Drew Hansen moves over to the Washington State Senate, succeeding Christine Rolfes

Wash­ing­ton State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Drew Hansen will soon be on the oth­er side of the rotun­da in Olympia, hav­ing been cho­sen today to take the place of for­mer Sen­a­tor Chris­tine Rolfes, who is now a Kit­sap Coun­ty Commissioner.

The three-mem­ber com­mis­sion — which now includes Rolfes — exer­cised its con­sti­tu­tion­al author­i­ty to fill the vacan­cy cre­at­ed by her res­ig­na­tion by choos­ing Hansen from a list of three nom­i­nees pre­sent­ed by the Kit­sap Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee. The par­ty’s two oth­er nom­i­nees were Brynn Felix, who serves as the gen­er­al coun­sel and med­ical-legal part­ner­ship direc­tor at Penin­su­la Com­mu­ni­ty Health Ser­vices, and Chris Can­cialosi, a retired ser­vice­mem­ber who cre­at­ed gotham­Cul­ture and Gotham Gov­ern­ment Ser­vices management.

Hansen was not imme­di­ate­ly sworn in, but with the Leg­is­la­ture not expect­ed to recon­vene for its next ses­sion until Jan­u­ary, that did­n’t need to hap­pen today. Hansen will be able to plan a nice cer­e­mo­ny if he wishes.

“I’m grate­ful to be able to con­tin­ue serv­ing our com­mu­ni­ty in the Sen­ate,” Hansen said in a state­ment sent by the Wash­ing­ton Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus. “It’s been an extra­or­di­nary hon­or to serve in the House for the past decade and open up oppor­tu­ni­ties for peo­ple in Kit­sap Coun­ty to get trained for good jobs that sup­port their fam­i­lies. The part­ner­ships we have built with Olympic Col­lege, West­ern Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, our appren­tice­ships and more have trans­formed peo­ples’ lives, and I look for­ward to con­tin­u­ing to work on these issues in the Senate.”

Rolfes and fel­low Com­mi­sion­ers Char­lotte Gar­ri­do and Katie Wal­ters held inter­views with the three nom­i­nees last week and this week pri­or to mak­ing their deci­sion. They were wide­ly expect­ed to pick Hansen, who has years of leg­isla­tive expe­ri­ence, as men­tioned. Hansen’s seat­mate Tar­ra Sim­mons also pon­dered seek­ing the Sen­ate appoint­ment, but ulti­mate­ly decid­ed to remain in the House.

“Hansen has chaired the House Civ­il Rights & Judi­cia­ry Com­mit­tee since 2020; before that, he chaired the House High­er Edu­ca­tion Com­mit­tee from 2014 to 2020,” the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus not­ed. “Hansen has led efforts on his­toric leg­is­la­tion in recent years, includ­ing this year’s Shield Law (HB 1469) to pro­tect those who pur­sue or pro­vide legal repro­duc­tive care in the state.”

“Hansen also spon­sored Washington’s land­mark free col­lege tuition law and the nation’s first state-lev­el net neu­tral­i­ty law. He also led efforts on the New Hope Act, a bipar­ti­san crim­i­nal jus­tice reform bill that helps peo­ple who have spent time in prison rebuild their lives, the DREAM Act 2.0 to pro­tect state finan­cial aid eli­gi­bil­i­ty for DACA stu­dents, and the Pub­lic Broad­band Act, which opens up oppor­tu­ni­ties for pub­lic broad­band net­works in Wash­ing­ton State.”

Hansen must leave the House to serve in the Sen­ate, which will cre­ate open­ings there. A spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus of Demo­c­ra­t­ic PCOs from the 23rd Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict con­vened by the Kit­sap Coun­ty Democ­rats will need to meet again soon to draw up a list of three nom­i­nees to suc­ceed Hansen through 2024.

Then, the Kit­sap Coun­ty Com­mis­sion will appoint one of them to be a new State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive from the 23rd Dis­trict, which is locat­ed entire­ly with­in the coun­ty, encom­pass­ing Bain­bridge Island, Bre­mer­ton, Pouls­bo, and the trib­al reser­va­tions of the Suquamish and the Port Gam­ble S’Klallam. (See map.)

In addi­tion, the House Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus will need to pick a new Judi­cia­ry Chair for the upcom­ing short ses­sion. That’s a pow­er­ful and impor­tant com­mit­tee that hears bills per­tain­ing to top­ics like gun safe­ty and crim­i­nal jus­tice reform.

In the Sen­ate, Chris­tine Rolfes’ depar­ture will also prompt some reshuf­fling. Rolfes was the Chair of Ways & Means, the Sen­ate’s most pow­er­ful and influ­en­tial com­mit­tee, so the Sen­ate’s Com­mit­tee on Com­mit­tees will have to pick a new Chair. The Demo­c­ra­t­ic major­i­ty con­trols that com­mit­tee and may select Sen­a­tor June Robin­son to take Rolfes’ place. Robin­son is one of the two cur­rent Vice Chairs of Ways & Means; the oth­er is Mark Mul­let, a guber­na­to­r­i­al hopeful.

Aside from chair­ing Ways & Means, Rolfes was also a mem­ber of Agri­cul­ture, Water, Nat­ur­al Resources & Parks, chaired by Kevin Van De Wege (D‑24th Dis­trict: Olympic Penin­su­la), who is run­ning for Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands.

Hansen’s Judi­cia­ry expe­ri­ence would seem­ing­ly make him a good can­di­date for the Sen­ate’s Law & Jus­tice Com­mit­tee, chaired by Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra, who is run­ning for Attor­ney Gen­er­al. Hansen him­self was briefly a can­di­date for Attor­ney Gen­er­al four years ago until Gov­er­nor Inslee deicd­ed to seek a third term.

Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Andy Bil­lig says he’s hap­py to have Hansen on board.

“I am pleased with this appoint­ment,” said Bil­lig. “Sen­a­tor Hansen is an expe­ri­enced leader and has been a plea­sure to work with over the years on a vari­ety of issues. He is some­one who will be able to step right in and get to work in the Sen­ate on behalf of the peo­ple of the 23rd Leg­isla­tive District.”