WA State Rep, 2nd District. Accountability for every tax dollar, better schools, secure elections. Veteran, JD, PA-C. Personal/campaign account.
2nd Legislative District, WA
Joined February 2018
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Thank you, 2nd District. I'm grateful for every vote, every door knocked, and every conversation. You've trusted me to keep representing you in Olympia, and I don't take that lightly.
We have a lot of work to do. This session I'm focused on:
• Accountability for every tax dollar. Washington has enough money. What it lacks is efficiency and accountability. Anyone who receives public funds should deliver what they were paid to do. No new taxes.
• Rewriting our school funding formula from the ground up. Today's system costs too much and fails both students and taxpayers. With hard work and hard decisions, we can build one that works for every student in every size of school, so reading, writing, and math scores go up and graduates are ready for the workforce and for life. Parents must always stay informed about every part of their child's development and must never be shut out.
• Proof of citizenship to register to vote. Secretary of State Hobbs has said Washington has no way to verify eligibility and relies on the honor system when people get a driver's license. I'm reintroducing HB 1585 to fix that.
Let's get to work.
MarshallforWA.com
What's one thing you were told to "toughen up" about as a kid that made you who you are today?
Remember when getting cut from the team, losing a fight on the playground, or hearing "no" was just part of growing up?
Then we decided any discomfort was trauma. We handed out participation trophies. We called it "toxic masculinity" when boys competed, took risks, or protected people. We replaced "toughen up" with trigger warnings and safe spaces.
How's it working out? 57% of teen girls now report persistent sadness or hopelessness (CDC, 2021). Boys are falling behind in school and checking out of work. In Washington, we stopped treating drug possession as a crime and watched overdose deaths soar. Then we told confused kids that the answer to discomfort with their own bodies was puberty blockers.
A society that can't tolerate a little discomfort will end up tolerating anything.
I'll go first. My father was my best friend and my mentor, and losing him is the hardest thing I've ever been through.
He taught me that society will treat you the way you let it, and that only I control how I feel. That lesson carried me through military service, through losing friends and battle buddies, and through years of relentless harassment from radical progressives and the media.
Adversity doesn't break me. It motivates me. I learned early that nobody outside of me gets to decide my emotions.
Thanks, Dad.
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Even the Governor now says it: “Test scores for students are just really mediocre.”
That was Gov. Ferguson’s reaction to Superintendent Chris Reykdal announcing he won’t seek a fourth term. “Candidly, that’s good news,” the Governor said.
But changing who runs OSPI won’t fix a system built to fail. Per-student funding in Washington rose from $13,775 in 2012 to $19,163 in 2024, a 39% increase after inflation. What did families get for it? Reykdal himself told KOMO in October that test scores have been “relatively flat the last three or four years.” On the first state tests after the school closures he backed in 2020, only 24% of 11th graders met the math standard.
When those scores came out, Reykdal said he wasn’t going to “spend a lot of energy” on them. When budgets tightened, he asked lawmakers to raise schools’ share of the near-general fund to 50% or more. Neither one is accountability.
Every dollar we send to schools should be tied to results that parents can see. That’s why I’m pushing to rewrite Washington’s school funding formula from the ground up, so money follows outcomes, taxpayers know what they’re buying, and parents are fully informed about how their kids are actually doing.
A new superintendent in 2029 doesn’t help a kid who’s in 6th grade today. The Legislature has to act in 2027.
Sources:
- OSPI, Reykdal statement: ospi.k12.wa.us/about-ospi/ne…
- KXLY, Gov. Ferguson comments: kxly920.com/2026/11/10/its-t…
- MyNorthwest: mynorthwest.com/kiro-opinion…
- WPC report, per-student funding: washingtonpolicy.org/library…
- KATU/KOMO (Oct 8, 2026): katu.com/news/project-educat…
- Seattle Times (Jan 18, 2022): seattletimes.com/education-l…
- OSPI assessment data: data.wa.gov/education/STEMDa…
- OSPI, April 6, 2020: content.govdelivery.com/acco…
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Today I’m thinking less about free food and discount car washes, and more about phone calls.
I served in the Army. I’ve lost too many brothers and sisters here at home, and I still get phone calls far too often telling me someone else lost their battle.
In 2024, 6,488 veterans died by suicide. That’s about 18 a day. Every one of them had a name, a unit, and people who loved them.
So here’s my ask for Veterans Day. Take care of your buddy.
Call the guy from your old unit you haven’t heard from in a while. Not a text, a call. Ask him how he’s really doing, then shut up and listen. If something feels off, ask him straight out whether he’s thinking about killing himself. Asking doesn’t plant the idea. It tells him somebody noticed.
And if you’re the one who’s struggling, there’s no shame in it. Reaching out is the same thing we were trained to do for each other: you don’t leave anyone behind, and that includes you.
If you’re hurting right now, or you’re worried about someone, please dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. The people who answer get it, and a lot of them are veterans themselves. It’s free and confidential, and nobody’s going to judge you. I’d rather you make that call a hundred times than have one of your loved ones or battle buddies receive the dreaded call.
To every veteran and every family member reading this: thank you. Now go check on your buddy.
On Sunday, @seattletimes reporters Daniel Beekman (@DBeekman) and Ryan Nguyen wrote: "There is no serious scientific evidence that trans girls or women are better athletes than cisgender girls or women."
That claim doesn't hold up. I say that as a Washington-licensed medical provider who specializes in sports medicine.
Start with testosterone. It's a performance-enhancing drug. The World Anti-Doping Agency bans exogenous testosterone at all times as an anabolic agent. Before puberty, boys and girls have the same testosterone levels, under 20 ng/dL, and perform about the same. But according to the National Institutes of Health, male puberty can begin as early as age 9, around 3rd or 4th grade. By mid-puberty, a boy's testosterone can reach 800 ng/dL, and by late puberty up to 1,200, which is already at or above the adult male range of 240–950. Adult women run 8–60 (Mayo Clinic Laboratories). Male puberty multiplies testosterone production about 30-fold, and the athletic gap opens at age 12–13 in step with it. Adult men end up ~10–12% better in running and swimming and ~20% better in jumping (Endocrine Reviews, 2018; Clinical Endocrinology, 2017). That's why this matters in middle and high school, not just college.
"Hormones fix it"? The research says otherwise. A Sports Medicine review found muscle mass and strength fell only about 5% after 12 months of testosterone suppression. A U.S. Air Force study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found trans women were still 9% faster in the 1.5-mile run after one year of hormones and 12% faster after two. A systematic review in the same journal found strength, lean mass and muscle area stayed above female levels even after 36 months.
Sports governing bodies have drawn the line at male puberty. In March 2026 the IOC limited the female category to biological females, citing the "scientific consensus that Males have a performance advantage in all sports and events that rely on strength, power and/or endurance irrespective of subsequent testosterone suppression." World Athletics (2023), World Aquatics (2022), cycling's UCI (2023) and the NCAA (2025) made similar moves.
"None have dominated"? Lia Thomas won the 2022 NCAA Division I 500-yard freestyle. CeCe Telfer won the 2019 NCAA Division II 400m hurdles. Each of those wins was a podium spot a woman didn't get.
Researchers can debate how large the gap is. But "no serious scientific evidence" is not an honest summary of this body of work. Girls deserve a fair race, and Washington voters said so when they passed I-638. Sources in the reply 👇
Sources:
- Seattle Times (Nov 8, 2026): seattletimes.com/seattle-new…
- WADA 2026 Prohibited List, S1.1: wada-ama.org/sites/default/f…
- NIH/NICHD, puberty onset: nichd.nih.gov/health/topics/…
- Mayo Clinic Labs, testosterone by Tanner stage: mayocliniclabs.com/test-cata…
- Handelsman et al., Endocrine Reviews 2018: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3001…
- Handelsman et al., Clinical Endocrinology 2017: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/…
- Hilton & Lundberg, Sports Med 2021: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3328…
- Roberts et al. (USAF), BJSM: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3328…
- Harper et al., BJSM 2021: pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/3364…
- IOC policy, Mar 2026: stillmed.olympics.com/media/…
- World Athletics 2023: worldathletics.org/news/pres…
- UCI 2023: uci.org/pressrelease/the-uci…
- NCAA, Feb 2025: ncaa.org/news/media-center-n…
- Lia Thomas, NCAA title: pennathletics.com/news/2022/…
The Governor's answer to an ad saying "Olympia is broken" is to get angry at the employer who paid for it. Maybe he should look at what employers are actually doing.
Microsoft filed notice of 605 jobs eliminated in September, including 493 in the Puget Sound. Starbucks headquarters employment dropped from about 3,750 in 2023 to about 2,800, while Starbucks puts $100 million into Nashville with up to 2,000 corporate jobs. Fisher Investments moved its headquarters from Camas to Plano, Texas. Sedro-Woolley's Janicki Industries is building an $800 million campus in Great Falls, Montana, with more than 2,000 jobs expected. In a recent survey, 47% of Seattle businesses said they had seriously considered moving operations, jobs, or investment out. Taxes and public safety were each cited by 59% of them.
The ad didn't name the Governor. It didn't push a bill. It said government is spending more and delivering less, jobs are leaving, and families are struggling. The facts above back that up. And when the Senate Majority Leader openly ties a possible payroll tax to how a ballot measure turns out, employers notice.
Washington doesn't need a governor who keeps score on who criticized him. It needs one who asks why the jobs are leaving. That means accountability for every tax dollar, no new taxes, and a state where you can still build something with an idea, a dream, and the guts to chase it.
kvi.com/2026/11/10/ferguson-…
Washington voters were clear. I-638 passed 56% to 44% to keep girls' sports for girls.
They didn't even wait a week. Monday night the Seattle School Board voted 7-0 to fight it in court, and the ACLU and the Washington Education Association sued in King County to block it.
While most WA schools are unable to balance their budgets, Seattle PUBLIC Schools is diverting funds to a lengthy court battle.
These aren't neutral parties. WEA gave $441,492 and the ACLU of Washington gave $333,776 to No Hate in WA State, the committee that spent more than $4 million fighting I-638. They lost at the ballot box, so now they want one county's courtroom to overrule the entire state.
Their big claim is that the law "invites inspection of the child's genitals." That's false. I'm a licensed PA-C who has signed thousands of sports physicals in Washington. I-638 asks a student's own provider to sign a statement verifying biological sex as part of the routine sports physical. Visual inspection and Tanner staging are already a standard part of well-child visits under American Academy of Pediatrics guidelines. A provider who knows the patient already has that answer. No new invasive exam exists.
The photos below are of a physical form currently in use by several schools districts in Washington. It lists genitalia as a standard line on the physical. This is the WIAA form that was just updated a few years ago.
The second photo is from the current WIAA questionnaire required as part of a sports physical (screenshot from Seattle public schools website). These questions alone are enough information for a clinician to certify according to the text of the bill. Don't be fooled by the false invasive exam talking point.
When Bob Ferguson was attorney general, he said laws passed by the people are "presumed constitutional," and that public officers' "duty is to abide by the will of the people we serve, and implement and enforce the laws they adopt." He was right then. That standard doesn't change because you dislike the result.
The people voted. The law stands. I will defend it.
Citizenship is a requirement to vote. Washington should verify it.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs told KOMO: “We don’t have a system that can identify whether someone is an actual noncitizen.” KOMO confirms that the state does not check voter rolls against citizenship records and relies on applicants to disclose their status.
A sworn statement is not the same as independent verification.
That’s why I prime sponsored HB 1585 in the 2025–26 legislative session to require verification of citizenship for voter registration. The bill did not advance out of committee. I’ll be submitting this legislation again.
This should not be a partisan issue. Every eligible U.S. citizen, regardless of party, deserves confidence that their voice is protected and that only eligible citizens vote.
Voting is a sacred right and a civic duty. Protecting it means both ensuring eligible citizens can vote and verifying that those registering are eligible.
Washington deserves a system that verifies citizenship, not just asks about it.
Read the bill:
app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?B…
Read Hobbs’ comments:
komonews.com/news/local/sec-…
@KatieDaviscourt
Well said.
This is the best explanation between left and right I have heard in a long time! #RepublicanValues #democraticvalues
Radical progressives were JUBILANT about the new taxes while simultaneously cutting $1 billion from Medicaid and $1/4 billion from schools.
They put every promise for education and the social safety net in the non-binding “intent” section, then rejected every amendment that would have actually locked those protections into law.
Washingtonians don’t trust empty words. Vote YES on I-645 on November 3rd to repeal the income tax.
Share this with every voter you know.
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Things I trust more than Manka Dhingra when she says she won’t support extending the income tax on everyone
1. Licking the banister at a children’s museum
2. Gas station sushi in Oklahoma
3. A used car salesman
4. The ferry schedule for hybrid ferries
5. Email offers from Nigerian princes
6. A guy named CryptoKing420 explaining why this time is different
7. Street tacos in Guadalajara
8. Unfiltered water in India
9. Buying a used mattress off Craigslist at 11 p.m.
10. Asking a stranger in NYC to hold my wallet while I check out central park….
Even Mainstream news picking up the fraud. Finally.
Somali home daycares in Seattle receive $5M in taxpayer funds in potential fraud: report
bit.ly/46zaBd5
WEA and its local affiliates are using students and families as leverage to force districts into commitments they cannot afford.
Their demands for higher compensation and expanded staffing ignore the hard limits of district budgets, while strike threats turn disruption into a bargaining weapon.
The consequences are entirely predictable: program cuts, larger classes, layoffs, depleted reserves, and less local control.
WEA may claim victory at the table, but students, remaining staff, and taxpayers are left to pay the bill.
The contract between the Teachers' Union and Seattle Public Schools is signed, but Superintendent Ben Shuldiner reminds everyone;
"So again, we are broke. We have an $87 million dollar deficit depending on how you look at it, and we are going to have about $40 million dollars left in the bank, after this year."
We are expecting to hear about school closures and staff layoffs before June which will hurt Seattle families, but what other options do they have?
@KIRO7Seattle
More cheating out of Olympia. Larger and darker font for the initiative "against" arguments.
Secretary of State not happy it was discovered...
More gaslight shining on the Washington voters.
Not surprised. Nice work @theJoShPENNER
Did you all see this?
In the repeal the #WA Income Tax voters statement... The against statement appears both physically darker in the .pdf & just a bit taller in text.
@FBISeattle, it appears Washington has very similar fraud as Minnesota. An investigation into fraud allegations would be appreciated.
@nickshirleyy
BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: TPM's @KatieDaviscourt investigated Somali home daycares in Seattle. Could there be millions of dollars of potential misuse of taxpayer funds?
When she knocked on doors, often no one answered and if they did they were hostile and defensive. Neighbors say they have never seen any kids!
These individual daycares are receiving $40,000 - $70,000 per month.
Spot on @BrandiKruse
You cannot decry Democrats for denying me a press pass and also cheer on Trump for revoking the press passes of outlets like @CNN. Americans must take a strong, consistent stand for press freedom. It’s one of the things that sets our great nation apart.
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Washington Dems routinely skirt the Open Public Meetings Act.
I am introducing legislation to end the made up shield of “legislative privilege.” Elected officials should not be allowed to hide backroom deals, private negotiations, and political favors from the public.
Every negotiation involving taxpayer money should be subject to the Open Public Meetings Act. That includes negotiations with SEIU, WEA, and every other public sector union.
If public dollars are on the table, the public has a right to watch.
How the sister of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen is funding anti-hunting lawsuits and corruption inside Washington’s wildlife commission. I followed the money, and you’re not going to believe what I found.
Paul Allen’s sister, Jody Allen, founded the anti hunting organization Wild Lives Foundation. That foundation gave $1.75 million to a law firm for wildlife litigation and another $200,000 to Washington Wildlife First, an anti hunting group created to change the way Washington manages wildlife. The woman connecting both groups is attorney Claire Davis. She founded the law firm and also founded Washington Wildlife First.
Now keep following it. Davis has spent years suing Washington’s wildlife agency. An internal WDFW memo says she brought 12 lawsuits against the department, while at the same time communicating directly with commissioners who oversee that department. Sometimes through their private email accounts. Investigators found roughly 20 private meetings involving Davis and commissioners, including eight right before official Commission meetings.
Then the governor ordered an investigation. That investigation found commissioners had violated open-meeting and public-records laws and failed to properly disclose contacts with anti hunting groups, including organizations suing the department.
So read that sequence again. Millions of dollars fund the lawyers and anti hunting organizations fighting Washington’s wildlife agency. The woman running those operations was meeting secretly with the commissioners overseeing that agency. Then investigators uncover illegal meetings and transparency violations inside the Commission. This corruption must be ended.
— Stephen Ziegler
Outdoor writer | Rack Junkies Podcast
Why do dems cover up fraud?
Simple... their friends and donors receive the fraudulent money.
I heard from a nonprofit (homeless grant recipient) whose contract was canceled because THEY HELPED TOO MANY HOMELESS PEOPLE to self sufficiency! WTF?!
@nickshirleyy shined a light on a massive problem that should anger EVERY taxpayer.
Washington ‘Learing Centers’?
It’s true. Some home daycares in WA are receiving millions in taxpayer funds every year, above what they could even receive based on what they are licensed for. The math doesn’t work. Do you believe a small home daycare with 0-5 kids should be making over $1m per year? Thats nuts!
When Republicans pointed at specific cases and asked DCYF explain it on the public record, they declined to respond. A stunning admission that something is very wrong.
Later, House Republicans passed some good fraud accountability amendments in another bill. Democrats later killed that bill for no reason to cover up the fraud.
I was listening to @nickshirleyy last night, and thought of this house floor debate. It’s critical that we expose and defeat fraud in our state.
We MUST elect Judge Larson to the Supreme Court.
Although judicial candidates are not allowed to express opinions about future cases, we are completely free to comment on current or past decisions.
Yesterday, the Washington Supreme Court, in a 6-3 vote overturned the will of the people by declaring I-2066, the natural gas initiative, unconstitutional. I would have joined the dissent. This is yet another example of the Supreme Court using a different standard for initiatives than they do for laws coming out of the legislature.
I-2066 was the law of the land in Washington duly adopted by 1,971, 474 voters that was taken away by six people. It is important to note that five of the six justices in the majority were initially appointed by a governor, four of them were appointed by Governor Inslee. More important to note, the three dissenting judges were all elected by the people.
We need to reform the current way we fill vacancies on our Supreme Court. Governor Ferguson has abused that power this year more than any past governor. In 2024, I wrote about the need for reform the appointment process and proposed a solution to increase the likelihood that judges will be accountable to the people of this state and not to the political elite.
In the meantime, the opportunity to send a message that the courts belong to the people is on November 3rd when you have a chance to vote on who occupies five of the nine seats on the Court.
larsonforjustice.com/why-app…
Can't make this up... smh
WATCH: While claiming during a press conference that Washington businesses have too many taxes, former Gov. Christine Gregoire embraces the architect of the income tax, Sen. Jamie Pedersen, who then proceeds to threaten that if voters repeal the income tax in Nov., Democrats in the Legislature will enact a payroll tax on businesses
Don't be fooled by Gregoire or these businesses. They are trying to make sure the income tax stays, so they don't get hit with a payroll tax. The Democrats will then hit them with a payroll tax anyway because the issue has never been revenue; it has always been their out-of-control spending
If Gregoire and the business leaders actually wanted to reduce taxes, they would be working with Let's Go Washington to repeal the income tax. Instead, they are making sure you get hit with it to save themselves.