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. 

Rep. Sharon Tomiko Santos learned the work of justice long before she ran for office. Her mother and grandparents were among the Japanese American families forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated during World War II, and she grew up watching elders, organizers, churches, and small business owners rebuild neighborhoods piece by piece. As a student at Franklin High School, she organized youth participation in Seattle’s first Day of Remembrance and led classmates in a caravan from Seattle to Puyallup, retracing the route Japanese American families were forced to travel before mass incarceration in 1942. She carried that commitment to The Evergreen State College and Northeastern University, where she earned a master’s degree in public policy and community-centered public service.

Santos first won election to the House in 1998, becoming the first Japanese American woman elected to a mainland state legislature and, over nearly three decades in office, the longest-serving legislator of color in Washington history. She chairs the House Education Committee and serves on the Finance and Consumer Protection and Business Committee’s. She has built institutions well beyond Olympia, helping found organizations including Hate Free Zone of Washington, OneAmerica, public radio station KUOW, and the Washington Tax Fairness Coalition.

Santos anchors her legislative work in the conviction that Washington must deliver excellence and opportunity to each and every student, and she presses the state to strengthen its educator workforce, close opportunity gaps, and repair long-neglected pieces of basic education funding such as transportation and special education. Her priorities span civil rights, women’s rights, economic and environmental justice, and affordable housing, and she has worked to convert vacant hotels and commercial buildings into homes and to shield longtime residents from displacement in neighborhoods facing rising costs. She frames her current campaign around defending the communities that define the 37th at a moment of federal hostility, arguing that security means more than the absence of violence and that the state must hold firm to its values in how it spends and governs.

Endorsements include Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins, Rep. Chipalo Street, former Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, Seattle City Councilmembers Joy Hollingsworth and Debora Juarez, Port of Seattle Commissioner Toshiko Hasegawa, the 37th District Democrats, the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, AFSCME Council 28 (WFSE), the ILWU Washington District Council, SPEEA (IFPTE Local 2001), the Washington State Nurses Association, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility Victory Fund, and the Children’s Campaign Fund.

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.

Sen. Vandana Slatter brings a scientist’s rigor and a clinician’s perspective to public service. She immigrated from Canada in 1988 and became a naturalized U.S. citizen. She earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia, where she captained the women’s varsity fencing team and won gold at the BC Junior Women’s foil championships. She went on to earn a Doctor of Pharmacy and a Master of Public Administration from the University of Washington, interning for U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell along the way. A licensed pharmacist, she worked as an SEIU hospital pharmacist in Michigan and spent more than 20 years as a clinical scientist at leading biotech firms, including Amgen and Genentech. Gov. Christine Gregoire appointed her to the Washington State Board of Pharmacy in 2007. Bellevue voters elected her to the City Council in 2015, where she helped pass a $1.5 billion city budget and tackled affordable housing, public safety, transportation, and technology policy.

Appointed to the House in 2017, Slatter became the first Indian American elected to the Washington State House of Representatives. She chaired the House Postsecondary Education & Workforce Committee and co-chaired the Science, Innovation and Technology Caucus. Her record includes first-in-the-nation protections for the privacy of sensitive health and reproductive data, expanded postsecondary access for low-income students, creation of the Washington Health Corps to connect medical professionals with underserved communities, and statewide emissions targets aligned with climate science. She also championed legislation helping homeless youth access services, creating a tax exemption for low-income housing, and advancing regional electric and hybrid-electric aviation. Slatter serves on the boards of the Ruckelshaus Center, the UW Evans School Dean’s Advisory Council, and the Hopelink Foundation. She and her husband Greg, a research scientist, have lived in Northeast Bellevue since 2003.

Endorsements include Congresswoman Emily Randall, Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer, State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti, Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci, Senate Majority Floor Leader Marcus Riccelli, Sen. John Lovick, the King County Democrats, the Washington Federation of State Employees, SEIU 925, UFCW 3000, IAM District 751, UAW Region 6, UA Local 32, Washington Conservation Action, Sierra Club, 314 Action Fund, Washington Bikes, and the Washington Hospitality Association.

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.