Pierce County

Incumbent Commissioner Dick Marzano is running to retain Port of Tacoma, Position 2. Marzano was first elected commissioner in 1995 and serves on the executive committee for the Puget Sound Regional Council. Before his career in public service, Marzano spent 52 years working in Tacoma as a longshoreman and was also the president of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union Local 23.

If re-elected, Marzano wants to prioritize environmental protections and job creation. With his background as a longshoreman, Marzano knows that the two issues are connected and that those who live and work near the port are directly affected by its environmental impact. However, Marzano has not been supportive of protecting our communities from pollution from the proposed LNG facility.

Mary Bacon is running for Port of Tacoma, Commissioner Position 4. Bacon is an environmental scientist, health physicist, and veteran. She served as the elected president of the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 12 where she advocated for workers’ rights during multiple successful contract negotiations.

If elected, Bacon hopes to address traffic congestion in and around the port, help foster greater economic growth, and ensure environmental stewardship that protects the unique estuarine ecosystem. She would prioritize science-backed climate policy and wants to see ports along the coast working together. Bacon has been endorsed by the Washington Conservation Voters, which sets her apart from her opponent despite listing similar platforms on their websites.

Incumbent commissioner Don Meyer is running to retain the Position 4 seat he assumed after first being elected in 2010. Before that, Meyer served as the deputy director of the Port of Tacoma and the executive director of the Foss Waterway Development Authority. If re-elected, he wants to continue pursuing a more conservative agenda focused on modernizing terminals and waterways, but also intends to limit revenue, putting many improvements beyond reach.

Mary Bacon is the best choice in this race to improve the port’s environment policies and advocate for the workers who keep Tacoma’s port running.

Nancy Backus is running unopposed for re-election to be mayor of Auburn. She was first elected in 2014 and previously served on the city council and as deputy mayor. In her time as mayor, Backus has assisted in awarding $200,000 in grants to local businesses and increasing the number of good-paying jobs in Auburn. She is promoting bringing jobs to the area, reducing traffic congestion, and expanding transportation options in her re-election campaign.

Backus is unopposed in the race for mayor of Auburn and deserves your vote.

Kate Baldwin is running for Auburn City Council, Position 2. She works with IT departments for companies and public entities including REI and the City of Tacoma.

Baldwin's top campaign priorities include leading on a housing-first approach for people experiencing homelessness, supporting a sustainable growth plan, promoting economic development, and ensuring Auburn is a diverse community that brings safety for all, including safety from police violence.

Baldwin faces Wendee Odell, an army veteran, and former correctional officer with the Arizona Department of Corrections. Her platform contains conservative language stoking fear about crime and local public safety.

Baldwin is the best choice in this race for Auburn City Council, Position 2.

Hanan Amer is running for Auburn City Council, Position 4. Amer is a chemist for an aerospace company and has been volunteering locally for years at food banks, the White River Valley Museum, the Auburn and Muckleshoot libraries, and with the police department. She has also volunteered as a tax preparer for United Way of King County in the Auburn and Kent areas. Amer is endorsed by Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus and the 47th Legislative District Democrats and is running to make sure everyone can feel empowered and engaged in their communities.

Amer's opponent in this race is incumbent council member Yolanda Trout. Trout has been on the city council for seven years and previously served as the vice chair of the local Domestic Violence Initiative Regional Task Force from 2014 to 2016 and on Auburn’s Planning Commission from 2010 to 2013. She does not have a campaign website as of mid-October but her re-election platform includes supporting Auburn’s businesses, affordable housing, social justice, and economic growth. Unfortunately, Trout has taken a couple of bad votes including opposing the B&O tax, which would help the city avoid a revenue crisis by 2023, and opposing hazard pay for grocery store workers in the pandemic.

Amer is the best choice for Position 4 on the Auburn City Council.

Incumbent Larry Brown is running unopposed for re-election to Auburn City Council, Position 6. He is the president of the Washington State Labor Council and serves on the Valley Regional Fire Authority governing board. Brown has been a strong advocate for workers and supports increasing wages in Washington. In his second term, he will advocate for more public transit, transitional housing for people experiencing homelessness, and growing the local manufacturing sector.

Brown deserves your vote for Auburn City Council, Position 6.

Lawyer Michael McCullough is running for mayor of Bonney Lake. Previously a county prosecutor, McCullough works in the King County Public Defense office and devotes his additional time to pro bono legal aid work. He is running for elected office for the first time to bring balance back to Bonney Lake by drawing on his legal experience in government and public service.

McCullough believes that the biggest issues facing Bonney Lake are commercial overdevelopment, soaring utilities rates, and traffic congestion, all the result of inefficiently managed growth. Unlike his opponent, he doesn’t think local government should be run like a business, and he would prioritize community needs instead. In this race, McCullough is supported by the county Democrats.

McCullough is challenging incumbent Neil Johnson, Jr who first became mayor in 2006 and served on city council since 2002. Johnson's primary priorities in this campaign are city development and beautification. As a self-described independent conservative who states that he wants to run the city like business, Johnson is not a progressive choice.

We recommend McCullough for mayor of Bonney Lake because of his Democratic support and his community focus.

Leia Timm-McKenrick is running for Bonney Lake City Council, Position 3. Timm-McKenrick currently works as a store manager; previously, she has worked in leadership positions in both retail and nonprofit development. As a member of the LGBTQ+ community, she is focused on making Bonney Lake an inclusive and welcoming place for all.

Timm-McKenrick’s priorities for office include small business support, affordable housing, diversity and inclusion, environmental sustainability, and infrastructure. Specifically, she is campaigning to lower utility rates, invest in infrastructure upgrades, maintain public green spaces, and manage smart growth in Bonney Lake.

Incumbent Dan Swatman is also in this race to remain in Position 3 where he has served since 2000. Outside of council work, Swatman has spent more than three decades at BP working as a systems engineer. Now, he is running on a sparse platform that favors business interests and police budget increases.

Leia Timm-McKenrick is the best choice to bring progressive leadership to Bonney Lake City Council, Position 3.

Bob Walter is an Eatonville Town Council member who has a track record of supporting animal rights issues since joining in 2014. He previously served as the education director for the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County for nearly three decades. Walter wants to reinvest in Eatonville to help the city recover from the worst of the pandemic and subsequent economic downturn to become stronger than ever. In this race, he has committed to redirecting $200 of the mayor’s salary to community causes every month. As a collaborator with previous elected experience on the city council, Walter is well-positioned to follow through on his campaign vision, continue building community, and help Eatonville and its residents thrive. 

Also in this race is David Baublits, a conservative former school board member and CEO in the aerospace industry. Baublits is running to divert public funds from community programs to investments in Eatonville’s private sector. He also wants to restructure the local government and minimize its services by rewriting local codes. 

While more of a moderate, we recommend Bob Walter for Eatonville mayor due to his strong community focus and positive track record in municipal leadership.

Real estate agent Tracie Markley is running unopposed for mayor of Gig Harbor. Markley has served as a city council member in Position 4 since 2019 and served as a city parks commissioner for two years prior.

Markley states that her priorities for the office include transparency and local control of growth. She is also committed to leading the city through a thoughtful and collaborative process to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Markley has earned your vote for mayor of Gig Harbor. 

Incumbent Jeni Woock has served on the Gig Harbor City Council since 2018. She has a long volunteer record, especially around the environment, as one of the co-founders of Citizens for the Preservation of Gig Harbor and chair of the Gig Harbor Sustainability Coalition.

Woock ran for council in 2017 on a promise of slower growth. She advocated for developers to pay their share of traffic impact fees in 2019 and voted for a six-month moratorium on residential development in 2018. Woock is also an advocate for switching from a strong mayor form of government to a council form after tumultuous leadership by Mayor Kit Kuhn.

Also in this race is real estate agent and former commercial fisherman Robert Wiles. According to his candidate statement, he wants to see less development in the city and more historical preservation, but he does not have any concrete policy proposals or wider campaign plans available as of mid-October.

While Woock isn't very progressive overall, she is an environmentalist and the only viable choice in this race.

Roger Henderson is a member of the Gig Harbor Parks Commission and a former civil engineer with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He states that if elected, he will aim for sustainable growth and to improve community walkability and accessibility to shopping, parks, and more.

He is running against controversial educator John Skansi who does not have a detailed platform available as of early October. Skansi's official voters' guide statement says that he is running to bring more local control to the community and smarter economic development, though he doesn't elaborate on what that entails.

Skansi was recently barred from substitute teaching in at least four Seattle schools for a wide range of conduct offenses, including singling out Black students, failing to properly wear a mask, and failing to actually teach in his classes. Skansi also stood with armed protestors in opposition to a youth demonstration for Black lives. In a video from the event, he is shown holding a Trump sign and taunting kids.

Skansi's divisive and inflammatory does not speak to good leadership for Gig Harbor. We recommend Henderson in this race because of his longtime experience in sustainability and environmental work.

Brenda Lykins is a nurse practitioner and founder of the Southwest Washington Perinatal Education Consortium. She has also volunteered in the community as a Girl Scout leader and with the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and March of Dimes, among other organizations.

Much of her campaign is focused on planning out the city's growth and infrastructure needs in the years to come. Lykins is advocating for improvements such as expanded sidewalks and bike paths, traffic calming policies, and maintaining the tree canopy. She also wants to limit growth downtown and ensure that the commercial fishing industry is protected. Lykins' candidacy is endorsed by a local Democratic organization.

Lykins is challenging incumbent Jim Franich, who served on the council from 2000 to 2010, and then was again re-elected in 2017. The council member has a conservative voting recording, including voting against honoring Indigenous people for Native American Heritage Month. He was also the sole vote against the kayak dock that will form the nexus of a potential waterfront park. Franich further displayed poor judgment this year with the endorsement of his colleague and fellow candidate John Skansi, who came into the spotlight this summer for harassing high school protestors alongside armed men at a Black Lives Matter rally.

Brenda Lykins is the better choice in this race.

Incumbent Mary Moss is running unopposed for her seat on the Lakewood City Council.

She is a retired community development consultant for a credit union and has served on the council since her election in 2009. Moss has also served as vice president of the State Air Force Association, president of the Lakewood Multicultural Coalition, and as a board member of the Lakewood Rotary Club and Sound Transit among other organizations. In her next term, she plans to focus on economic development, improving infrastructure, and expanding parks.

Army Special Forces veteran Amelia Escobedo is running for Lakewood City Council, Position 2, to push for a reckoning on police accountability. She cites the still-open civil case of Said Joquin, who was killed by a Lakewood police officer, as an example of the dangers of not holding officers to account. Escobedo's other priorities include expanding affordable housing, especially in areas where low-income housing is being displaced, building no-barrier entry housing for people experiencing homelessness, and respecting tribal treaties.

Escobedo is facing incumbent Mike Brandstetter, who has served on the Lakewood City Council since 2010 and who represents the council on the South Sound 911 policy board. He is a retired Army command sergeant major and former dean at Bates Technical College. He does not have a campaign website available but has stated that his priorities include addressing affordable housing and homelessness, building a new library and senior center, and continuing to expand human services in Lakewood.

Lakewood is growing rapidly and in the years to come will need to reckon with harsh economic truths. An estimated 17 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, higher than the national average of 13 percent. In addition, the community must address a legacy of excessive use of force by the police department, which has been sued five times since 2011 just for incidents involving police dogs and has been slow to implement body cameras.

In this low-information race, we lean towards Escobedo who we hope will provide prospective and progress on these and other issues.

Siabhon Ayuso is an executive board member for the Pierce County Democratic Central Committee for Legislative District 29. She does not yet have a campaign website as of mid-October but states that as a single mom of four kids, she would focus on bringing economic opportunities for those who live in Lakewood. She states that frontline workers during the pandemic should have been offered hazard pay, which the city council voted down, and that more needs to be done to bring better-paying jobs to Lakewood. On her campaign Facebook, she has posted in support of removing Sheriff Ed Troyer for his racist and potentially criminal endangerment of a Black man in Pierce County, as well as in support of justice for those killed by the police. Overall, Ayuso is looking to represent the community, especially communities of color who she feels have been ignored by the council.

Ayuso is facing Republican and deputy mayor Jason Whalen, who has served in Position 3 on the city council since 2010. While we appreciate his support of increasing mental and behavioral health service funding, the rest of his platform skews conservative. His fearmongering ads against Jani Hitchen, who he ran against for Pierce County Council last year, attempted to divide and deceive voters.

We believe it's time for the Lakewood City Council to reflect a broader set of voices from the rapidly changing community. While she faces a challenging race against the longtime incumbent, we believe Ayuso would bring valuable progressive leadership to the council that would benefit all Lakewood families.

Patti Belle was appointed to the Lakewood City Council in January. She previously worked as a communications team manager in the city of Kent's Office of the Mayor. If re-elected, Belle states that she will continue to focus on investing in infrastructure, prioritizing funding for city services, and increasing communications from the council.

Belle's opponent is Ria Covington Johnson, who previously ran for Lakewood City Council in 2017 and 2019. Her voters' guide statement cites that she has been a VISTA volunteer and worked with the Lakewood African American Police Advisory Committee (LAAPAC). If elected, she plans to focus on implementing inclusive policy at the city level, but her campaign website lacks detail or a platform, similar to her previous runs.

Belle has not yet served long enough to establish a detailed record on the council but she appears to be the better choice in this race.

Julie Door is running unopposed for re-election to Position 2 in District 3 on the Puyallup City Council. Door first joined the council in 2014 and was then elected by her council colleagues to serve as mayor in 2020. Door is a local, small business owner, and she is a member of the South Sound 911 board and the former chair of the Puyallup Kiwanis Club’s community services committee. In this race, Door is endorsed by an impressive number of elected and community leaders and progressive organizations.

Since joining the council, Door has worked to expand public green space, strengthen community safety, and address the housing crisis with shelter solutions. She helped to implement the Safe Routes to Schools initiative and supported the Van Lierop farm purchase in order to create a new park. In this race, Door wants to focus on building an economy for all through strategic infrastructure investments that would benefit transportation and Puyallup’s livability. She also wants to keep working to reduce homelessness and finally achieve accessible, safe housing for all residents. Door would also work to keep Puyallup safe, especially from the continuing spread of coronavirus, and keep improving the public school system so that all students can thrive.

Julie Door deserves to be re-elected to Position 2 on the Puyallup City Council in District 3.

Joe Colombo is running for Puyallup City Council in District 2 for Position 2. He is an elected precinct committee officer in Pierce County and the founder of Indivisible Puyallup. Colombo serves on the City of Puyallup Design Review & Historic Preservation Board and has worked in IT in project management and facilitation. He brings both community leadership and grassroots political experience to his campaign.

In this race, Colombo is prioritizing pedestrian safety, affordable housing, economic vitality, equity and diversity, disability accommodations, and community-focused government spending. He has stated that his first objective would be to form an equity and ethics commission to bring Puyallup citizens together to work on making the city better for all residents. Colombo is also focused on public safety and wants to invest in traffic lights, sidewalk maintenance, and community emergency response teams.

Challenging Colombo is Dennis King, a Puyallup Civil Service Commissioner, real estate agent, and business owner. King is running a reactionary campaign that prioritizes business interests above community needs, aims to cut social services, and promotes divisive policy. One key difference between the candidates is their proposed solution - or lack thereof - to address homelessness. The News Tribune reports that while Colombo wants to sustainably expand services that are already working, like shelters and human services, King repeatedly brought up keeping "Seattle-style politics" out of Puyallup.

It's important to note that in 2019, Puyallup spent more money on lawyers and legal settlements defending its laws that criminalize homelessness than distributing money to local nonprofits that serve people experiencing homelessness. The city needs solutions, not divisive political rhetoric.

Joe Colombo is the clear choice in this race and deserves your vote for Position 2 on the Puyallup City Council in District 2.

Victoria Woodards is running for re-election to be the mayor of Tacoma. She had a long track record of public service before becoming mayor in 2017. Woodards supports working families and is committed to maintaining safe and healthy neighborhoods across Tacoma. She also crucially understands the importance of addressing institutional racism and has a demonstrated history of working within communities of color and building diverse coalitions to address the problems facing Tacoma. In her time on the Tacoma City Council, Woodards worked on establishing Tacoma’s Office of Equity and Human Rights.

While Woodards previously supported the proposal to build a highly polluting liquefied natural gas facility in Tacoma because it would have created jobs, she has since emphasized she does not support any new fossil fuel facilities in the Tideflats.

Woodards faces a challenge from Steve Haverly, a first-time candidate who works in construction and land management. Haverly does not have a detailed campaign platform. While he claims to be nonpartisan, what little campaign information he does have available demonstrates his priorities would not align with what Tacoma's communities need as we come together to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Woodards has earned broad support from our Progressive Voters Guide partner organizations and numerous elected officials. Woodards is the best choice for mayor of Tacoma.

Kelly Blucher works in community outreach and engagement for the Olympics & Rainier Region Goodwill and previously worked for AmeriCorps and Habitat for Humanity. Blucher is also a co-founder of Hire 253, a local organization that has helped over 2,500 people in vulnerable positions find jobs. In 2019, she was named the Advocate of the Year by the Children's Alliance for her work to expand child care and early learning.

Kelly Blucher is running for Tacoma City Council, Position 2 to improve access to affordable housing and child care. Blucher is running on a strong progressive platform that includes ending the homelessness crisis, increasing access to affordable housing, and connecting community members with well-paying jobs that will bring them economic stability. Blucher wants Tacoma to continue reducing its carbon footprint and implement green building practices. She also wants to provide child care subsidies for essential workers and provide greater training and a living wage for child care providers. 

Blucher's deep community connections from years of volunteer and professional work have given her a strong sense of what Tacomans need to thrive. Blucher is a good choice for Tacoma City Council, Position 2 if you are looking for a progressive advocate with a proven track record of making change.

Catherine Ushka is running for re-election to Tacoma City Council, Position 4. Ushka was first elected to the council in 2017 and previously served on the Tacoma School Board for eight years. She chairs the Community Vitality and Safety Committee and is a member of groups including the Parks Policy Board and Opioid Prevention Taskforce.

In her time on the council, Ushka supported apprenticeship programs by changing labor codes to make these programs more accessible. If she's re-elected, Ushka wants to do more to fight racial inequalities in health, housing, education, employment, and law enforcement. She states that she will continue to work for more flexible federal funding for housing and shelters, including low-barrier shelters with fewer barriers to entry for the city's unhoused population. Ushka also feels the city needs to increase zoning density where suitable to address the housing deficit and provide additional resources for responding to mental health crises.

Also in this race is Israel James McKinney. McKinney has worked for Boeing and Xfinity and currently works for Washington’s Department of Social and Health Services. His platform includes prioritizing education, supporting police reform and accountability, and reducing the gap in affordable housing.

Our local council was disappointed with some of Ushka's interview answers, including her support for moving the migrant detention center to the Nalley Valley. However, Ushka’s support from local progressive groups and our partner organizations makes her the best choice in the race for Tacoma City Council, Position 4.

Joe Bushnell is a Tacoma Public Utilities board member and Marine Corps veteran. He is running on a platform that focuses on addressing homelessness and creating jobs.

Bushnell is a moderate candidate whose orientation toward prioritizing downtown businesses has raised concerns among local labor unions. In addition, he is more focused on superficial discussions about law enforcement than making meaningful reforms and investments that will actually keep our communities safe.

Kiara Daniels is running for Tacoma City Council, Position 6. She is a small business owner and former Fuse fellow with strong progressive values. Daniels' campaign platform includes a holistic response to public health emergencies like COVID-19 by providing financial support to vulnerable families, workers, small businesses, and all others who have been severely impacted. She wants to invest in after-school programs for students and fight for seniors and other community members to have the stable housing and resources they need. Daniels is very involved in the Tacoma community and would bring a great progressive perspective to the city council.

Also in this race is Brett Johnson, a business owner and member of the Sound Transit Citizen Oversight Panel. He previously ran for city council in 2019 and has expressed support for a radical policy of "gifting" everyone a single "lifetime discretionary abortion." Johnson is neither progressive nor qualified for this role.

Daniels is the clear choice for Tacoma City Council, Position 6.

Sarah Rumbaugh owns a consulting business and serves on the Tacoma Human Rights Commission. She previously worked as a city planner for Kent and with the Housing Equity Task Force helping to develop the Home in Tacoma Project.

Rumbaugh wants to tackle challenges like air and water pollution and decrease our reliance on fossil fuels without impacting the local economy or jobs in the area. Her campaign is emphasizing resetting the economy as the COVID-19 pandemic continues, bringing more affordable housing to Tacoma, and prioritizing frontline workers and their families. Rumbaugh is also a passionate advocate for people with disabilities and has pledged to listen and push the city to become inclusive. Her platform includes a commitment to public education and ensuring that all schools receive equitable funding, regardless of neighborhood or zip code. 

Rumbaugh is a good choice for Tacoma City Council, Position 2 if you are looking for a moderate candidate who is focused on boosting the local economy.

Incumbent commissioner Eric Hansen is running for re-election to Position 1 on the Tacoma Civil Service Commission. Hansen is a lawyer and has worked for the Washington Education Association to defend teachers and other school employees in employment cases for more than 35 years. He first joined the commission in 2014 and also serves as a Democratic precinct committee officer. Hansen is running to bring his legal experience advocating for workers and his demonstrated commission track record to continue ensuring that all employees are treated fairly and justly.
 
Femi Adeleke is also in this race. Originally from Nigeria, Adeleke is passionate about representing marginalized communities within Pierce County and serving his home. He works as a clinical data analyst in health care, though he has not listed either community service or leadership in the local voters' pamphlet. In this race, Adeleke is prioritizing equity, representation, and accessibility for all residents.

We recommend Eric Hansen in this race because of his support from progressive organizations in the area.
 

Former Naval officer and architect Jennifer Butler is running for school board to help the district, students, and families recover from COVID and thrive. She is the vice president of the Peninsula Schools Education Foundation, a volunteer with the Minter Creek PTA, and was a volunteer chair for Stand Up for Peninsula Schools, which helped pass the 2019 bond for school funding to bring four new elementary schools to Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula.

With all the difficulties of the pandemic for students and families, Butler is strongly advocating for flexible emotional and academic support systems. She states that increased counseling services, opportunities for individualized education programs (IEPs), and school-based coordinators are needed to help parents and kids navigate these times. She states clearly that the school board should prioritize in-person learning while following the statewide mask mandate, which safeguards the health of staff, students, and families. Butler wants to provide accountability and communications from the school board to families and establish a formal mentorship program to pair students with local volunteers who want to help students succeed.

Her opponent is Linda Ader, who states that she is a former environmental consultant. Ader is pushing a far-right conspiracy that aims to remove accurate, historical discussions from schools, depriving kids of the opportunity to have age-appropriate discussions and honest reckoning with the nation's past. She states that efforts to provide equity and inclusion measures for students could teach them that their country is bad. Ader refused to provide evidence for these divisive claims when questioned by the Tacoma News Tribune in July. In a recent October interview, Ader states that many of the district's challenges around infrastructure, vocational options, and internet access have been addressed, and the rest of her campaign will continue to focus on turning schools into a battleground on the topics of history and health education.

Butler's education experience and advocacy for all students make her the clear choice in this race. We recommend Jennifer Butler for Peninsula School Board Director, District 2.

Juanita Beard is running a strong campaign for Peninsula School Board Director in District 5. Beard is a therapist, former social worker, and health care case manager. She runs a small business for her counseling services in Gig Harbor. Beard has two school-aged children currently in the Peninsula school system.

Beard has a progressive vision for the position. Her priorities include diversity, equity, and inclusion in the school system and the board itself, expanded mental health resources for students, making sure the school board is an accessible government body, and supporting teachers and staff. Beard hopes to bring her vast experience in listening and healing to the district as it recovers from the struggles brought by online learning and pandemic pressures. She has earned progressive and Democratic support in this race.

Beard is challenging conservative incumbent David Olson in this race. Olson is the current president of the Peninsula School Board after being first elected in 2013. He works in the government banking division of U.S. Bank in Tacoma. Olson has expressed opposition to some basic COVID-19 safety protocols in schools and objects to teaching students about the impacts of racism.

We need leaders who will follow science and public health recommendations to keep our kids safe. Beard is the best choice in this race and deserves your vote to serve Peninsula School District No. 401 as the next District 5 director.

Enrique Leon is running for re-election to Tacoma School Board, Director Position 2. He has served on the school board since 2018. Along with his position on the board, Dr. Leon works at MultiCare Tacoma Family Medicine and volunteers as a team physician for Lincoln and Stadium High schools. His re-election campaign prioritizes enhancing partnerships with local community groups, expanding social-emotional curriculum, and providing great resources to students and teachers.

His opponent in this race is Sarah Hendrix, the co-owner of a contracting company. Hendrix has served as PTA treasurer and president. Her platform is dismissive of teaching students healthy social and emotional skills like self-awareness and self-control, and is equally against teaching kids honest and complete history.

Leon is the clear choice in the race for Tacoma School Board, Director, Position 2.

Korey Strozier is running to retain Tacoma School District, Director Position 3. He works as a program manager overseeing King County's vocational rehabilitation program for young people and was appointed to this seat in 2020. Strozier has focused on ensuring equity has been centered in the decisions of the school board as well as being a voice for disenfranchised students. If elected, he will continue his work on closing access, opportunity, and achievement gaps in the district.

Strozier is unopposed in the race for Tacoma School District, Director Position 3, and deserves your vote.

Chelsea McElroy is running unopposed for Tacoma School District, Director Position 4. McElroy is the vice-chair of the South Tacoma Neighborhood Council and the assistant treasurer of the Pierce County Democrats. She has spent 10 years as a pre-school teacher and launched her own program, Vision Step Team, in 2016. McElroy's priorities for the school board include transparency, consideration of all students and parents when making decisions, and increasing accessibility including bringing translators to meetings.

McElroy is running unopposed for Tacoma School District, Director Position 4, and deserves your vote.

Elizabeth Bonbright is running for re-election to Tacoma School Board, Director 5. She was elected to this position in 2019 and has served as vice president of the school board since 2020. Before joining the school board, Bonbright served as the executive director of the Child Care Aware of Washington and on the advisory committee of organizations including the National Women's Law Center and Strengthening Families United Way. She is proud of her record of delivering meals, internet access, and needed technology to students during the COVID-19 pandemic and implementing safe in-person education ahead of the Washington state schedule. If re-elected, Bonbright wants to improve equity in the district by expanding early childhood education and addressing disparities in disciplinary actions against Black and brown students.

Bonbright is facing Bill Hanawalt, the development director of a local nonprofit organization. Hanawalt was the initial executive director of Peace Community Center and been involved with the Peace Lutheran Church. He also served on the Expanded Learning Statewide Council for over five years, and was a founding member of the Vibrant School Coalition. His platform is not particularly detailed but does mention accessibility, listening to the perspective of all community members, and ensuring students are equipped with all the tools they need to be successful.

Bonbright is the best choice in the race for Tacoma School Board, Position 5 because of her community support and her track record in office of serving youth and children with data-driven solutions.

There are two candidates in the race for University Place School Board, Position 1: Ethelda Burke and Whitney Holz. We are not making a recommendation in this race. Voters should review the two candidates and pick the one whose values most align with their own.

The incumbent Burke has worked in public education for 40 years as a teacher, principal, and superintendent. She was elected to the school board in 2017 after being appointed in 2015. Burke previously served as a board member with the Tacoma Youth Symphony and United Way. If re-elected, she pledges to listen to the concerns of all citizens and maintain awareness of graduation rates and academic performances of students. In 2012, Burke resigned as superintendent of the Tukwila School District and in 2013 she was found to have created a hostile work environment for ten other employees by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (link: https://www.kiro7.com/news/us-govt-tukwila-school-district-employees-victims-/246019162/).

The other candidate in this race, Holz, helps run a local business. Her candidacy is largely based on opposing the age-appropriate sex-education programs adopted by Washington state voters last year. In addition to disapproving of this curriculum, Holz wants to encourage "unique and innovative" learning opportunities to prepare students for trades, business, the military, or continuing education.