Short­ly before the dead­line passed to return bal­lots in the 2021 Wash­ing­ton State gen­er­al elec­tion, the Pierce Coun­ty Coun­cil took action to fill the vacan­cy cre­at­ed by the res­ig­na­tion of long­time Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Sen­a­tor Jean­nie Darneille, who rep­re­sent­ed the 27th Dis­trict for decades in the Leg­is­la­ture’s small­er chamber.

The Coun­cil vot­ed unan­i­mous­ly to appoint Yas­min Trudeau, one of three nom­i­nees cho­sen by the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty, as the dis­tric­t’s newest state sen­a­tor. Trudeau will serve at least through the end of next Novem­ber and pos­si­bly beyond if she runs to be retained in the posi­tion and vot­ers elect her.

Trudeau is well known to the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic caucus.

Before join­ing Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son’s staff as leg­isla­tive direc­tor, she was a pol­i­cy ana­lyst, sup­port­ing the work of the Sen­ate Ways & Means Com­mit­tee and the Sen­ate Agri­cul­ture, Water, Trade & Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Committee.

Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son’s 2020 leg­isla­tive team con­sist­ed of Brit­tany Gre­go­ry, David Pham, Joyce Bruce and Yas­min Trudeau (Trudeau is first from the right). Pho­to cour­tesy of the Attor­ney Gen­er­al’s office.

She pre­vi­ous­ly worked for Prami­la Jaya­pal when Jaya­pal was a state leg­is­la­tor from the 37th Dis­trict in Seat­tle. (Jaya­pal, as read­ers like­ly know, is now a Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tive chair­ing the Con­gres­sion­al Pro­gres­sive Caucus.)

“Yas­min will have an imme­di­ate and pos­i­tive impact on the Sen­ate and the state as a whole,” said Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Andy Bil­lig (D‑2nd Dis­trict; Spokane) in a state­ment released by the cau­cus. “She will hit the ground as one of the most pre­pared new sen­a­tors this body has ever seen. Her advo­ca­cy, empa­thy and pas­sion for peo­ple and pub­lic ser­vice will be an asset and an inspi­ra­tion for her fel­low leg­is­la­tors and for the peo­ple of the 27th Leg­isla­tive District.

“Sen­a­tor Trudeau’s appoint­ment is won­der­ful news for our dis­trict, and I’m thrilled to wel­come her to the 27th LD del­e­ga­tion,” said House Speak­er Lau­rie Jinkins.

“With deep con­nec­tions to our com­mu­ni­ty through her lived his­to­ry here, she is imme­di­ate­ly ready to take on the work to address the needs of the peo­ple and com­mu­ni­ties we rep­re­sent,” the Speak­er con­tin­ued. “I know she will be a hard-work­ing and effec­tive sen­a­tor, because she already has a strong track record of involve­ment in issues like address­ing gun vio­lence, mak­ing health care acces­si­ble and afford­able to all, and pro­tect­ing consumers.”

“It’s the grit of this com­mu­ni­ty that has shaped me,” Trudeau told the Pierce Coun­ty Coun­cil pri­or to her appointment.

“To me, lead­er­ship is rep­re­sent­ing the inter­ests of your con­stituents and earn­ing and con­stant­ly re-earn­ing the oppor­tu­ni­ty to rep­re­sent your community.”

“It’s been my hon­or to serve this dis­trict in the leg­is­la­ture for twen­ty-one years, and I’m proud to pass the baton to some­one as com­mit­ted to our neigh­bors as Yas­min,” said Darneille. “Her deep roots in the com­mu­ni­ty include grad­u­at­ing from Foss High School. Her devo­tion to the dis­trict, her vision for the peo­ple that live and work here, and her expe­ri­ence in the leg­is­la­ture will be pow­er­ful assets.”

Trudeau’s arrival in the Sen­ate will also increase the cham­ber’s diversity.

A Ben­gali-Amer­i­can, Trudeau is the first woman of col­or to rep­re­sent the 27th Dis­trict. Oth­er trail­blaz­ing sen­a­tors in the cau­cus include the 45th’s Man­ka Dhin­gra (a North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion board­mem­ber), the 47th’s Mona Das, the 26th’s Emi­ly Ran­dall, and the 28th’s T’wina Nobles.

The Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus will in a few weeks be cel­e­brat­ing the fourth anniver­sary of secur­ing a major­i­ty in the cham­ber after five years of pseu­do-Repub­li­can con­trol thanks to Rod­ney Tom and Tim Shel­don’s late 2012 defec­tions to the Repub­li­can Par­ty. The cau­cus final­ly regained the major­i­ty after Dhin­gra’s 2017 spe­cial elec­tion vic­to­ry, and has held it ever since.

The major­i­ty expand­ed to twen­ty-eight seats in 2018, up from twen­ty-five, and it remained at twen­ty-eight fol­low­ing the 2020 pres­i­den­tial election.

In 2022, all forty-nine leg­isla­tive dis­tricts will have dif­fer­ent bound­aries, but no one knows what those bound­aries will be yet because the Redis­trict­ing Com­mis­sion has not yet approved new leg­isla­tive or con­gres­sion­al maps.

Along with Trudeau, the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty nom­i­nat­ed two oth­er indi­vid­u­als for con­sid­er­a­tion by the Pierce Coun­ty Coun­cil as Darneille’s suc­ces­sor in accor­dance with the require­ments of the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion: Desiree Wilkins Finch and LaM­ont Green.

The Con­sti­tu­tion states that when a vacan­cy occurs in a leg­isla­tive office, a suc­ces­sor shall be appoint­ed by the req­ui­site coun­ty leg­isla­tive author­i­ties from a list of three names pro­vid­ed by the polit­i­cal par­ty of the indi­vid­ual who resigned.

The 27th is locat­ed entire­ly in Pierce Coun­ty, so the appoint­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty fell to the Pierce Coun­ty Coun­cil and the nom­i­nat­ing respon­si­bil­i­ty was that of the Pierce Coun­ty Democ­rats. Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty rules pro­vide that the task of nom­i­nat­ing be del­e­gat­ed by either the coun­ty or state cen­tral com­mit­tee to a spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus of precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers from that district.

Accord­ing­ly, Trudeau, Finch, and Green were cho­sen via cau­cus, and in that order.

Forty-sev­en of the fifty-one Demo­c­ra­t­ic precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers cur­rent­ly serv­ing in the 27th attend­ed the cau­cus — a turnout of over nine­ty-two percent.

Trudeau received a major­i­ty on the first bal­lot. Finch and Green com­pet­ed on a run-off bal­lot to see who would be list­ed sec­ond. That sec­ond vote was one by Finch. Green then won a major­i­ty on the third bal­lot. A total of six can­di­dates com­pet­ed to earn the PCOs’ sup­port for inclu­sion on the list of nominees.

The results of the spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus were sub­se­quent­ly rat­i­fied by the par­ty and trans­mit­ted to the Pierce Coun­ty Coun­cil for action. Coun­cilmem­bers inter­viewed the nom­i­nees and then vot­ed to appoint Trudeau, who was the first choice of the dis­tric­t’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic precinct com­mit­tee officers.

Trudeau was then sworn in by Wash­ing­ton’s Chief Jus­tice, Steven González.

NPI con­grat­u­lates Sen­a­tor Trudeau on being cho­sen to serve in this impor­tant role. We have con­fi­dence she will serve with integri­ty and work hard for not only the 27th, but Wash­ing­ton State as a whole.