This is the second installment providing an initial look at this year’s legislative races. You can read part one here.
OLYMPIA, WA – This year’s midterms are significant for Washington state government, as all 98 seats in the state House and 24 of 49 state Senate seats are up for grabs. Meanwhile, a surge of retirements will mean many new lawmakers arriving in Olympia.
The filing deadline for candidates was Friday at 5 p.m. They had until Monday evening to withdraw.
The primary will be Aug. 4, with the top two candidates advancing to the general election. Election Day is Nov. 3.
Democrats currently hold a 59-39 majority in the state House and 30-19 in the Senate.
Here’s a look at some of the notable legislative races.
4th District
In this deeply red district, Rep. Suzanne Schmidt, R-Spokane Valley, is forgoing reelection to run for Spokane County commissioner.
Four Republicans filed to take her place. Schmidt’s seatmate, Rep. Rob Chase, R-Spokane Valley, has endorsed his former legislative assistant, Hillary Pham, an Air Force veteran and former intergovernmental affairs officer at Spokane County.
Pham faces local Republican leader and former Central Valley school board member Debra Long, Trent Maier, who is the owner of a local hard cider manufacturer, and George Wagner.
6th District
Nine candidates entered the race for two House seats in this district, which Republicans have held since the 1990s. The 6th is in Spokane County and includes Airway Heights, Medical Lake and the Fairchild Air Force Base.
Reps. Mike Volz and Jenny Graham, both from Spokane, are not seeking reelection.
Four Republicans and two Democrats are vying for Volz’s seat.
The Republicans include: Isaiah Paine, volunteer vice chair of the Spokane Solid Waste Advisory Committee; Jennifer Morton, a veteran and Airway Heights city council member; Alan Nolan, a retired Air Force lieutenant colonel and vice president of the Mead School Board of Directors; and Sueann Davis, a former board member of Deer Park School District.
The Democrats are Nicolette Ocheltree, manager of housing and homelessness initiatives for the Spokane City Council and Michaela Kelso, state committee member of the Washington Democratic Party and executive board representative for the Spokane County Democrats.
In the race for Graham’s seat are Republican Jonathan Bingle, a former Spokane City Council member with a focus on public safety and homelessness policies; Democrat Julia Payne who is emphasizing affordability issues and accessibility for people with disabilities; and Aaron Croft, an Air Force veteran running as an Independent.
10th District
This is a rare still-purple district in Washington, with two Democratic representatives and a Republican senator representing Island, Snohomish and Skagit counties. Rep. Dave Paul, D-Oak Harbor, has widened his election margins since first winning the seat in 2018 and a tight reelection battle in 2020.
Paul faces two Republican foes: Tim Hazelo, the former chair of the Island County Republican Party, and Carrie Kennedy, who mounted a failed run for the district’s other House seat in 2024.
Both have found themselves in hot water. A jury found Hazelo guilty last year of two crimes over his refusal to wear a mask while observing ballot counting in 2024. He received probation, but no jail time. Kennedy drew fire in her last election bid for inflammatory social media posts and promoting conspiracy theories about the 2020 presidential election being “stolen.”
Paul, chair of the House Postsecondary Education and Workforce Committee, has raised about $39,000 for his reelection campaign, while neither Hazelo or Kennedy have brought in $1,000.
The district’s other House lawmaker, Democratic Rep. Clyde Shavers, faces only one challenger, Stanwood City Councilmember Robert “Chili” Hicks, a Republican. Both will advance to the general election in November.
15th District
This will be the second election in the 15th since a federal judge approved new legislative boundaries for the Yakima Valley district in 2024. The judge ruled that the previous map did not allow equal access for Latino voters. In the case’s wake, three Republican senators were pushed out. That includes Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, now running in the 8th District following the redistricting shuffle.
Rep. Jeremie Dufault, R-Selah, is running unopposed for Torres’ Senate seat in the 15th.
Three candidates are seeking to take Dufault’s House spot.
Two are Republicans. Reedy Berg is a Yakima City Council member, assistant mayor and a history and civics teacher at Toppenish Middle School. Chase Foster of Zillah is chair of the Kennewick Housing Authority. Foster ran unsuccessfully against Rep. Chris Corry in 2024.
The third candidate, Liz Hallock, filed with a “No Kings” party affiliation.
23rd District
There are two Democrat-versus-Democrat duels for the House seats in this district, which covers north Kitsap County and Bainbridge Island.
Rep. Greg Nance, D-Bainbridge Island, faces Kristin Lillegard, who has been endorsed by a local Democratic Socialist group. Lance Byrd, a Republican who lost a 2024 Senate bid, is also challenging Nance.
Meanwhile, Rep. Tarra Simmons, D-Bremerton, has drawn competition from Poulsbo Democrat Daria Ilgen.
Simmons is believed to be the first formerly incarcerated person to win a legislative race in the nation when she joined the Legislature in 2021. She has focused heavily on criminal justice issues during her time in the Legislature.
Simmons has also drawn multiple ethics complaints, including from the chair of the 23rd District’s Democrats, for allegedly intimidating Ilgen, a member of the group’s executive board, as he considered a run.
Initially, Republican attorney Joel Ard filed to run against Simmons, as well, but later withdrew. Ard has taken the state to court numerous times to challenge state laws and has represented the state Republican Party.
24th District
This Olympic Peninsula district will see two competitive primaries as one Democratic lawmaker faces his first reelection fight and another retires.
Five candidates are seeking to replace Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Port Townsend, chair of the House committee that oversees the state construction budget. He missed much of the 2026 legislative session due to illness.
Patrick DePoe, a Makah tribal leader and executive director of the Association of Washington Tribes, is among the hopefuls for Tharinger’s seat. He mounted a failed bid for state public lands commissioner in 2024. He has the support of many progressive state legislators.
Marcia Kelbon, a longtime Republican from Jefferson County, filed to run with no party preference. A lawyer and Quilcene fire commissioner, she cited a “destructive” political climate as the reason for going unaffiliated, and said she has always leaned toward the middle politically. Kelbon ran as a Republican for the district’s Senate seat in 2024, losing in the general election.
Former Sequim high school teacher Kaylee Kuehn is running as a Democrat. She was previously an aide in the Legislature. Kuehn now works in communications, including teaching civility with The Building Bridges Project. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal endorsed Kuehn.
Port Angeles City Councilmember Mark Hodgson, a Democrat, is also running for Tharinger’s seat. He has served in the military and locally as a law enforcement and corrections officer. He has been on multiple local boards and commissions, including the Clallam County Charter Review Commission.
Bradley Nemo Calloway filed to run for the House seat as a Democrat.
DePoe leads the fundraising battle, so far, followed by Kelbon, Kuehn and Hodgson.
Tharinger’s seatmate, Rep. Adam Bernbaum, D-Port Angeles, has three challengers.
Teenager Aiden Hamilton, a Republican, cites the pandemic shutdown of in-person public schooling that he experienced as animating his run. He has said he’s aiming to be the youngest state lawmaker in Washington history. Hamilton has the support of the Clallam County Republican Party.
Eric Pratt, a Republican from Quilcene who often testified against Democrat-backed bills moving through the Legislature this year, is also trying to unseat Bernbaum.
Ted Bowen, who highlights his experience in various security-related jobs, is running as an Independent. He isn’t accepting campaign contributions and is instead asking supporters to give to their local church or community outreach organizations.
Bernbaum won the 2024 election with nearly 55% of the vote.
35th District
Three Republican incumbents in this district, which covers Mason County and parts of Thurston and Kitsap counties, all face Democratic challengers.
Only one is heading into a contested primary: Rep. Dan Griffey, R-Allyn, who has been in office since 2015 and ran unopposed in 2024. He’s up against two Democratic opponents.
Jim Pierson, a retiree, worked in the software industry, including for Microsoft. Shaena Garberich ran unsuccessfully for Shelton City Council last year. She recently won an award from the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance for emerging as an advocate this session.
Griffey’s seatmate, Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, faces Maria Littlesun, a lifelong Shelton resident who has worked as a social worker, peer counselor and crisis responder.
And the district’s Sen. Drew MacEwen, R-Shelton, is running against Thurston County Commissioner Carolina Mejia. MacEwen ran for Congress in 2024 and lost. He won his 2022 state Senate campaign handily.
39th District
The retirement of Rep. Carolyn Eslick, R-Sultan, has attracted multiple Republican hopefuls and a Democrat trying to flip the seat. The district covers parts of Snohomish and Skagit counties.
Former lawmaker Robert Sutherland is mounting a return bid to the Legislature. He represented the district for two terms but didn’t get a third, losing reelection in 2022 to Rep. Sam Low, R-Lake Stevens. Low won reelection by decisively beating Sutherland in a 2024 rematch.
Sutherland also ran for Snohomish County auditor unsuccessfully in 2023. He has been an avid supporter of President Donald Trump and spread conspiracy theories blaming voter fraud for Trump’s loss in 2020.
Former Lake Stevens City Councilmember Steve Ewing is also going for Eslick’s seat. He has the backing of Eslick, Low and the district’s senator, Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro-Woolley, as well as local mayors.
Lacey Sauvageau is also running for the seat as a Republican. She previously ran for the state House as a Democrat in 2020 in the 38th Legislative District. She ran for Everett City Council the next year. At the time, she was a 911 dispatcher.
Sutherland has the endorsement from the 39th Legislative District Republicans.
Ida Keeley, of Lake Stevens, is the Democrat in the race. Her campaign website specifically calls her “an independent Democrat.” Keeley has held administrative positions with the state Department of Children, Youth and Families and Snohomish County Juvenile Court, and served as chair of the Children’s Campaign Fund Action Board.
Boeing engineer and union leader David Garrett, a Democrat, explored a run but opted against it.
Low, who is also on the Snohomish County Council, will also need to fend off multiple candidates to retain his seat.
Democrat Kathryn Lewandowsky previously ran as an Independent in 2024, but didn’t advance past the primary. A nurse from Arlington, she supports single-payer health care and expanding affordable housing options.
Dusty Wisniew, of Granite Falls, is also campaigning for the seat as a Republican.
43rd District
And finally, another Democrat-on-Democrat clash is brewing in Seattle’s 43rd District. Longtime lawmaker and Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen faces opposition from Hannah Sabio-Howell, a young progressive activist with a background in communications.
Most recently, Sabio-Howell was the communications director for Working Washington, a labor rights advocacy group. As a queer Filipina woman, she backs policies like taxing the ultra-wealthy, reducing housing costs and universal childcare. Sabio-Howell was previously an intern for Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, D-Seattle, who endorsed her campaign last week.
Pedersen has served in the Legislature for two decades. In 2006, he was elected to the state House. He was appointed to the Senate in 2013 and has won three elections since. The incumbent senator has served as the majority leader since 2024 and was the prime sponsor of this year’s legislation to tax millionaire earners.
Heather Marie-Wilson, who has no party affiliation, is also in the race.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com.
