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Biography (max 750 char)
Renee Hernandez Greenfield is an educator, developmental specialist, union member, and lifelong advocate for children, families, and working people. For more than 20 years, she has served the 26th Legislative District through early learning, child welfare, special education, and higher education. Renee currently supports infants and toddlers with developmental disabilities and teaches future educators at Tacoma Community College. A foster parent and permanent guardian, she is running to make Washington more affordable, strengthen public schools, improve health care and transportation, support workers and small businesses, and build meaningful partnerships with Tribal Nations.
My top priorities are early childhood education, behavioral health, and fully funded public schools. These are not abstract policy preferences. They are the systems I have worked inside for twenty-three years as a developmental specialist, early learning administrator, and special education teacher.
On revenue: Washington's tax structure is one of the most regressive in the country. I support the millionaires' tax Governor Ferguson has endorsed and continued progressive reform that asks those with the most to contribute more. On savings: I will look for programs that are duplicative or no longer achieving measurable results. Good budgeting means being honest about both sides of the ledger.
Washington already leads the country in election access through mail voting and automatic registration. The task now is defending those systems from bad-faith attacks and expanding participation where gaps remain.
I support fully funding the office of the Secretary of State, protecting local election officials from harassment and intimidation, and strengthening campaign finance transparency so voters know who is funding what. I also support robust civics education in our schools. An informed electorate is the foundation of democracy, and Washington should invest in it as such. The legitimacy of elections depends on people trusting both the process and their own voice in it.
Real public safety starts upstream. My career in child welfare, behavioral health, and family services taught me that the most effective interventions happen before a crisis, not during it.
I support sustained investment in community behavioral health centers, mental health crisis response alternatives that do not default to law enforcement, and stable affordable housing. People who are housed and have access to mental health care are safer neighbors. I also support restorative practices in schools to keep young people out of the criminal legal system. Enforcement alone has not worked. Washington needs a public safety strategy that treats the conditions that produce harm, not just the harm itself.
Local journalism is democracy infrastructure. When local newsrooms close, the government operates with less scrutiny, misinformation fills the vacuum, and communities lose the shared information they need to make collective decisions.
Washington should explore tax incentives for local news subscriptions and advertising, support for nonprofit and public media, and transparency requirements that make government records more accessible to working journalists. The state should also ensure that public meetings and government documents are genuinely available, not technically public but practically inaccessible. None of this replaces independent journalism, but the state can create conditions in which it is more likely to survive.
Washington's independent redistricting commission is a model worth building on. For 2031, I would support strengthening public participation requirements so that communities, especially those that have historically been fragmented by district lines, have genuine early input before maps are drawn rather than after.
I would also support clearer standards for keeping communities of interest intact, including tribal nations whose sovereignty and political interests are directly affected by how district lines are drawn. The Suquamish Tribe, The Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe, The Puyallup Tribe, and Skokomish Nation are neighbors in the 26th District. Their voices deserve a meaningful place in a process that shapes who represents them. Transparency throughout should be a minimum standard.
Affordability. Families across the 26th District, from Bremerton to Port Orchard to Gig Harbor, are being squeezed by housing costs that have outpaced wages, childcare that is unavailable or unaffordable, and healthcare that costs too much. People doing everything right are still falling behind.
The state's role is direct investment and structural reform. That means increasing housing supply through smarter zoning and faster permitting, funding early learning as the infrastructure it actually is, and expanding behavioral health access. These are not separate problems. They are the same problem: families who cannot get stable footing in a state that has the resources to help them but has not made it a priority. I am running to change that.
Biography (max 750 char)
Randy Phillips knows firsthand how opportunity can change a life. After years of working paycheck to paycheck, he started a small business, adapted through the COVID-19 pandemic, and returned to college as an adult, earning degrees in entrepreneurship and applied management. He went on to serve as President of the Associated Students of Tacoma Community College and President of the United States Student Association, advocating for students at the local, state, and national levels. Randy is running for the Washington State House because he believes government should create opportunity, not obstacles, and every Washingtonian deserves a fair chance to build a better future.
I believe that a budget is more than numbers; it's the statement of our priorities and a promise to taxpayers that we will use their money responsibly. Every dollar the government spends belongs to the people who earned it, and our responsibility is to make sure those investments deliver real results. My top priorities are education, transportation, public safety, and housing because each of these creates opportunity and strengthens our economy over the long term. If reductions are necessary, my focus would be on programs that fail to deliver measurable results. Any discussion of new revenue should be guided by fairness, sustainability, and accountability. Before asking taxpayers to contribute more, we need to show that we are using the resources we have more effectively.
Public confidence in elections is built through transparency, accountability, and participation. Washington has a strong election system, but we should continue to invest in election security, cybersecurity, and the local officials who administer our elections. We could do a better job explaining how ballots are verified, counted, audited, and certified so voters understand the process and have confidence in the results. Civic participation doesn't stop after election day. We should strengthen civic education, encouraging volunteerism and community involvement, and lead with honesty and transparency. Public trust grows when a government is open and accountable, and when every eligible voter knows their voice matters.
Public safety starts with strong partnerships and smart investments. We should recruit and retain well-trained law enforcement while expanding access to behavioral health and substance use treatment. Washington should invest in crisis response programs, strengthen coordination between law enforcement, courts, and healthcare providers, and support crime prevention and early intervention efforts that keep people away from entering the justice system in the first place. We must also address the fentanyl crisis through prevention, treatment, and enforcement against traffickers. Finally, we should support victims of crime, strengthen emergency response, and make data-driven decisions to invest in programs that improve safety and deliver measurable results.
A free and independent press is essential to a healthy democracy.
I don't believe the state should decide who succeeds or fails in journalism, but it does have a responsibility to make government more open and accessible. That means strengthening public records laws, improving access to government data, making public meetings more transparent, and removing unnecessary barriers that prevent journalists from doing their jobs. A free press holds government accountable, and government should welcome that accountability. The best way to strengthen public confidence isn't by choosing winners in the news industry. It's by making sure the truth is easier to find.
Washington already has a good system because lawmakers don't draw their own district lines. Instead of making major changes, I believe we should make the process easier for people to understand and participate in.
That means giving the public more chances to share their ideas, making draft maps easier to read, and clearly explaining why decisions are made. People should have a real opportunity to give input before the maps are finalized.
We should also use the best available data to draw fair districts that follow the law and keep communities together whenever possible. The goal should be simple: fair maps, an open process, and elections people can trust.
When I talk with people across the 26th District, they usually don't bring up just one issue. They talk about housing costs, traffic, utility bills, and data centers.
Our district is growing, and growth brings opportunities. But if we don't plan for it, working families end up paying the price. The state's role is to help communities grow in a way that keeps housing within reach, invests in the roads, ferries, and infrastructure people rely on, and ensures major developments are good neighbors who contribute to the communities they join.
Every decision I make comes back to one question: Will this make it easier or harder for someone to build a life in the 26th District? If the answer is harder, then we should be looking for a better solution.
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