Joe Fitzgibbon (D‑34th District) to seek reelection to the House, won’t run for Senate

Yes­ter­day, State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joe Fitzgib­bon (D‑34th Dis­trict: West Seat­tle, Vashon Island), announced that after think­ing the mat­ter over, he has decid­ed not to seek the posi­tion held by his men­tor, State Sen­a­tor Sharon Nel­son, and will instead run for reelec­tion to the House, where he serves as Chair of the Envi­ron­ment Com­mit­tee and the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cam­paign Com­mit­tee (HDCC).

Nel­son sur­prised many last week when news broke that she had informed her col­leagues of her deci­sion to retire. She became Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader less than six months ago, fol­low­ing Man­ka Dhin­gra’s vic­to­ry in the 45th District.

Fitzgib­bon made it clear that his announce­ment, which came yes­ter­day — was not an April Fools’ joke by putting a dis­claimer at the end of his state­ment.

After much con­sid­er­a­tion and receiv­ing much advice, I believe the place I can be the most effec­tive for my dis­trict and the issues I care about is in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. I’ll be run­ning for reelec­tion to the House this year, not for the Senate.

2019 can be (and needs to be) a water­shed year in the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture on fight­ing cli­mate change and reduc­ing green­house gas emis­sions. There is great ener­gy and lead­er­ship around cli­mate pri­or­i­ties in the Sen­ate right now, and stay­ing in the House lets me focus on build­ing momen­tum for cli­mate and clean ener­gy progress in our cham­ber. I’m also moti­vat­ed to make progress in the House on gun safe­ty, death penal­ty repeal, mul­ti­modal trans­porta­tion infra­struc­ture, restor­ing habi­tat for salmon and oth­er endan­gered species, and fix­ing our upside-down tax code.