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.

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.

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.