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.