Biography (max 750 char)
Born and raised in Walla Walla, Skyler has spent his life serving the communities of the 16th District. Since joining the Legislature in 2019, he has built a reputation for bipartisan leadership focused on practical solutions and strong local representation. Skyler’s priorities include improving educational outcomes, supporting public safety, strengthening the local economy, and protecting services for vulnerable populations. As a leader on education policy and a voice for southeastern Washington, Skyler works to ensure communities from Walla Walla to the Tri-Cities are heard in Olympia. He remains committed to respectful leadership, fiscal responsibility, and putting people before politics.
Budget priorities include preserving services for our most vulnerable populations. This includes children, people with intellectual and physical disabilities and the elderly. Balance the budget by ensuring spending does not exceed revenue. The current budget relies on raiding pension funds and new taxes that are currently in litigation. The operating budget has doubled in the last 10 years. This is unacceptable and indicative the extent of the spending problem.
I've proactively made proposals to create savings. I sponsored HB2636, which creates a permanent review process for K12 programs to identify cost savings. It passed the House 97-0 but failed in the Senate. I support zero based budgeting, and reforming programs to reduce cost and create more efficiency.
I strongly support mail-in voting. I believe it creates greater access to the right to vote. That said, I believe there is room for stronger ID requirements at the point of registration. I also believe there should be stronger prosecution requirements when fraud is identified.
I have been disheartened by the politicization of law enforcement over the last few years. The Legislature needs to follow through with the Governor's commitment to put $100M into law enforcement. We also need to stop passing emotionally-driven policies like the failed pursuit bill that led to deaths and a criminal free for all environment.
I strongly believe in a free press. I believe the safest approach from government is hands off. I am troubled when government officials, in any way, impede journalism. This can include limiting access, which has happened in the state House over the last year. It can also include character attacks of journalists. There should be a strong respect and separation of government and press.
None. The bipartisan four-member redistricting commission is an outstanding model that ensures bipartisan maps. The judge in the case that redrew our districts should have deferred to the commission to redraw if there were concerns. My hope is that litigation will not result from the next redistricting.
Affordability has increasingly risen to the top as the Legislature continues to implement policies that make Washington less affordable. Gas is $1.23 higher per gallon in Washington than the national average. This hurts everyone, and it's the policies imposed by the Legislature that are driving it. Recent reforms to the landlord tenant law make it harder for housing providers to operate and drives up prices for renters. The massive tax increases passed last session will hurt all districts. While providing a short-term revenue boost to the state, the long-term jobs losses will hurt the 16th district. All of these policies should be reversed before it's too late.
Campaign Phone Number
5095930189
Biography (max 750 char)
For more than 25 years, I’ve worked in the business world, helping build a small PR startup into a 100-person firm. For the last decade, I’ve also served on the Walla Walla School Board, where we’ve raised graduation rates, expanded student opportunities, modernized curriculum, and increased family engagement. I’ve served four times as board president and recently completed my term as president of WSSDA, advocating for all 1,477 school directors in Washington. Those experiences, running a business, leading a school district, and navigating complex state policy, shape my commitment to a better future for every family in the 16th. I work hard, I listen, and I make tough decisions with our community in mind.
We must get the budget back into balance. All the fund maneuvering and accounting gimmickry the last few years has left Washington in a deep and persistent hole, with minimal reserves to protect against future economic downturns.
I will look for savings in programs that aren’t delivering results matching their investment. I also want to roll back increases in agency administrative roles. I recently had one state worker explain to me the “headquarters tax,” where funding that the legislature intends to support service delivery ends up getting swept into new administrative positions instead.
Once we’ve achieved that balance, we can get back to investing in our priorities, which for me include affordable childcare, strong schools, reliable infrastructure, and rural healthcare availability.
It starts with good governance. People lose hope when their vote doesn’t seem to matter because nothing changes for the better.
The legislature also needs to do a better job listening to voices from all parts of Washington. People who live different lives in different places have always disagreed on lots of things and always will. That’s part of being human. Democracy only maintains its legitimacy if it feels like everyone has a chance to speak and be heard, even if in the end the majority chooses another path.
When people believe their votes matter, they vote. When they believe they will be listened to, they speak up. That’s how we increase civic participation.
We have more than 15,000 active warrants for offenders who have violated conditions of their release, and not enough resources to address the problem. We must commit to supporting the programs that keep our communities safe.
Also, while losing none of our compassion for people in desperate places, we need to grapple more honestly with the community impacts of persistent public disorder. Families have a right to feel safe in their neighborhood parks. Shop owners shouldn’t need to invest ever-increasing amounts in private security measures because we don’t take property crime seriously. We should fund a real effort to break up organized retail theft rings.
It is a tricky problem, because local journalism is a critical public good and a foundational component of a healthy democracy, but direct government support risks at least the appearance of politicization or favoritism. Any funding would have to be arms-length, to ensure continued public trust and the ability of journalists to do their jobs. I would support a solution that balances those issues.
I also strongly support continued funding for TVW, as the best way for the public to be informed about the workings of state government.
I would support changes that make the redistricting commission more independent and more transparent. Last cycle, the process broke down. In the current moment of hyper-polarization, a nonpartisan commission, focused on auditable, data-driven outcomes, would better meet the moment.
Affordability for working families. In the short term, we need to reverse last session’s cuts to affordable childcare and then work to provide every possible measure of support to individuals relying on Apple Health to ensure they don’t lose coverage next year once new, punitive federal paperwork requirements go into place.
Longer term, we need to get serious about supply-driven solutions. We must eliminate the barriers to building more affordable housing. We need to speed up permitting and siting processes to accelerate new clean energy generation, storage and transmission.
Finally, where state-level solutions are appropriate, we must ensure large, monopolistic firms operating in Washington are not engaging in anticompetitive practices that hurt suppliers, competitors and consumers.
