21st Legislative District

Rep. Suzan DelBene is running for re-election in the 1st Congressional District. DelBene is a former executive at Microsoft who has used her technology background to become a leader in protecting privacy rights against government surveillance. She was first elected in 2012 and has been an advocate for creating family-wage jobs in industries like aerospace, sustainable agriculture, and clean energy as well as advocating for reproductive justice. She also supports raising the federal minimum wage and passing comprehensive tax reform to ensure that corporations and the wealthy pay their share. This year, DelBene urged the Trump administration to send Washingtonians resources and use science to combat the coronavirus crisis and has pushed for relief for workers and small businesses.

DelBene is running against Republicans Derek Chartrand and Jeffrey Beeler, Sr., Libertarian Steven Skelton, Robert Dean Mair, Matthew Heines, and Justin Smoak. Chartrand considers himself a "Compassionate Capitalist" and wants to cut costs but has no other ideas for generating revenue. Beeler is a conservative running on a platform of term limits for elected officials and pushing our state to re-open unsafely in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Skelton is a consultant who believes that Democrats and Republicans "agree on just about everything that matters" and is not qualified for Congress. Heines ran for state Senate in 2018 as a New Republican. Mair has no policy ideas available as of mid-July and Smoak is running to quickly re-open the state in light of the "sensationalism" of COVID.

Rep. DelBene is the clear choice in this race and deserves your vote for her re-election.

Rep. Rick Larsen is a moderate Democrat who has been a strong advocate for jobs, transportation, and infrastructure projects in the 2nd District. Before serving in Congress, he served on the Snohomish County Council and worked on economic development for the City of Everett.

In Congress, Larsen supported the Lower Drug Costs Now Act to give Medicare the power to negotiate directly with the drug companies and pass the lower drug prices to all Americans. He also voted for the Voting Rights Advancement Act, supported the coronavirus pandemic relief packages, and sought to reform student loans. Unfortunately, Larsen does not support a Green New Deal in its current form and has accepted political contributions from corporations including Exxon Mobil as recently as last year.

Also in this race are Democrat Jason Call, Republicans Timothy Hazelo, Kari Ilonummi, James Dean Golder, Carrie Kennedy, and Cody Hart, and Trump Republican Tim Uy. Hazelo's platform includes opening health insurance across state lines to help free up the "capitalist marketplace" and he uses racist language in his voter pamphlet statement about immigrants. Ilonummi is a perennial Republican candidate who has previously challenged Rep. Larsen as well as Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Kennedy has promoted far-right views including the movement for Eastern Washington to secede from the state and is not a serious candidate. Hart is running on a conservative platform of reducing taxes and believes America needs leaders who will "confront Chinese Aggression." Golder is running because he believes it is time to a more conservative approach to government. Uy's Trump Republican platform includes praise of Donald Trump, he is not a serious candidate.

The one progressive challenger to Larsen is Jason Call. He's running on a platform that includes Medicare for All, free college, ending student debt, a Green New Deal, and a housing guarantee to help end our housing insecurity crisis. He is endorsed by progressive groups including Sunrise Bellingham and Our Revolution, as well as some legislative districts and county Democratic organizations. While Call faces a very challenging race against a longtime incumbent, he provides an alternative for those looking for bolder progressive leadership than Larsen.

Larsen is a solid Democratic vote and has the support of all our progressive partner organizations who chose to endorse in this race.

Governor Jay Inslee has been a strong, principled leader on the important challenges facing Washington. Before he was elected as governor in 2012, Inslee represented both sides of the Cascades in Congress, opposed the Iraq war, and worked to increase accountability and oversight for Wall Street banks.

Inslee has established himself as a national leader on fighting climate change. He has invested more than $170 million into clean energy and energy efficiency projects, implemented the Clean Air Rule, and pushed for legislation that reduces pollution in Washington. In his 2020 bid for the presidency, Inslee brought a climate-centered focus to the race. Outside of his work on climate, Inslee has signed into law Washington's public option for health care, paid family leave, and the Equal Pay Opportunity Act.

Recently, Inslee has been a national leader in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic. His proactive, decisive, science-driven efforts have saved countless Washingtonians from getting sick. Unfortunately, we've seen the flip side recently where states with governors who were slow or failed to act have seen dramatic increases in cases.

Inslee is facing 35 opponents this year, the most prominent of which are Republicans Sen. Phil Fortunato, Tim Eyman, and Bothell Mayor Joshua Freed. Fortunato is a social conservative who has abandoned working families while in the office. In past legislative sessions, he voted against protections for LGBTQ school children and against expanding access to reproductive health care for women. Freed believes we should be less cautious about COVID-19 protections and rapidly re-open the state, a faulty strategy in the face of death and difficult recoveries even for previously healthy coronavirus patients.

Eyman is one of the worst candidates for governor the state has ever seen. Eyman's legal problems range from fraudulently diverting funds from his ill-conceived initiatives into his personal bank accounts to wide-ranging campaign finance violations to stealing a chair from Office Depot. He is the face behind many of Washington's most damaging initiatives, including the most recent disaster that has cut tens of billions of dollars from state transportation projects. Eyman has lately been doubling down on his cringeworthy antics by comparing Gov. Inslee's COVID policies to George Floyd's murder.

As the coronavirus crisis continues and the gap in the state budget persists, we need real, experienced leadership at the helm of the state. Inslee is the clear choice for governor.

Former port commissioner and progressive state Rep. Gael Tarleton is now running for Secretary of State, who serves as the state's chief elections officer, among other roles. First elected to the Legislature in 2012, Tarleton has been a strong advocate for environmental causes such as Governor Jay Inslee's initiative to reduce carbon pollution. She sponsored bills during her first term in the House to strengthen the maritime industry, improve access to health care, and ensure gender pay equity.

Tarleton is running for Secretary of State to expand access to voting in Washington while safeguarding our elections against attacks "foreign and domestic." She wants to improve digital security and increase funding for county auditors to safeguard local elections from hacking attempts in the wake of the 2016 election. She would also expand audits of the state and local systems to identify any weaknesses that could be exploited.

Tarleton is challenging incumbent Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman, who has faced a bumpy road during her time in office. Last year, Wyman's office released a new $9.5 million voter registration database that was riddled with errors and led to a backlog of tens of thousands of registrations. King County elections director Julie Wise described the release as "irresponsible" and "not even functioning." In addition, Wyman was slow to support the Washington Voting Rights Act, same-day voter registration, and postage-paid ballots, and she has failed to condemn the president's relentless attacks on voting by mail.

Also in this race are Independent Ed Minger and Progressive Party candidate Gentry Lange. Minger wants to prohibit candidates from running paid ads, which is blatantly unconstitutional, and Lange wants to end voting by mail in Washington, a particularly confounding position during a pandemic.

We need a progressive leader in the Secretary of State's office who is fully committed to protecting our elections and removing every barrier to participation in our democracy. Tarleton is the clear progressive choice in this race.

Mike Pellicciotti has served in the Washington state House representing the 30th Legislative District since 2016 and is now running for Treasurer. Pellicciotti has never accepted corporate campaign donations and has led efforts to make the Legislature's records open for public view. He also wrote the Corporate Crime Act, which increases financial penalties for corporate crimes by 100 times, and has successfully supported laws reducing property taxes.

Pellicciotti is challenging incumbent Republican Duane Davidson. In 2016, incumbent Jim McIntire retired, leaving the seat open. Because of the crowded primary, two Republicans made it through to the general election, giving them control of the Treasurer's office for the first time since 1957. Davidson previously served as the Benton County Treasurer from 2003 to 2016. In his term, he has been a traditional Republican and has referred to the state Legislature "raiding" the Rainy Day Fund. He has also only attended 3 of 18 critical pension meetings since fall 2017.

Pellicciotti has been a solid legislator and is the best choice in the race for Washington State Treasurer.

Washington Auditor Pat McCarthy has been a consistent advocate for government transparency and accountability during her first term in office. Previously, she served as Pierce County Executive and Pierce County Auditor, where she was honored as the 2006 Washington State Auditor of the Year.

Recently, McCarthy announced that her office has opened two independent audits of the Employment Security Department. The first will investigate the delay in unemployment benefits for hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians who lost their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The second audit will look into how criminals stole hundreds of millions of dollars through a sophisticated fraud scheme.

McCarthy is facing a challenge from Democrat Joshua Casey and Republican Chris Leyba. Casey is a CPA who wants to bring his financial expertise to the auditor's office. Leyba is a former police detective who currently runs an animal rescue on his farm. If elected, he would prioritize buying from Washington businesses and saving taxpayer dollars.

McCarthy's experience and commitment to oversight will be valuable as the state works to emerge from the pandemic and the recession. McCarthy is the best choice in this race.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson's accomplishments during his two terms in office are impressive. From delivering millions of dollars back to consumers who were wronged by fraudulent corporations and his ongoing battle with the federal government to clean up the Hanford nuclear waste site to successfully fighting two Tim Eyman initiatives, Ferguson has been a strong and effective advocate for people in Washington. He has sued the Trump administration 50 times as of October 2019 and won every completed case (22 by his own count). Some of Ferguson's biggest accomplishments from the past few years include protecting consumer medical data, protecting statewide water quality from Trump's erosive environmental policies, and fighting back against the Trump administration's child detention laws.

Ferguson is running against Republicans Brett Rogers, Mike Vaska, and Matt Larkin. Rogers states that with over 20 years of law enforcement experience, including time with the Seattle Police Department, he would be well-suited to research and set criminal justice policy. A member of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, Vaska's priorities include reducing regulations for business and streamlining the permitting process. Larkin states that he's running to prioritize "the homeless situation" that "no one is doing anything about," and promises to empower law enforcement while making Washington more business-friendly.

Ferguson is the clear progressive choice for Attorney General of Washington.

Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz has been a proactive force for protecting our communities from climate change. As the head of the Washington Department of Natural Resources, she has focused on wildfire management and climate action.

This year, Franz released a climate resilience plan for rural Washington that includes expanding wind and solar farms and massive reforestation. Given the statewide threat and impact of wildfires with recent record-setting fire seasons, she has also worked on a 20-year forest health plan and a 10-year fire protection plan.

Franz is running against six other candidates: Republicans Cameron Whitney, Steve Sharon, Maryam Abasbarzy, and Sue Kuehl Pederson, Democrat Frank Wallbrown, and Libertarian Kelsey Reyes. Wallbrown and Abasbarzy have no campaign details available. Pederson is the former chair of the Grays Harbor Republican Party and says she's running to bring new leadership to the office and to balance the state's economy and ecology. Reyes works in the restaurant industry and has no concrete campaign details or website available. Finally, Sharon is running to investigate the effects of 5G towers and Whitney is running to follow Trump's suggestion of raking forests to stop forest fires.

Franz has the experience we need to guide and protect our state from increasingly dangerous fire seasons to the rising threat of climate inaction. Vote Franz for Commissioner of Public Lands.

Chris Reykdal is running for re-election to the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction to continue his leadership of our state's public schools through this challenging time. Previously, Reykdal spent 14 years serving on local school boards and in leadership positions at community and technical colleges, as well as serving 6 years in the Legislature. In the state House, Reykdal had a strong progressive voting record and was a consistent champion for public schools.

In his first term as Superintendent, Reykdal has pushed the Legislature to fully fund K-12 education, increase teacher pay, and close the opportunity gap for students of color. More recently, Reykdal has worked closely with Gov. Inslee to help Washington's schools navigate the pandemic. He made the tough decision early to close schools for the year to keep kids and families safe and slow the spread of COVID-19. If re-elected, Reykdal will continue to advocate for these priorities and work with schools across the state as they make the transition back to in-person education.

Reykdal is facing a handful of opponents in this non-partisan race: conservative Ron Higgins, former Republican legislative candidate Maia Espinoza, Dennis Wick, Stan Lippman, and David Spring. Espinoza has garnered attention by publishing a false and inflammatory voters pamphlet statement attacking Reykdal. Lippman is a disbarred lawyer and anti-vaccination advocate, Spring doesn't think we should have closed schools during the pandemic, and Higgins wants to inject religious teachings into public education. Wick is a former member of the Snohomish School District Board of Directors who wants to modernize our school system.

Reykdal is the clear choice for Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler has spent his entire career serving the people of Washington. Prior to running for statewide office, Kreidler was a doctor of optometry, state legislator, and member of Congress.

As Insurance Commissioner, Kreidler has been a consistent advocate for consumers and patients in overseeing insurance companies in Washington. Kreidler set up one of the first and most effective Obamacare exchanges in the country, helping expand access to health care for hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians. More recently, Kreidler moved quickly to issue an emergency order requiring insurance companies to waive copays, coinsurance, and deductibles for COVID-19 testing and office visits. In addition, he forced insurance companies to allow consumers to access other health providers if they did not have an in-network option for testing.

Kreidler is running against Republican Chirayu Avinash Patel and Libertarian Anthony Welti. Patel wants to model the office of the insurance commissioner based on a hybrid of the Ronald Reagan and Thomas Jefferson administrations, though he gives few details on what this would mean. Welti is running on a vaguely anti-corruption platform and wants to allow insurance companies to offer cheaper plans with fewer protections for consumers.

Kreidler has earned your vote for re-election to the Office of the Insurance Commissioner.

Democratic Rep. Strom Peterson is running for re-election for the 21st Legislative District, House Position 1. Prior to running for Legislature, Peterson served on the Edmonds City Council for six years, where he proved to be a capable leader in Snohomish County.

Peterson had a hand in passing several important progressive bills in Olympia. In 2018, Peterson was the primary sponsor of the Secure Drug Medicine Back Act, an innovative program to limit the usage of unused and expired prescriptions present in Washington communities. In 2017, he was also a sponsor of Breakfast Before the Bell, a nutrition program for hungry students. If re-elected, Peterson states that he would continue to prioritize education, the environment, transportation, and more.

Peterson is running against Republican Brian Thompson and Democrat Gant Diede. Thompson runs a fire protection engineering consultancy. He is running to roll back the recently passed comprehensive sex-ed legislation and Gov. Jay Inslee's emergency coronavirus safety measures, stating that "we are all essential." Diede is a self-identified progressive running to strengthen labor, advocate for a Medicare For All type system at the state level, and create a Washington state version of the Green New Deal.

While Diede appears to have strong progressive values, he has not earned any endorsements from our Progressive Voters Guide partners and has not released a detailed policy agenda. Peterson is the best choice for House Position 1.

Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self is running for re-election to the 21st Legislative District, House Position 2. She is a counselor in the Everett School District, and an active member of the community, focusing on childhood education and strengthening health services through numerous community organizations.

Since joining the state House in 2009, Rep. Ortiz-Self has emerged as a progressive champion for improving the health and well-being of youth and families statewide. This year, Ortiz-Self was the prime sponsor on bills to increase student access to counselors and provide resources for homeless college students. Her bill to fund nonprofits in low-income communities passed this year as well. She has been a member of the state’s Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee for more than six years.

Ortiz-Self's opponents are Willie Russell and Amy Schaper. Though he has declared no party preference, Willie Russell is a former Democratic precinct committee officer. He doesn't have a campaign website or platform available, but he ran last year for Snohomish County Council on the desire to prioritize more short-term solutions to pressing problems and being a better listener than the incumbent. Amy Schaper is a far-right Republican who states that she is running to protect our borders, promote free-market solutions, and oppose civil rights like same-sex marriage.

During this time of economic and health crises, the 21st Legislative District needs a representative who has demonstrated care and knowledge in protecting the district's most vulnerable residents. Ortiz-Self is the clear choice in this race.

Jared Mead was appointed to the Snohomish County Council from District 4 in April to replace Terry Ryan, who stepped down. Prior to his appointment, Mead was elected to the state House in 2018 and also served on the Mill Creek City Council. As a legislator, Mead was an environmental champion who sponsored two bills to improve recycling, particularly for electronics that can contain hazardous chemicals. 

On the Snohomish County Council, Mead is focused on improving transportation and supporting smart growth policies that keep housing affordable and protect the environment. In addition, he wants to use his role as chair of the Law & Justice and Human Services Committee to rethink policing and make sure everyone feels safe.

Mead is facing challenges from Democrat Amber King, Republican Brenda Carrington, and Independent Delia O'Malley. King is a Democratic Party activist who is running on a platform of making health care a human right, expanding affordable housing, and fully funding education. Carrington has a background in business but does not have a website or detailed campaign platform available. O'Malley works in the foster care system and wants to expand broadband access across the country to help everyone recover from the pandemic.

Mead is the clear choice for Snohomish County Council in District 4.