State Representative Alex Ybarra
State Representative Alex Ybarra

Only two can­di­dates filed to run in this year’s spe­cial elec­tion for State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Posi­tion #2 in Washington’s 13th, a rur­al leg­isla­tive dis­trict that spans most of Lin­coln, Grant and Kit­ti­tas coun­ties and includes cities like Ellens­burg and Mat­tawa. One is a Repub­li­can and one is a Democrat.

The 13th is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed exclu­sive­ly by Repub­li­cans, with State Sen­a­tor Judy War­nick and State Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Tom Dent and Alex Ybarra.

Ybar­ra is in the incum­bent in the seat that was vacat­ed by Matt Man­weller of Ellens­burg after sex­u­al assault alle­ga­tions resur­faced against him in 2018.

Chal­leng­ing Ybar­ra is Demo­c­rat Steve Ver­hey, who is con­tend­ing for the State House with a cam­paign focused on fix­ing Washington’s upside down tax struc­ture, wide­ly regard­ed as one of the most regres­sive in the country.

Ver­hey cur­rent­ly serves as Chair­man for the Kit­ti­tas Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, Chair of the Envi­ron­ment and Cli­mate Cau­cus of the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty and on the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Committee.

Ybar­ra has a long his­to­ry with the Grant Coun­ty Pub­lic Util­i­ties Depart­ment and has pre­vi­ous­ly served as pres­i­dent of the Quin­cy School Board. He has also served on the board of the Wash­ing­ton State School Direc­tors Association.

Although he was a fresh­man in the minor­i­ty this past leg­isla­tive ses­sion, Ybar­ra did spon­sor a bill that was signed into law by Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee.

House Bill 1621 gives col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties more flex­i­bil­i­ty in admit­ting edu­ca­tion appli­cants by chang­ing basic skills assess­ment require­ments for accep­tance into teach prepara­to­ry programs.

“We need to encour­age more peo­ple to choose this noble pro­fes­sion. Good teach­ers, just like stu­dents, should not be defined by a sin­gle test,” said Ybar­ra. “By remov­ing this bar­ri­er a broad­er range of can­di­dates can be admit­ted into these programs.”

As of 9:15 PM, Ybar­ra led with 62% of the vote (14,403 votes), and Ver­hey had 26% (6,097 votes). Both Ybar­ra and Ver­hey were guar­an­teed to move on to the Novem­ber 5th gen­er­al elec­tion; in this round, the race was a beau­ty contest.

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