Kitsap County Democrats nominate Brynn Felix, Greg Nance, Leiyomi Preciado to fill Washington State House vacancy in 23rd LD

Today, the Kit­sap Coun­ty Demo­c­ra­t­ic Cen­tral Com­mit­tee ful­filled its con­sti­tu­tion­al duty to draw up a list of three names to fill the vacan­cy cre­at­ed by State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Drew Hansen’s move to the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, choos­ing Brynn Felix, Greg Nance, and Leiy­o­mi Pre­ci­a­do as its nom­i­nees for the position.

Meet­ing at the Fil­ipino-Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Kit­sap Coun­ty, a spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus of more than fifty Demo­c­ra­t­ic precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers (PCOs) from the 23rd Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict heard from a total of six can­di­dates inter­est­ed in the appoint­ment before cast­ing bal­lots to decide who the par­ty’s nom­i­nees would be.

The par­ty’s rules for vacan­cies spec­i­fy that lists of nom­i­nees be ranked, so PCOs took votes to deter­mine who would be ranked first, sec­ond, and third.

Brynn Felix, who was pre­vi­ous­ly nom­i­nat­ed by the par­ty for the coun­ty com­mis­sion vacan­cy that was filled by Chris­tine Rolfes and the State Sen­ate vacan­cy that was filled by Drew Hansen, won the ini­tial vote to be ranked first.

She’s hop­ing that the third time is the charm.

Felix is the gen­er­al coun­sel for Penin­su­la Com­mu­ni­ty Health Ser­vices, a fed­er­al­ly qual­i­fied health cen­ter serv­ing Kit­sap Coun­ty, Mason Coun­ty, and rur­al Pierce Coun­tA rty. She pre­vi­ous­ly clerked for Wash­ing­ton State Supreme Court Jus­tice Mary Yu and worked at the law firm of Lane Pow­ell as an asso­ciate. She has earned four degrees, includ­ing a law degree from Boston University.

Greg Nance — a marathon­er, youth men­tor, and self-described life­long con­ser­va­tion­ist — was ranked sec­ond by the PCOs after two fur­ther rounds of bal­lot­ing. He is the CEO of Run Far Foun­da­tion, “a non­prof­it build­ing youth resilience coast-to-coast,” and gar­nered nation­al atten­tion for run­ning across the coun­try sev­er­al years ago after recov­er­ing from alco­hol use dis­or­der. Nance was a nom­i­nee for the Kit­sap Coun­ty Com­mis­sion vacan­cy along with Felix and Rolfes.

Leiy­o­mi Pre­ci­a­do won the vote to be ranked third. Pre­ci­a­do is a cer­ti­fied peer coun­selor and com­mu­ni­ty advo­cate who has sur­vived domes­tic vio­lence, home­less­ness, and depres­sion. She is a proud transwoman of col­or who ran for Kit­sap Coun­ty Com­mis­sion­er last year. State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tar­ra Sim­mons endorsed Pre­ci­a­do and offered intro­duc­to­ry remarks on her behalf. 

Three oth­er can­di­dates com­pet­ed in the spe­cial nom­i­nat­ing cau­cus: School board mem­ber Dray­ton Jack­son, state com­mit­teemem­ber Chris Can­cialosi, and John Gib­bons, the Pres­i­dent of the Wash­ing­ton State Den­tal Association.

The results of the five rounds of bal­lot­ing by the PCOs were as follows:

Round #1: First name on list of nominees
58 votes cast by PCOs

• Brynn Felix: 36 votes
• Greg Nance: 14 votes
• Leiy­o­mi Pre­ci­a­do: 5 votes
• Chris Can­cialosi: 2 votes
• Dray­ton Jack­son: 1 vote
• There were no votes for John Gibbons

Felix received an out­right major­i­ty of votes and accord­ing­ly, there was no run-off. 

Round #2: Sec­ond name on list of nominees
55 votes cast by PCOs

• Greg Nance: 27 votes
• Leiy­o­mi Pre­ci­a­do: 16 votes
• Dray­ton Jack­son: 8 votes
• Chris Can­cialosi: 4 votes
• There were no votes for John Gibbons

No can­di­date received a major­i­ty, so a run-off was held between Nance and Preciado. 

Round #3: Sec­ond name on list of nom­i­nees (run-off)
57 votes cast by PCOs

• Greg Nance: 34 votes
• Leiy­o­mi Pre­ci­a­do: 23 votes

Round #4: Third name on list of nominees
56 votes cast by PCOs

• Leiy­o­mi Pre­ci­a­do: 31 votes
• Dray­ton Jack­son: 17 votes
• Chris Can­cialosi: 7 votes
• John Gib­bons: 1 vote

With­in the next few days or weeks, the three-mem­ber Kit­sap Coun­ty Com­mis­sion (Chris­tine Rolfes, will appoint either Felix, Nance, or Pre­ci­a­do to the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives as Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tar­ra Sim­mons’ new seat­mate. The com­mis­sion is expect­ed to inter­view all three nom­i­nees pri­or to mak­ing a selec­tion. The appointee will serve out the remain­der of Drew Hansen’s term, which will include the 2024 short leg­isla­tive ses­sion that begins in January.