LIVE from Wenatchee: Candidates address the Washington State Democratic Convention

Good morn­ing again from Wenatchee.

The 2018 Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Con­ven­tion con­tin­ues here at the Stan­ley Civic Cen­ter in the heart of the Apple Cap­i­tal of the World.

Fol­low­ing the open­ing cer­e­monies, Tem­po­rary Con­ven­tion Chair Man­ka Dhin­ga (D‑45th Dis­trict) rec­og­nized can­di­dates run­ning for leg­isla­tive and oth­er elec­toral posi­tions to speak for a few min­utes each. More than a dozen can­di­dates lined up in front of the stage to speak to the del­e­gates, alter­nates, and guests.

Many spoke of the need for bet­ter edu­ca­tion funding.

Valerie Sar­ratt is a mid­dle school teacher run­ning for the 12th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict (for Posi­tion #2). She said: “I expect to get into the House and work for full fund­ing for edu­ca­tion, vot­er rights, and to cre­ate com­mu­ni­ties where we are work­ing togeth­er and have a strong economy.”

Sylvia Ham­mond is run­ning in the 13th LD, a dis­trict that’s been deeply red for thir­ty years. Sylvia thinks Democ­rats have the momen­tum to turn the dis­trict blue. Like Sar­ratt, a top pri­or­i­ty for her is strength­en­ing Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic schools.

A recur­ring theme of the speech­es was the need for women to run “to nur­ture and heal our coun­try and state.” (Women are woe­ful­ly under­rep­re­sent­ed at almost every lev­el of gov­ern­ment in our coun­try, from local and state to federal.)

Mul­ti­ple can­di­dates touched on the impor­tance of sup­port­ing the par­ty’s stan­dard bear­ers in rur­al areas, includ­ing Karen Hardy, the par­ty’s 7th LD Sen­ate hope­ful. A democ­ra­cy like the Unit­ed States should­n’t have so many uncon­test­ed elec­tions, Hardy said, declar­ing that she’s tired of see­ing only Repub­li­cans on her ballot.

“Rus­sia gets bal­lots with one name, Libya gets bal­lots with one name,” she said. “Wash­ing­ton State will not con­tin­ue to get bal­lots with one name on them.” She fin­ished by thank­ing the crowd and declar­ing, “Keep it up! Work, work, work!”

Car­olyn Long, run­ning for the 3rd Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict against entrenched Repub­li­can incum­bent Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler, was the next to receive a warm recep­tion from the Con­ven­tion. She’s a polit­i­cal sci­ence pro­fes­sor at Wash­ing­ton State Uni­ver­si­ty’s Van­cou­ver branch. Like Man­ka Dhin­gra, she says she was inspired to run after Democ­rats lost the 2016 pres­i­den­tial elec­tions. She said she’s par­tic­u­lar­ly dis­turbed by the con­tin­ued polar­iza­tion of our pol­i­tics and wants to see a Demo­c­ra­t­ic Con­gress exer­cise its over­sight pow­ers to rein in the Trump regime.

Tirzah Ida­hosa, a can­di­date for the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate in the 30th Leg­isla­tive dis­trict, told the Con­ven­tion: “I am a moth­er, union mem­ber, mil­i­tary brat, dis­abled, and a care provider.” She explained that she has raised over fifty chil­dren in fos­ter care and helped start Democ­rats for Diver­si­ty & Inclusion.

The Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate has not had any black women mem­bers since Rosa Franklin retired sev­er­al years ago, and Ida­hosa hopes to change that this year.

Everett Maroon, a 16th LD hope­ful and a mem­ber of the state par­ty’s Advo­ca­cy Com­mit­tee, described how he took a strug­gling non­prof­it that sup­port­ed peo­ple with HIV and turned it into a $500,000/year orga­ni­za­tion. He added that he would be the first trans­gen­der per­son in the Wash­ing­ton State Legislature.

Can­di­dates run­ning in the 12th, 3rd, 13th, 6th and 35th Leg­isla­tive Dis­tricts are also here at the Con­ven­tion, as well as can­di­dates for Spokane Coun­ty Clerk and Jef­fer­son Coun­ty Commissioner.