Washington State Senate Democrats announce leadership changes, committee assignments for 2023 legislative session

Fresh of an out­stand­ing midterm elec­tion cycle in which every front­line Demo­c­ra­t­ic sen­a­tor’s reelec­tion was secured, the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate Democ­rats today announced a set of lead­er­ship changes for the 2023 ses­sion along with the cau­cus’ com­plete com­mit­tee assignments.

Andy Bil­lig (D‑3rd Dis­trict: Spokane) remains Major­i­ty Leader.

Emi­ly Ran­dall (D‑26th Dis­trict: Kit­sap Penin­su­la) will become Deputy Major­i­ty Leader, replac­ing Sen­a­tor Rebec­ca Sal­daña (D‑37th Dis­trict: South Seat­tle), who will become the Vice Chair of the Caucus.

Man­ka Dhin­gra (D‑45th Dis­trict: Redmond/East King Coun­ty) remains the oth­er Deputy Major­i­ty Leader and Chair of the Law & Jus­tice Com­mit­tee. Dhin­gra is a North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion board­mem­ber. Ris­ing star T’wina Nobles (D‑28th Dis­trict: Pierce Coun­ty) is the new Major­i­ty Whip.

Bob Hasegawa (D‑11th Dis­trict: Seat­tle and South King Coun­ty) remains the Chair of the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cau­cus. Jamie Ped­er­sen (D‑43rd Dis­trict) remains Floor Leader. Oth­er mem­bers of the 2023–2024 lead­er­ship team include Joe Nguyen (D‑34th Dis­trict: West Seat­tle and Vashon Island) as Assis­tant Leader, Claire Wil­son (D‑30th Dis­trict: Fed­er­al Way and South King Coun­ty) as Assis­tant Whip, Karen Keis­er (D‑33rd Dis­trict: South King Coun­ty) as Pres­i­dent Pro Tem­pore, and John Lovick (D‑44th Dis­trict) as Vice Pres­i­dent Pro Tempore.

“I’m hon­ored to have been cho­sen by my col­leagues to step into a greater lead­er­ship role,” Ran­dall said. “Togeth­er, we’ve worked hard to put the needs of our neigh­bors first and expand access to oppor­tu­ni­ty for every Wash­ing­ton­ian. The thou­sands of con­ver­sa­tions I’ve had with neigh­bors over the past many months have high­light­ed some of the work ahead. I’m excit­ed to dig in along­side my col­leagues in 2023, and I can’t wait to see what our ded­i­cat­ed and dynam­ic team accom­plish­es in the com­ing months and beyond — it’s time to get to work.”

“I am both hum­bled and enthu­si­as­tic to have been select­ed by my peers to serve in this posi­tion,” said Nobles. “From the start of my tenure in the Sen­ate, I’ve stressed the impor­tance of trans­paren­cy in my office. I’ve val­ued so deeply the abil­i­ty for com­mu­ni­ty to be civi­cal­ly engaged and under­stand the nuances of the Leg­is­la­ture in order to make changes in the issues they care about. I’m elat­ed to be able to fur­ther this char­ter in my new position.”

Sev­er­al new sen­a­tors were cho­sen to be vice chairs of key committees:

• Noel Frame (D‑36th Dis­trict: Seat­tle) will be vice chair of Hous­ing, work­ing with Chair Pat­ty Kud­er­er (D‑48th Dis­trict: Belle­vue). Frame will also be Vice Chair of Busi­ness, Finan­cial Ser­vices, Gam­ing & Trade, work­ing with Chair Derek Stan­ford (D‑1st Dis­trict: Both­ell and King / Sno­homish Counties).
• Javier Valdez (D‑46th Dis­trict: Seat­tle) will be Vice Chair of State Gov­ern­ment, work­ing with Chair Sam Hunt (D‑22nd Dis­trict: Olympia).
• Clau­dia Kauff­man (D‑47th Dis­trict: South King Coun­ty) will be Vice Chair of Human Ser­vices & Behav­ioral Health, work­ing with Chair Claire Wilson.
• Sharon Shew­make (D‑42nd Dis­trict: What­com Coun­ty) will be one of two Vice Chairs of Trans­porta­tion. John Lovick will be the oth­er. Both of them will work with Chair Marko Liias (D‑21st Dis­trict: Sno­homish County).

Reuven Car­lyle and David Frock­t’s depar­tures also opened up some spots on the pow­er­ful Ways & Means Com­mit­tee, which writes the Sen­ate’s budget.

Mark Mul­let (D‑5th Dis­trict: Issaquah and East King Coun­ty) is the new Vice Chair for Cap­i­tal Bud­get, serv­ing with Chair Chris­tine Rolfes (D‑23rd Dis­trict: Kit­sap Penin­su­la) and June Robin­son (D‑38th Dis­trict: Sno­homish Coun­ty), the Vice Chair for Oper­at­ing & Rev­enue. Oth­er Demo­c­ra­t­ic com­mit­tee mem­bers include Bil­lig, Dhin­gra, Hasegawa, Hunt, Keis­er, Nugyen, Ped­er­sen, Sal­dana, Kevin Van De Wege (D‑24th Dis­trict: Olympic Penin­su­la), Lisa Well­man (D‑41st Dis­trict: Belle­vue and East King Coun­ty) and Steve Con­way (D‑29th Dis­trict: Pierce County).

The East­side’s del­e­ga­tion to the State Sen­ate — Dhin­gra, Kud­er­er, Well­man, Stan­ford, and Mul­let — has become very influ­en­tial and pow­er­ful. Four of them chair a com­mit­tee: Dhin­gra has Law & Jus­tice, Kud­er­er has Hous­ing, Well­man has Ear­ly Learn­ing & K‑12 Edu­ca­tion, and Stan­ford has Busi­ness, Finan­cial Ser­vices, Gam­ing & Trade. Mean­while, Mul­let has Cap­i­tal Bud­get with­in Ways & Means.

Addi­tion­al­ly, as men­tioned, Dhin­gra and Well­man are on Ways & Means along with Mul­let, while Kud­er­er is on the Sen­ate Rules Com­mit­tee, which has the pow­er to pull bills to the floor of the Sen­ate for con­sid­er­a­tion there.

The only Sen­ate com­mit­tee that will be chaired by a sen­a­tor from a most­ly-Seat­tle dis­trict is Envi­ron­ment, Ener­gy & Tech­nol­o­gy, chaired by Nguyen.

The Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus’ com­plete com­mit­tee assign­ments are avail­able in the PDF embed­ded below. The Sen­ate Repub­li­cans have not yet announced their assign­ments. As men­tioned, they will have one few­er mem­ber in their cau­cus in 2023–2024 due to Simon Sefzik’s loss to Sharon Shew­make in the 42nd District.