority to combat car theft statewide. In the Senate, he has passed measures granting restitution to families harmed by racially restrictive covenant homeownership programs, established new accountability standards for the state’s elected sheriffs, and voted to enact Washington’s tax on the ultra-wealthy. His campaign priorities carry the same throughline: safer roads and communities, expanded public transit through Sound Transit and Swift service, strong and accessible schools, and holding down the cost of living so working families aren’t priced out of the state.

What comes through most in Lovick’s approach is a temperament increasingly rare in politics, one that values relationships, listening, and integrity over noise. He still volunteers regularly at the elementary school his children attended, and he’s known across Snohomish County for cooking his famous deep-fried turkeys at charity events. Married to Karen, a retired schoolteacher, Lovick offers voters a candidacy grounded in more than four decades of showing up for his community, and he asks for their trust to keep doing the work.

Endorsements include Senators June Robinson, Jamie Pedersen, Jesse Salomon, Javier Valdez, Claudia Kauffman, Claire Wilson, Sharon Shewmake, and T’wina Nobles, his 44th District colleagues Reps. Brandy Donaghy and April Berg, Everett Mayor Cassie Franklin, Snohomish County Sheriff Susanna Johnson, County Councilmember Jared Mead, and County Treasurer Brian Sullivan, the Washington State Labor Council, UFCW 3000, WFSE, the Washington State Nurses Association, the Washington State PTA, and Snohomish County Indivisible.

Kaylee Kuehn’s family has lived in the 24th for four generations, and she grew up in Sequim. A former teacher of high school math, history, and government, she went on to work inside the legislature, where she learned what it actually takes to move a bill from idea to law.

Her campaign is about affordability, plain and simple: the cost of housing, utilities, groceries, and childcare, alongside fully funding public schools and shoring up the rural infrastructure the Peninsula depends on. She’s blunt about the squeeze working families feel, doing everything right and still watching the basics drift out of reach.

In a crowded field, Kuehn stands out as the practical, common-sense choice. She talks about listening across divides and finding shared ground at a time when that’s rare, and she keeps the focus on what working families actually need: lower costs, good local jobs, healthcare, and well-funded schools that work.

As a young mom and a former teacher, Kuehn isn’t describing someone else’s problems. She’d bring a working family’s perspective and a results-first approach to a seat that needs both. Kaylee Kuehn is the right choice for the 24th.

Endorsements include State Superintendent Chris Reykdal, the Washington State Labor Council, the Washington Education Association, AFSCME Council 28, the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, Moms Demand Action, Washington Stonewall Democrats, and FairVote Washington. 

Kristine Reeves knows firsthand what public investment in people can accomplish, because it rebuilt her own life. Raised in Moses Lake by a single mother who struggled with addiction, she moved in and out of foster care and experienced homelessness as a child, leaning on Head Start, food stamps, and the public educators who saw her potential. She became the first in her family to graduate from college, earning a bachelor’s in political science from Washington State University and a master’s in organizational leadership from Gonzaga. She built a career in public service before ever running for office, advising international students at higher-education institutions, directing regional and veterans’ work for U.S. Senator Patty Murray, and spending more than six years at the Washington Department of Commerce as Director of the Military and Defense Sector, where she secured millions in federal grants and helped hundreds of small defense-sector businesses weather Pentagon downsizing.

Reeves first won her Federal Way seat in 2016, becoming the first African American woman elected to the Washington House in eighteen years, then stepped away in 2019 to run for Congress before reclaiming the 30th District seat in 2022. Now in her third term, she chairs the House Agriculture & Natural Resources Committee, serves on the House Education Committee, and has led the Legislative Black Caucus. Over her tenure, she has helped advance some of the state’s signature policies: the nation’s paid family and medical leave program, the country’s first long-term care benefit to help seniors age at home, the Career Connect apprenticeship initiative linking students to on-the-job training, expanded childcare access for working families, and the state’s early environmental justice work. As chair, she has pushed bipartisan solutions on food security, water and soil health, and rural resilience while carrying her classroom-first focus into education policy.

What ties her record together is a conviction rooted in her own story: that strong schools, economic stability, and a livable environment shouldn’t depend on the circumstances a child is born into. She campaigns on an open door, an open mind, and a proven record of results, and she governs like someone who remembers exactly what it takes to break a cycle of poverty—and refuses to pull the ladder up behind her.

*Endorsements include the Washington State Labor Council, SEIU, UFCW 3000, Teamsters 117, AFSCME, the Washington State Nurses Association, the King County and 30th District Democrats, Hilary Franz, Mike Pellicciotti, Dave Upthegrove, and Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus, and editorial endorsements from The Seattle Times and The Stranger.

*2024 Election Cycle

Lauren Davis has a real knack for solving hard problems. Before she ever held office, she was the citizen co-sponsor behind 2016’s Ricky’s Law, which built the state’s first crisis-treatment system for people with life-threatening addiction. She helped found Forefront Suicide Prevention, worked at the Gates Foundation, and was a Fulbright fellow in Ghana before bringing that expertise to Olympia.

In the legislature she helped launch Washington’s 988 crisis line and created the Recovery Navigator program, steering serious money into behavioral health. This year she passed legislation supporting children and youth behavioral health on a 94-to-0 vote, and after a man died in the Lynnwood jail, she used her local relationships to replace jail beds with a behavioral-health crisis center.

Davis builds bipartisan support for her bills and digs into the details of state contracts to make programs actually work. She’s tireless, and she knows this work cold. The 32nd should send her back.

Endorsements include The Seattle Times, The Everett Herald, the Washington Education Association, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, the Children’s Campaign Fund, Planned Parenthood Votes, NARAL Pro-Choice Washington, EMILY’s List, and the 32nd District Democrats.

Mari Leavitt was raised in a military family and built a career in education and human services before running for office, working as a postsecondary administrator at Pierce College, Tacoma Community College, Evergreen State College, and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges, and later as Deputy Director of Pierce County Human Services, where she helped run programs spanning affordable housing, homelessness, aging and long-term care, behavioral health, early learning, and job training. A longtime University Place resident of more than three decades, she holds a doctorate in community college leadership from Oregon State University and co-owns a local orthodontics practice with her husband, with whom she raises several children, including two adopted from foster care.

In Olympia, Leavitt has channeled that background into a record built around housing, veterans, education, and public safety. She serves as Vice Chair of the House Housing Committee and sits on the Postsecondary Education and Workforce, Capital Budget, and Rules committees, and she Co-Chairs the Joint Committee on Military and Veterans Affairs, sponsoring legislation on pay equity for the National Guard, occupational licensing for veterans and military spouses, and support services for service members and their families. Her housing work has expanded affordable options and directed resources toward homelessness and survivors of trafficking, while her health-related bills have broadened access to behavioral health care, responded to the opioid crisis, and protected health workers from workplace violence.

What ties Leavitt’s work together is a practical, service-first approach rooted in the communities she has called home for more than thirty years. She frames her mission around economic security for working families, accessible healthcare, safe housing, quality public education from early learning through apprenticeship, and thriving small businesses, and her national roles through the Council of State Governments and the National Conference of State Legislatures reflect a legislator increasingly sought out for her expertise. For voters across Lakewood, University Place, Fircrest, DuPont, Steilacoom, and the Joint Base Lewis-McChord community, she offers the steady, detail-oriented advocacy of someone who has spent her career helping families navigate the systems she now helps write.

Endorsements include Gov. Bob Ferguson, Lt. Gov. Denny Heck, Attorney General Nick Brown, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti, Superintendent Chris Reykdal, Auditor Pat McCarthy, Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer, Reps. Adam Smith and Marilyn Strickland, Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello, Planned Parenthood of Washington, the Washington Education Association, the Washington State Labor Council, the Washington State Nurses Association, and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility.

Marko Liias is a lifelong Washingtonian, born and raised in the same Snohomish County neighborhoods he now represents in the state Senate. The first in his family to attend college, he earned a bachelor’s degree from Georgetown University, a master’s from the University of Washington, and completed an executive program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government before returning home to build a life in public service. He managed a small family-owned construction business, taught as associate faculty at Everett Community College, and won a seat on the Mukilteo City Council in 2006. Two years later, he was appointed to the state House of Representatives, launching a legislative career that has now spanned nearly two decades.

Appointed to the Senate in 2014 and re-elected by widening margins ever since, Liias chairs the Senate Transportation Committee, where he authored the landmark 2022 Move Ahead Washington package—a nearly $17 billion, 16-year investment in the state’s roads, bridges, and transit. He returned to that work in 2026, negotiating a bipartisan supplemental transportation budget with Republican Senator Curtis King that steered $1.5 billion toward preservation and maintenance without raising taxes. As co-chair of the LGBTQ Caucus and one of Washington’s first openly gay legislators, Liias has been a leading voice for equality, championing the 2021 Gender Affirming Care Act, the state’s ban on conversion therapy, and protections for transgender students. He has fought to make college more affordable through the Student Loan Bill of Rights, defended the Climate Commitment Act, and built a record recognized with a 100% environmental voting score.

What ties Liias’s record together is a conviction that government should work for everyone—the commuter stuck in traffic, the student buried in debt, the family that just wants to be treated with dignity. Pragmatic enough to cut deals across the aisle and principled enough to lead on the issues others avoid, he brings a rare combination of ambition and follow-through to Olympia. For the people of the 21st District, that has meant a senator who shows up, delivers, and keeps his promises.

Endorsements include the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, District Lodge 751.

Melanie Morgan has spent her life turning hard-won personal experience into a fight for the communities Olympia too often overlooks. Born in London and raised in international postings before serving in the United States Army, she settled in Pierce County and earned a psychology degree from St. Martin’s University in Lacey. She built a career in housing as a mortgage banker, a safe housing coordinator, and a commissioner on the Pierce County Housing Authority board, having herself experienced homelessness and learned firsthand how narrow the margin between stability and crisis can be. Before winning her House seat in 2018, she served on the Franklin Pierce School Board, where she pressed her colleagues to weigh how every policy would land on families and the wider community.

In the House, Morgan has paired big-picture equity work with concrete wins for working families. She championed Washington’s CROWN Act, banning discrimination based on natural hair, and she led the Legislature in establishing Juneteenth as a state paid holiday. Her signature achievement is the Community Reinvestment Account, a $200 million investment she spearheaded to confront the disproportionate harms of the War on Drugs through homeownership, small-business support, legal services, violence prevention, and reentry programs for the formerly incarcerated. She has advanced tenant protections, including a law letting renters pay move-in fees in installments, fought for equity and diversity in farming and ranching, and even carried the beloved bill, brought to her by fourth-graders in her district, that made the Suciasaurus rex Washington’s official state dinosaur.

What defines Morgan is a conviction that leadership means showing up, listening, and delivering, especially for people who are usually left out of the conversation. A domestic violence and sexual assault advocate and a housing champion since 1997, she treats government not as a distant institution but as a tool for lifting up her neighbors, from students and veterans to renters and small-business owners. She is running for reelection in 2026 on a record of results and a promise to keep building a Washington that is more equitable, more affordable, and more accountable to the communities it serves.

Endorsements include Gov. Bob Ferguson, Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, Sen. T’wina Nobles, Rep. Dan Bronoske, and Franklin Pierce Schools Board Director Alex Davis, AFT Washington, the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington, the ILWU, and Washington Conservation Action.

Michael Shepard has a track record of getting big things built. Across three terms as a Port of Bellingham commissioner, elected countywide, he’s worked with cities, tribes, and local industry to grow the economy and bring in good jobs.

He brought the Bellingham Shipping Terminal back to life, landed nearly $20 million in federal money for rail access, and got the stalled Waterfront District moving again, including the Millworks affordable-housing project. He negotiated a landmark sovereignty agreement with the Lummi Nation Chairman and set the port on a path to net-zero emissions.

Shepard is running on the cost of living, affordable housing, schools, and local jobs, and he’s spent years teaching at Western. Retiring Senator Sharon Shewmake is backing him, along with County Executive Satpal Sidhu, Sheriff Donnell Tanksley, and Lummi Nation Chairman Tony Hillaire.

Endorsements also include former Governor Jay Inslee, Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, Deputy Majority Leader Manka Dhingra, State Senator Liz Lovelett, and 42nd District Representatives Alicia Rule and Joe Timmons.

Osman Salahuddin got to Olympia and went to work. Appointed to the seat in early 2025 and elected that November, he’s the youngest member of the Legislature and the only South Asian in the House. He grew up in Redmond, the son of immigrants. His mom’s a special-ed teacher and his dad runs a small business. He studied neurobiology at UW and worked as a researcher at Fred Hutch and UW Medicine before joining the Redmond City Council. Today he’s pursuing a law degree at UW while serving in the Legislature.

In short order he’s built a real record. He wrote bills to toughen sentencing for rape that results in pregnancy, to put trained clinicians on behavioral-health crisis calls, to let workers use sick leave for immigration hearings, and to give students a real vote on the board that runs the state’s community colleges.

Salahuddin is focused on the cost of housing, access to healthcare, and well-funded schools. We recommended him last cycle, and he’s more than justified that support. For a lawmaker barely two years in, he’s already shown he can move bills that matter, and he’s earned a full term of his own.

Endorsements include Governor Bob Ferguson, Congresswoman Suzan DelBene, the Washington State Building & Construction Trades Council, LiUNA Laborers Local 242, the Washington State Nurses Association, Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates, and One America Votes. 

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.

Tedd Wetherbee grew up in a large family with an immigrant mother from Nicaragua, raised speaking Spanish and learning early what hard work and resilience actually mean. He started his first small businesses in college, worked with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in his early twenties, and then spent a decade in Lagos, Nigeria, building infrastructure and energy projects, including power systems and solar lighting for underserved communities.

Back home, he built businesses in Washington State that today employ members of this community, and he knows firsthand the pressures on the people who work for him and shop with him. His focus is squarely on the cost of living: practical solutions that bring down everyday costs, help small businesses grow, and make commonsense budget decisions so families can build stable, secure lives here.

Wetherbee isn’t running to build a political career. He’s running to solve problems for the district that gave his family its start, and Position 2 in the 26th would be well served by that.

Endorsements include the 26th Legislative District Democrats, the Pierce County Democrats, Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello, Pierce County Councilmember Marty Campbell, the Environmental Coalition of Pierce County, and former Kitsap County Democrats Chair Hannie Baxter.

Zach Hall came to Olympia to deliver for the 5th District, and in his first session, he has proven his worth. He grew up in Issaquah, graduating from the local public schools before earning a biology degree and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington. He got his start running local campaigns and working as a legislative aide to Rep. Lisa Callan—now his seatmate—then spent six years on the Issaquah City Council, serving as deputy council president and chairing the Eastside Fire & Rescue board, before being appointed to the House in 2025.

In one session, he sponsored and passed two bipartisan bills to lower energy costs. He worked with utilities on HB 2296, a “pay-as-you-save” measure that lets them front the cost of heat pumps and other efficiency upgrades so families repay them gradually on their monthly bills, and passed HB 2575 to cut outdated reporting mandates and save ratepayers money. He protected the funding and timeline to widen State Route 18, put $1 million toward urgent safety fixes along the corridor, and he backed reforms to build housing faster, modernize the power grid, and speed up light rail.

It’s a record of managing growth without losing what makes the district home. He listens first, he takes the budget seriously, and he keeps his focus on what constituents raise most: traffic, housing, and the cost of living. He’s earned a full term.

Endorsements include State Sen. Victoria Hunt, Rep. Lisa Callan, House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, the Washington Education Association, WFSE, Teamsters 117, SEIU, and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility.