Another big retirement: Senate President Pro Tempore Karen Keiser won’t run again

Less than twen­ty-four hours after Sen­ate Major­i­ty Leader Andy Bil­lig announced he’s decid­ed against seek­ing anoth­er term in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, Sen­ate Pres­i­dent Pro Tem­pore Karen Keis­er joined him, say­ing that after near­ly three decades, she is ready to bid the state­house adieu.

“It has been my priv­i­lege to serve the peo­ple of the 33rd Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict and the peo­ple of the State of Wash­ing­ton for the last twen­ty-nine years,” said Keis­er, who revealed her deci­sion on the Sen­ate floor. “I am in awe at the amaz­ing progress we have made togeth­er in this insti­tu­tion over the last few decades.”

“Appoint­ed to fill an open seat in the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives in 1995, Keis­er ran and won her first elec­tion in 1996,” not­ed a news release from the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus. “She served there until 2001, when she was appoint­ed to a seat in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, where she has been re-elect­ed six times. Since 2018, Keis­er has served as Pres­i­dent Pro Tem­pore, pre­sid­ing over the Sen­ate when the lieu­tenant gov­er­nor has been unavailable.”

“The Sen­ate won’t be the same with­out Karen Keis­er,” said Billig.

“She has been a leader in so many areas. Because of her unceas­ing per­sis­tence over many years, work­ing fam­i­lies in Wash­ing­ton are so much bet­ter off today than when she joined the Leg­is­la­ture. And her gen­er­ous men­tor­ship of new mem­bers ensures that her exper­tise will live on in this institution.”

“Sen­a­tor Karen Keis­er has been noth­ing less than a gen­er­a­tional leader on behalf of work­ing peo­ple,” added Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Den­ny Heck in a state­ment. “Lead­ers like Karen do not come around often. She will be deeply missed in the Sen­ate. I wish her well in her retirement.”

Keis­er says her work on imple­ment­ing the Patient Pro­tec­tion Act is a top accom­plish­ment of her years in the Legislature.

“Among oth­er key bills, she spon­sored the leg­is­la­tion estab­lish­ing the Wash­ing­ton Health Ben­e­fit Exchange, which has since pro­vid­ed more than 1,900,000 Wash­ing­to­ni­ans with health care cov­er­age,” not­ed the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus. “While imple­men­ta­tion of the far-reach­ing act was slowed and hin­dered by numer­ous glitch­es in oth­er states, Wash­ing­ton expe­ri­enced far few­er prob­lems and was looked to as a nation­al model.”

“The effec­tive imple­men­ta­tion of the [Patient Pro­tec­tion Act] helped dri­ve the state’s unin­sured rate down from 14.2 per­cent in 2010 to 4.7 per­cent as of 2022.”

And then there’s her hero­ic work on paid fam­i­ly and med­ical leave.

“In 2017, Keis­er capped a ten-year effort when Wash­ing­ton became only the fifth state in the coun­try to offer com­pre­hen­sive paid fam­i­ly and med­ical leave insur­ance for all work­ing peo­ple. Since the Paid Fam­i­ly and Med­ical Leave pro­gram began pay­ing out ben­e­fits in 2020, almost 470,000 Wash­ing­ton work­ers have tapped its ben­e­fits to bond with new­born babies, care for ail­ing rel­a­tives, or take time off for their own med­ical conditions.”

Kesi­er has been a stal­wart and thought­ful pro­gres­sive through­out her time in the state­house. Known for being cheer­ful and even-keeled, she recent­ly authored a book about how to serve effec­tive­ly — Get­ting Elect­ed Is The Easy Part — which our Lit­er­ary Advo­cate David Kobrin reviewed.

​We have been hon­ored to have Sen­a­tor Keis­er join us for many NPI events over the years and look for­ward to see­ing her at more. Con­grat­u­la­tions on a great run serv­ing the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton State, Sen­a­tor Keis­er. You’re a treasure!