SEIU Local 925 Endorsements

John Zingale is a first-time candidate running for the 18th Legislative District, Position 1 to bring a progressive voice to the seat vacated by Rep. Brandon Vick. Zingale is a middle school social studies teacher in the public school system. He has earned state and local awards as an educator who focuses on civic engagement and he serves on educational boards.

Zingale’s campaign priorities are based on the everyday conversations he has with students and families in the district. He is running to bring municipal broadband to the region, invest in our schools to prepare all our kids to succeed, and help local businesses thrive. Zingale also believes we need to build more affordable housing options, create more living-wage jobs, and break the cycle of generational poverty by addressing the high cost of living with community services.

Stephanie McClintock, a member of the Battleground School Board and chair of the Clark County Republican Party, is also vying for the 18th Legislative District seat. McClintock is running on a typically conservative platform to cut public funding that helps improve schools, transit, parks, and community services while spending more further militarizing and expanding police forces. McClintock is also campaigning on divisive rhetoric about school curriculums and wants to erase some of our communities from the history books.

Zingale is the best choice in this race and deserves your vote to bring progressive leadership to House Position 1 representing the 18th Legislative District.

Duncan Camacho is an ICU nurse and a Democratic candidate for the 18th Legislative District, House Position 2. Camacho was a paramedic before earning his nursing degree and he now works in neuro and trauma intensive care units. Camacho additionally serves in a union leadership role at his hospital and is a member of the Washington State Nurses Association.

Camacho wants to bring his background in worker and patient advocacy as well as his expertise in health care to the Legislature. His top priorities include continuing to respond to the spread of COVID-19 with science-based policy, building lasting economic security for working families, bringing living-wage jobs to the area, and investing in public education so all Washington students can thrive.

There are three Republican candidates running against Camacho in this race. Greg Cheney is an attorney who previously worked as a legislative advocate for corporations before attaining his law degree. Now he is running for Legislature on a vague, typical Republican platform. Cheney claims he wants to focus on public safety but, like his conservative colleagues, his solution is to send militarized police forces into our communities instead of funding the care, security, services, and infrastructure we need.

John Ley is an Air Force veteran, former commercial pilot, business owner, and conservative activist. A longtime Camas homeowner, Ley faces a lawsuit to disqualify him from the ballot after the Clark County Auditor ruled that he “did not reside” at the Battle Ground home that he rents for $1 from friends. Ley spreads misinformation on his YouTube channel about Seattle’s municipal policies and opposes legislative efforts to rebalance our upside-down tax code. Ley’s views are divisive, misinformed, and out of touch with the priorities of our communities to have a fair chance to live a healthy, happy life and care for our families.

Brad Benton, a startup technician and the son of former Rep. Don Benton, is the final candidate in this race. Benton is a MAGA Republican with a very conservative vision for the district. If elected, he would block efforts to make corporations and the wealthy pay their share so that our communities can have quality schools, affordable health care, and good-paying jobs. Benton also joins fellow Republicans in opposing accurate education in order to exclude certain kids and write diverse communities out of our history books. He wants to send militarized police forces into our communities instead of focusing on proven strategies to make our communities safer.

Duncan Camacho is the clear choice for Position 2 in the 18th Legislative District and he deserves your vote in this race.

Sen. Marko Liias has been of the state's best progressive advocates for youth and future-focused transit. He was first elected to the Mukilteo City Council in 2005 before being appointed to the state House in 2007, and finally the state Senate in 2014.

As the Democratic Senate floor leader, Liias has led the fight for LGBTQ+ equality and created a student loan bill of rights. In the 2022 session, Liias led on a major transportation package that will expand trails, fund ferries and high speed rail, and let kids ride free on public transportation across the state. He also sponsored bills limiting the sale of high-capacity gun magazines and expanding student loan forgiveness. His past legislative accomplishments include passing a ban on the inhumane practice of conversion therapy and creating a new state financial aid program for undocumented students.

After running for Edmonds City Council last year and losing to Will Chen, Republican Janelle Cass is now challenging Liias for state Senate. Her housing plans would not produce enough homes to offer relief to renters and homeowners in the district who are struggling with rising costs. The homelessness policies Cass proposes focus on attempting to arrest our way out of the problem instead of demanding that everyone deserves a fair shot at a home with a door that locks and access to services.

Liias has been a strong force for progress in the Legislature and is by far the best choice in this race.

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

Since joining the House in 2009, Rep. Ortiz-Self has emerged as a progressive champion for improving the health and well-being of youth and families across Washington. She is co-chair of the state’s Educational Opportunity Gap Oversight and Accountability Committee and serves on the National Council of State Legislators' Education Committee as well.

This year, she was the prime sponsor of the bill to prevent the state from contracting with private prisons, and also supported the successful bill to reduce the sale of large-capacity gun magazines. Previously, Ortiz-Self was the prime sponsor of bills to increase student access to counselors and provide resources for homeless college students. If re-elected, she wants to continue strongly funding education, increase resources for mental wellness, and pass more evidence-based gun violence prevention legislation.

Ortiz-Self has two opponents this year: Republicans Petra Bigea and Jenifer Short. Bigea unsuccessfully challenged Ortiz-Self in 2018. She is running on a vague MAGA platform to rescue capitalism and restore constitutional rights. Like many Republicans this year, she is trying to turn us against schools and teachers by injecting politics into the classroom and seeking to deny students an honest and accurate education. Short has an inoperable website and no campaign materials readily available as of mid-July.

The district needs a serious representative who will protect the health and opportunities of everyone. Rep. Ortiz-Self has earned your vote in this race.

Maria Siguenza is running for office to center the needs of marginalized people and communities in state decision-making. After starting in a call center for the Health Care Authority, she moved up to a position as an agency director in the governor's cabinet. Aside from directing the State Commission on Hispanic Affairs, she also serves on the Poverty Reduction Work Group and the Social-Emotional Learning Advisory Committee.

As a first-generation American from a working family led by a single mother, Siguenza wants to represent those in the district who are living paycheck-to-paycheck. When addressing the climate crisis, she wants to center low-wage workers and communities of color that stand to be the most affected. In our interview with her, she stated that her top three priorities would be helping small businesses, supporting education, and a holistic approach to homelessness. She would support her district mate Rep. Bateman's middle housing bill, which would expand housing options near transit. Siguenza would also work to expand apprenticeship and employment programs.

Sharlett Mena is running for the open 29th Legislative District, House Position 2 seat. Though she lost after a formidable run in the 2020 election to the current representative, Steve Kirby, his retirement after 21 years in the Legislature brings a new opportunity for her impressive campaign.

Mena has a deep background in both public service and community organizing. She currently serves as Special Assistant to the Director of the Washington State Department of Ecology and has also worked in the governor's office. She co-created Voter Turnup in 2021, an organization led by people of color to spur voter turnout and civic engagement. Notably, she also serves on the boards of Progreso, Planned Parenthood, and Fuse Washington, which produces this guide.

Mena wants to take bold action to combat the climate crisis equitably, reduce homelessness, invest in transportation, and increase affordable housing. She sees reforming our upside-down tax code to finally make the wealthy pay their share as a key to our state's future.

Running against Mena is Democratic precinct committee officer Melissa Knott, who unfortunately does not currently have campaign details available as of mid-July. She has experience in education as a literacy specialist and states that she will fight to put community needs over big business and stand up for working people.

Also in this race is nurse practitioner David Figuracion. He does not have elected or community leadership experience and is running on a standard conservative agenda - stoking fears of lawlessness, repealing age-appropriate sexual health education, and opposing making the wealthy finally pay their share with legislation like the wealth tax. He does not appear to have earned any significant endorsements as of mid-July.

Sharlett Mena has strong progressive credentials and is ready to hit the ground running in Olympia. She is the best choice in the 29th Legislative District.

Chris Vance is challenging MAGA Republican incumbent Sen. Phil Fortunato as an Independent. Vance has previously served in elected office both in the state Legislature and as a member of the Metropolitan King County Council. He was the former chair of the state’s Republican party and now works for King County in communications and serves as a senior fellow at the Niskanen Center, a Libertarian think tank.

Vance is an outspoken voice against the MAGA Republican trend in the local party he used to lead. His campaign priorities include making sure all public schools have the resources they need for students to thrive and improving our transit system. Unfortunately, he also wants to direct resources away from the things that make our communities safe and strong like affordable housing, accessible health care, and clean parks, and instead use those funds to expand and militarize police forces.

Fortunato typifies the extreme Republicans Vance opposes. On the first day of the legislative session this year, Fortunato was escorted off the legislative campus for refusing to follow basic COVID-19 protections. Later, he falsely told constituents that COVID safety guidelines have caused more deaths than the virus itself, which has claimed 1 million lives. Fortunato has also promoted far-right conspiracies that seek to overturn the will of the people in the 2020 election and he recently said that the state’s equity efforts were racial “segregation.”

Also in this race is fringe candidate Clifford Knopik, a far-right candidate running without a party preference for the Senate seat. Knopik seems to be campaigning on the single conspiracy theory that the pandemic was a governmental lie. 

Residents of the 31st Legislative District deserve a representative who will put community needs above extremist ideologies and conspiracy beliefs. Though he is not a progressive, Chris Vance is the best choice in this race for state senator.

Rep. Noel Frame is running for the state Senate on a strong and progressive record of action in the state House. First elected as a representative in 2016, she previously served as the Washington state director of Progressive Majority, where she worked to recruit and elect progressive candidates from underrepresented communities. She has spent her time in Olympia advocating for working families, funding our public schools, and creating a more equitable society by removing systemic discrimination and barriers for people of color.

Frame had a particularly productive legislative session this year, and sponsored many of the progressive bills that passed into law, including limiting ghost guns, restricting guns in certain public areas, and creating a system to locate missing Indigenous people. Though they didn't pass this year, Frame also sponsored a bill to add more middle housing as well as the wealth tax bill, building support for making the extraordinarily wealthy finally pay their share for the resources we all use. She also successfully supported juvenile justice reform, expanding the number of families who qualify for child care assistance, and protecting us from surprise medical billing by continuing to push for a progressive Washington.

Her opponent in this race is planning and design consultant Kate Martin, who ran and lost races in the City of Seattle three times since 2013. She also launched I-123 in 2016 to preserve the Alaskan Way Viaduct, which 83% of Seattle voters rejected.

While Martin filed for office as a Democrat, her values and voters' pamphlet statement make it clear that she's not progressive. In December of 2020, Martin stated that "I joined the GOP today" and claims to have re-joined the Democratic Party only recently. However, her Facebook page is an endless stream of Republican conspiracy theories and disinformation about unions, the LGBTQ community, homelessness, and people struggling with addiction. In contrast, as of mid-July Martin's campaign website does not include campaign priorities beyond vague platitudes about moderation and bipartisanship.

This race offers a clear contrast between a hard-working, proven leader in Olympia and a candidate who would block the kind of bold progressive reforms our communities need. While Martin filed for office as a Democrat, voters should know that her public statements reveal the truth about her far-right beliefs on a wide range of topics.

Vote for Noel Frame for state Senate from the 36th Legislative District.

Jeff Manson is an administrative law judge who is running for office to boost opportunities for workers and working families and to fund the services we all rely on. He has served as a precinct committee officer, the chair of the 36th District Democrats for eight years, and the board chair of the disability rights group Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE), among other leadership experience.

In our interview with Manson, he described himself as the labor candidate in the race, and mentioned that with the departure of incumbents like Rep. Mike Sells, the House needs more support for working people. However, we were disappointed that Manson stated that he is ready to pour more money into the criminal justice system and militarized police without speaking specifically on how he would ensure we all feel safe, especially for communities of color.

Manson acknowledges that the state is extremely behind on the number of housing units needed for everyone to have a roof over their head and a door that locks, including people experiencing homelessness. To that end, he supports a housing-first approach to homelessness that includes tiny homes and accessory dwelling units. He also supports flipping the state's upside-down tax code, which is the most regressive in the nation, and a reduction of carbon emissions by half by 2030.

Julio Cortes is a progressive first-time candidate running to fill the open Position 1 due to Rep. Emily Wicks’ retirement. Cortes works for the City of Everett doing communications and marketing work. He is a leader in the community, serving on the board of the Everett Arena Public Facilities District and previously working with Cocoon House to support families and children experiencing housing insecurity.

Cortes has a strong community-focused platform in this race. If elected, he wants to make the district safer and more resilient so that everyone can have a roof over their head, food on the table, and the opportunity to succeed. Cortes specifically wants to invest in small businesses, create more sustainable, living-wage jobs, and ensure that corporations and the wealthy pay their share. He believes that a key to addressing the housing crisis is investing in comprehensive wrap-around services for those experiencing homelessness in our communities. Cortes’ campaign has earned the endorsements of community organizations and local progressive leaders like Rep. Wicks herself.

We recommend Julio Cortes for House Position 1 because of his widespread community support in this race and his progressive vision for the 38th Legislative District.

Everett City Councilmember Mary Fosse is running for the 38th Legislative District, Position 2 to replace Democrat Mike Sells, who is retiring. Fosse was elected to the city council in 2021 where she has continued her advocacy for Everett’s underserved Delta neighborhood. Outside of elected office, she owns a local nursery that teaches plant workshops and she previously chaired the Delta Neighborhood Association.

During her first year on the council, Fosse championed an effort to secure more than $5 million dollars for a cleanup of the Delta neighborhood to ensure that all Everett residents have access to a clean, healthy place to live, work, and care for their families. She has also been an advocate for workers’ rights and climate action in office.

Fosse's deep roots in the district give her a unique view into the needs of the people she's running to serve. If elected to the Legislature, Fosse’s top priority will be to support working families that are getting priced out because of the increasing cost of child care, housing, and health care.

Residents in the 38th Legislative District deserve a representative who will help all Washingtonians access the resources they need to live happy and healthy lives. Mary Fosse is the clear choice for Position 2.

Rep. Javier Valdez is running for the 46th Legislative District Senate seat. Valdez was appointed to the state House in 2017 and was re-elected in 2018 and 2020. He also served as the first president of the Washington State Council of County and City Employees (AFSCME Council 2).

In Olympia, Valdez has worked to find equitable, progressive solutions to problems facing residents in his district. He supported legislation to prevent discrimination based on citizenship or immigration status and advocated for requiring the state to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.

This year, Valdez sponsored several successful bills that protect our communities, including as the prime sponsor of the law to restrict ghost guns. He also sought to provide safe places for civic discourse by banning guns in settings like school board meetings and supported an alert system for missing Indigenous people.

Valdez deserves credit for sponsoring the middle housing bill, which would have provided more housing options around transit, and the wealth tax, which aimed to finally make the extraordinarily wealthy residents of Washington pay their share into education, transportation, and more. These two bills will be critical progressive priorities in the coming years.

Valdez is running against King County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Matthew Gross. His platform includes making housing more affordable and tackling homelessness in the district. There is much to appreciate about Gross' platform - he wants to end exclusionary zoning and gradually increase the housing supply with duplexes or triplexes. He also wants to see more investments into the state Housing Trust Fund and mental health care.

While Gross is progressive, Valdez has swept nearly every endorsement from a broad spectrum of progressive organizations and elected officials. This reflects both the breadth of his platform and his experience in lawmaking and legislative leadership. Valdez is the best choice in this race.

Pediatrician Dr. Lelach Rave is running for office to bring mental health, youth and family health, and education to the forefront of the Legislature's agenda. She is the legislative chair for the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and has spent years in Olympia advocating for policies like paid family leave, feeding kids through Breakfast After the Bell, and creating the Washington Vaccine Association.

Rave is one of two physicians running for Legislature this year alongside fellow 46th District candidate Nancy Connolly. Her approach to a physician joining the House is a bit different from Connolly's. Because of her pediatric focus, Rave highlighted the need to support both kids and parents in this burgeoning mental health crisis. She noted that we can accelerate hiring much-needed mental health staff statewide by lowering the administrative burden on health care workers, especially lower-paid staff. She was also the only candidate in our interviews to discuss the importance of special education, noting that the state is behind by millions of dollars in funding special education, and that special needs kids fell even further behind than neurotypical kids in the pandemic.

Outside of her health-related policies, Rave wants to see additional investments in the Housing Trust Fund, more low- and middle-income housing, reduction of fossil fuels, and more.

Rave emphasized that with the retirement of Eileen Cody, there are no physicians in the Legislature. Rave is a good choice if you are looking for a candidate with the experience and drive to advocate for community health care for children and families.