Working families and seniors need immediate relief from the rapidly increasing cost of living, from housing to healthcare and the everyday items in-between.

Rising home and rental prices are in large part due to low housing supply. We need to build more housing and find ways to build faster to help make housing affordable.

I support tax reform that reduces the burden on the middle class and will work to provide immediate tax relief to those who need it most.

Health care premiums have more than doubled the past ten years and even if folks have insurance, it is too often not providing great coverage. I experienced a massive and unaffordable increase in the prescription drugs I needed, and we have to do much more to improve the health insurance marketplace.

We also need legislation that protects consumers and prohibits price gouging by major corporations. It is one thing to pass on increases in costs to the consumer, but it is another to profit off scarcity at a time when many families are still struggling to make ends meet.

In my housing work, I see how folks become and stay homeless. Dealing with homelessness has to be the main focus of upcoming legislative sessions. We cannot keep treating mental illness and drug abuse with emergency services that asks too much of our firefighters, police officers, and medical responders.

We have incredibly low capacity to deal with mental illness and drug abuse and not enough incentives to make sure people get the treatment they need.

We need more accountability at every level from individuals to governments. We need more coordination between agencies, non-profits, and the private sector.

Unaffordable rent due to low housing supply is a massive issue forcing out people on social security and with disabilities, for example. We have to make it easier to build the housing we need where we need it.

I pushed back on violence against women in my legal work and I will continue to push back against violent crime and fight for victims in Olympia. It’s clear that we need to increase funding for first responders to improve public safety and equal justice. Our laws should focus on helping officers investigate murders, find missing kids, respond to shootings and domestic violence, find stolen cars, and fight human trafficking. Through my work as an attorney, I have seen firsthand how disruptive crime can be to victims, especially to those who are already struggling to make ends meet.

Our current system is not designed to adequately address substance abuse and mental health disorders. Forcing cops to release people in crisis back on the streets, or to put them in a jail cell to deescalate or detox, serves no one and almost guarantees a repeat encounter with the same police officer or paramedic- not to mention additional crimes in our community. Let’s find a common-sense way to treat drug possession and substance abuse. Providing designated first responders trained to address individuals with mental health or substance abuse disorders is the first step to a more effective, and cheaper, public safety plan.

In addition, we need to address the underlying causes of crime and instability. Starting with education and job training, expanding trade school opportunities, supporting small businesses, better wages, and making it affordable to work through college again. Let’s give people options to succeed. As we do that, let’s ensure both public safety and justice for all.

Government shouldn’t be involved in our most personal decisions, whether that is reproductive freedom, who we love, or who we are. This also means ensuring that access to reproductive healthcare isn’t limited by high costs or availability.  I’ll always stand up to those trying to take away our rights, both nationally and here in Washington.

From the Bremerton shipyard, to fisherman, to healthcare workers and small businesses, we have incredible industries and entrepreneurship in our corner of Puget Sound. Here is my plan to continue to create and grow well-paying jobs:

1. Small Businesses: When my granddad retired from the Navy, he started his own laundromat, liquor store, and burger joint. My dad owned his own landscaping business for over a decade where I worked digging irrigation trenches and hauling rocks and bark.

2. The fact is that small businesses are the engines of our country, and they’re one of the best opportunities for climbing the economic ladder. I’ll support small businesses and make it easier to become an entrepreneur by lowering B&O tax and providing assistance with permitting, licensing, insurance, and more.

3. Supporting Technical Schools By expanding educational access to technical schools, we’ll provide more opportunities for people to get well-paying jobs in the trades.

4. Apprenticeships Expand apprenticeship opportunities to meet folks after graduation and create more career pathways in supply chain, seafood, and emerging clean energy industries.

5. Fishing and Shellfish Farming Our region depends on these jobs, from the fisherman to the shellfish farmers and people working at seafood restaurants (like I used to). We have to protect Puget sound and get more seafood locally.

6. Clean Energy The economic success stories of the next decade will be those communities who took Initiative on clean energy jobs. We’re already on a bipartisan path to prioritizing creating clean energy in Washington. I want to expand career and entrepreneurial opportunities in this area. When we have more diverse sources of energy, we’ll lower energy bills too.

Other important issues:

While the “top issues” tend to be all you hear from most politicians, I want to get to work for you on a host of different policies that will improve everyday folks’ lives and livelihoods and restore common sense to Olympia.

Infrastructure

Creating opportunity for all also means building up our infrastructure. Our district has some of the most critical transportation infrastructure needs in the state, and here are the projects I will prioritize:

Lowering the Narrows Bridge tolls I would push for passage of legislation to end the Narrows Bridge tolls on day 1.

Gorst The Navy has said it’s a national security risk to not fix the problem. We need to support the Gorst Coalition, which is pushing hard to get this done. Fixing Gorst is important for both traffic and safety.

Purdy We need a solution for Purdy better than hoping that the light turns green and the historic bridge is having a good day.

Wollochet The Wollochet entrance ramp’s poor design leads to a crash about every 10 days, endangering lives, costing damages, and snarling traffic in our region’s main artery. We have to create a better solution.

Fox Island Fox Island residents face a growing threat from an old bridge unless the county, state, and federal governments step up. In the past, fixing the bridge is a problem that has been too big for the county and too small for the state. This presents a great opportunity to bring county and state officials together to fix the bridge without tolls.

Rural Broadband It’s time to make sure rural communities in Pierce and Kitsap finally have broadband.

Having someone in the majority party in the House who will make these projects state priorities is what we need. Another representative in the minority party simply won’t get these projects done.

Education

Creating opportunity starts with ensuring that every kid has access to a high-quality education. My mom’s a teacher, I’m a proud graduate of Peninsula High School, and we have awesome schools across our region. But we have work to do. Here’s how I plan to make education better:

Trade Schools Invest in our career and technical schools. We need to recognize the vital role they play in creating good paying jobs that not only ease supply chain issues, but keep the lights on, the water running, and society functioning. 

Universal Pre-K Universal Pre-K education is the most effective way to improve academic achievement by graduation. It will put cash back in the pockets of working families, allow working parents to return to work sooner, while improving education for the next generation. 

K-12 We also need to provide alternative pathways to graduation, ease testing mandates, and expand civics education so that everyone learns how our democratic republic works.

Higher Education Make the degree worth it. Meet students in the middle and make it affordable to work through school again. That’s the opportunity my parents and grandparents’ generations had, and we owe it to the next generation as well. We can’t leave people feeling like opportunity is out of reach because of student debt.

Senior Property Taxes Relief

I have worked with seniors, folks on fixed incomes, and folks living paycheck to paycheck, so I care deeply about making sure our tax system is not unfairly hitting budgets hard. With many people in our communities on a fixed income and the huge increase we have seen in home values over the past few years, I believe it is crucial that we expand the eligibility guidelines.

Safeguarding Our Democracy

We also need to protect our democracy and the freedom that comes with it and having our vote count without fear and intimidation. That means we need to ensure our State Reps are more loyal to the Constitution than to one man.

Opportunity for All

Opportunity for all is the cornerstone of my campaign and why I am running for State Rep. Politicians often discuss issues like jobs, stagnant wages, rising costs of living and declining investment in education as if they are abstract ideas that aren’t affecting real people right now. I don’t believe a single mother should have to choose between providing for children or furthering her education to open new opportunities.

When my wife Shannon and I both decided to go into public service law, people would joke that one of us would have to “sell out” to make ends meet. But the reality is we could afford everything we needed and didn’t have to sacrifice to have the career we wanted serving those who needed it the most. No one should feel stuck. Everyone should have the freedom to take different paths towards a fulfilling life.

People should be treated with respect and be paid enough to live for the work they do; whether that’s with a shovel, a briefcase, or serving food or selling shoes while looking for the next opportunity. I feel this deeply because I’ve used a shovel, gone to work with a briefcase, served food, and sold shoes. It’s all good work. People have fewer options when the costs are high and there is less money in the pocket. If we reverse that, we can have more opportunity for all people, regardless of who you are or where you grow up.