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Biography (max 750 char)
Krista comes from a family of entrepreneurs and community builders. Her father grew up in Guadalajara; her mother comes from a Northwest migrant family. Born in Oregon, Krista spent much of her childhood in Mexico. At 19 Krista started her first business, a food truck. In 2016 she earned a University of Washington BA in Law, Economics, and Public Policy. She has been a paralegal, Spanish teacher, and housing navigator, and led expansion of her family trucking business. In the community she launched the nonprofit Women of Color Collective and co-founded a community market. She is the principal of Perez Consulting, a DEI practice. Krista currently administers economic development funds for underserved communities throughout Washington.
My top priorities are affordability, public safety, workforce development, and healthy communities. Families can't thrive if they can't afford housing, childcare, or transportation, and businesses need a strong workforce and safe neighborhoods to succeed. If reductions become necessary, we should first improve efficiency before cutting services families rely on. Throughout my career managing public investments, I've seen how better coordination across agencies and partnerships with local governments can reduce duplication and improve results. We should also modernize Washington's tax system so it is fairer for working families while ensuring accountability, transparency, and measurable results for taxpayers.
Washington has one of the strongest election systems in the country, and we should continue investing in public trust through education and transparency. While elections are primarily administered locally, the state can support consistent, accessible public education about how elections work and the safeguards already in place.
I also believe government should make civic participation easier. Too often, people want to engage but don’t know where to start. We should improve public notice of legislative hearings, expand language access, increase opportunities for community input before major policy decisions, and provide plain-language summaries of legislation so more Washingtonians can meaningfully participate in government.
Public safety requires both accountability and prevention. We must ensure local law enforcement has the resources to recruit and retain well-trained officers while emphasizing de-escalation, trauma-informed policing, and community trust. We also need stronger behavioral health services, expanded crisis response teams, and continued investments in violence prevention. Through my work overseeing statewide violence prevention investments, I've seen that addressing root causes before violence occurs creates safer communities and reduces long-term costs. I support protecting crime victims, improving juvenile rehabilitation, addressing impaired driving, strengthening infrastructure resilience, and improving coordination across jurisdictions.
Local journalism plays a vital role in a healthy democracy by helping residents stay informed about the decisions that affect their daily lives.
The state can support local news without compromising editorial independence by expanding journalism fellowship programs, supporting reporting capacity in underserved communities, improving access to public records and government data, and increasing language accessibility for public information.
I also believe government has a responsibility to communicate more clearly. Providing plain-language explanations of public policy and improving transparency helps residents stay engaged regardless of where they receive their news.
Washington’s redistricting process should be as transparent, independent, and community-focused as possible.
I support increasing public transparency throughout the process by limiting private negotiations, releasing proposed maps well before adoption, and providing independent analyses of how proposed maps affect communities of interest.
I also believe we should strengthen opportunities for tribal governments, historically underrepresented communities, and language minorities to participate meaningfully throughout the process. Redistricting should prioritize fair representation, public trust, and communities—not political advantage.
The 29th Legislative District's greatest challenge is affordability. I see affordability as an ecosystem that includes the cost of groceries, housing, childcare, transportation, and healthcare. When one of these becomes unaffordable, families feel the impact across every aspect of their lives. State government has a responsibility to lower the cost of living by expanding affordable housing, increasing access to childcare and healthcare, investing in reliable transportation, and supporting good-paying jobs. Working families deserve a government that makes it possible not just to get by, but to build financial stability and thrive in the communities they call home.
