Campaign Phone Number
5093859312
Biography (max 750 char)
Donovan DeLeon is a community-focused leader and the only Democratic candidate born within 100 miles of Spokane. Holding three college degrees, including a BS in Political Science, he understands how Washington’s regressive tax system has fueled housing unaffordability, crime, addiction, and limited access to health care, education, and child care. As a paratransit coach operator, former security guard, small business owner, and investor, he sees these challenges affecting residents every day. Through decades of service with LGBTQI people, people with disabilities, and unhoused communities, he is committed to practical solutions and accountable government that works for everyone.
My top budget priorities are making housing more affordable, improving public safety, strengthening our healthcare workforce, and investing in infrastructure that supports long-term economic growth. I also support expanding access to affordable child care because it helps families and strengthens our economy. Before asking working families to pay more, I would look for savings by reducing waste, improving efficiency, streamlining permitting, consolidating duplicative programs, and focusing funding on what delivers measurable results. If additional revenue became necessary, I would support a fairer tax system that protects middle- and lower-income Washingtonians while asking those most able to contribute to pay a greater share.
Washington's elections are already secure, with bipartisan oversight, audits, signature verification, and multiple safeguards to protect the integrity of every vote. Rather than making unnecessary changes, we should continue supporting these proven systems while improving public understanding of how they work. To strengthen civic participation, we should expand civics education, encourage respectful public dialogue, increase transparency in government, and create more opportunities for residents to engage with their elected officials. Public trust is built through openness, accountability, and responsive government.
Public safety starts with preventing crime before it happens while ensuring law enforcement has the tools they need. We should recruit, train, and retain more police officers, expand behavioral health and addiction treatment, and invest in crisis response teams that connect people to services before situations become emergencies. We also need stronger prosecution of violent offenders, improved support for victims, and investments in safer roads, lighting, and infrastructure. Every Washington resident deserves to feel safe in their neighborhood, at work, and on public transit.
A free and independent press is essential to a healthy democracy, but government should never control the news. Washington's role should be to promote transparency by making public records accessible, ensuring open meetings, and expanding public access to government information. I support policies that encourage local journalism through fair competition and innovation without influencing editorial decisions. Well-informed communities make better decisions, and residents deserve access to reliable local news from independent sources.
Washington's bipartisan redistricting system has generally served our state well and should continue to prioritize fairness, transparency, and public input. I support strengthening opportunities for residents to participate in the process and making mapping data easier to understand and review. Districts should respect communities of interest while complying with federal law and avoiding partisan gerrymandering. Voters should choose their representatives—not the other way around.
The greatest challenge facing the 3rd Legislative District is affordability. Housing costs, health care, child care, and everyday expenses have risen faster than wages, making it harder for working families to get ahead. State government should reduce barriers to building more housing, invest in infrastructure, strengthen our health care workforce, expand addiction treatment, and support economic growth that creates good-paying jobs. My goal is simple: make Spokane a place where people can afford to live, work, raise a family, and retire with dignity.
Biography (max 750 char)
Luc Jasmin III is a father, husband, and first-generation Haitian American who has spent nearly two decades in Spokane. In 2014, he built Parkview Early Learning Center from nothing. Today it serves more than 100 children and employs more than 30 people. For the past four years, Luc has served as the Governor’s Eastern Washington representative under Governors Inslee and Ferguson, covering ten counties. He chairs the Spokane Police Ombuds Commission and co-founded the 5th Avenue Forward Coalition to rebuild East Central Spokane. His daughters attend Spokane Public Schools, and his retired parents are aging in the city. He is running for the House to fight for wages, housing, childcare, and care for seniors.
My top priorities are the basics families count on: fully funding public schools, including the roughly billion-dollar special education gap, housing people can afford, childcare, and health care. Washington’s tax code is upside down. A family earning $40,000 pays a bigger share of its income in state and local taxes than one earning $400,000. I would raise revenue by building on the capital gains tax and closing its loopholes, a narrow wealth tax on fortunes over $25 million, and higher taxes on luxury real estate sales. For savings, we spend more when we wait. Home and community care costs less than institutions. Prevention costs less than sweeps and ER visits. Combining how the state buys health care gets a better price. Spend earlier, spend smarter.
Washington runs some of the best elections in the country: vote by mail, prepaid postage, automatic and same-day registration, and an 18-day voting window. My first job is to defend all of it from rollback and to expand ballot drop box access in rural and underserved areas so every voter has one nearby. Confidence also depends on who gets to run. I do not take corporate PAC, fossil fuel, or utility money. I would back a statewide small-donor matching program modeled on Seattle’s Democracy Vouchers, so candidates can win by talking to voters instead of big donors. When people see that regular neighbors can run and win, and that their ballot is easy to cast and gets counted, trust follows.
Safety is bigger than any one agency. It is a stable home, a good school, a job that pays, a neighbor who looks out, and a response system that sends the right person to the call. I chair Spokane’s Police Ombuds Commission, so I have seen where policing fails and where officers get stretched doing work they were never trained for. The state’s most effective moves: fund co-responder programs so a behavioral health call gets a clinician, not just a cruiser; fund community violence intervention that stops shootings before they start; fund the youth programs, mental health care, and addiction treatment that cut crime at the root; and fund real oversight, including the Office of Independent Investigations, so trust can hold.
Local news is part of how democracy works. When a town loses its paper, turnout drops and public business goes unwatched. I follow my own community through the Spokesman-Review, the Washington State Standard, and Cascade PBS. The state can help without controlling the coverage. I would support programs that place trained reporters in local newsrooms, like the state-funded Murrow News Fellowship at WSU, and fair tax treatment that helps small, independent outlets survive. The line I would hold is independence.
Washington draws its maps through a bipartisan commission, and the 2021 cycle showed the cracks. The commission missed its deadline working behind closed doors, and a federal court later struck down a Yakima Valley map that diluted Latino voters’ power and redrew it. For 2031 I would support real transparency: open meetings, public data, and draft maps people can see and comment on before they are locked in. I would support stronger Voting Rights Act compliance so no community gets split to cut its voice. And I am open to moving toward a truly independent commission that keeps sitting politicians and their appointees out of drawing their own districts.
Housing. In Chief Garry Park, where I live, long-time renters get pushed out every month. A landlord raises rent $400, families move, the corner store loses its regulars, and the school loses kids. Median rent in Spokane is rising, and the region is short tens of thousands of homes. The state has a real role. Fund the Housing Trust Fund and permanent supportive housing. Fully implement missing-middle zoning so we can build duplexes, townhomes, and cottages again. Defend the rent stabilization law and pass right to counsel so no tenant faces eviction alone. Build homes at every income, and keep the families who built these neighborhoods in them.
Campaign Phone Number
5095906885
Biography (max 750 char)
Dr. Pam Kohlmeier is a physician, attorney, educator, and community leader dedicated to improving healthcare and behavioral health in Washington. A retired emergency physician, she saw firsthand the challenges families face accessing care. She later graduated magna cum laude from Gonzaga University School of Law, taught in Eastern Washington University's Master of Public Health Program, and served as Staff Attorney and Policy Manager for the Washington Medical Commission. She serves on the boards of Frontier Behavioral Health, NAMI-Spokane, and Partners with Families & Children, bringing evidence-based leadership, compassion, and public policy expertise to public service.
My top budget priorities are stabilizing healthcare systems, improving behavioral health access, strengthening public education, increasing affordable housing, and protecting public safety. I support evidence-based investments that go upstream to address issues to improve long-term outcomes and reduce the need for costly crisis responses. To help fund these priorities, I support requiring the wealthiest Washingtonians to pay their fair share in a manner consistent with our state constitution, while pursuing federal grants and reducing waste through greater accountability, improved government efficiency, and better coordination across agencies. Budget reductions should prioritize preserving essential services that keep Washington families healthy, safe, educated, and economically secure.
Washington must continue protecting secure, accessible elections while strengthening public trust through transparency, accountability, and civic education. We should support our county election officials, protect voting by mail, expand voter education about how ballots are verified and counted, and increase access to accurate, nonpartisan election information. I support policies that make voting easier for eligible voters while maintaining strong safeguards against fraud. I also support moving toward ranked-choice voting because I believe it encourages broader voter participation, rewards candidates who can build wider coalitions, and can reduce political polarization. Every Washingtonian should have confidence that their vote is counted fairly and accurately.
Public safety requires improving prevention. We need to go upstream to prevent homelessness, substance abuse, and poverty-related crimes by fully funding public education and improving housing at all price-points, including tiny house communities. When our youth are housed and educated, they are less likely to struggle. As a physician, I know untreated mental illness and substance use disorders can contribute to crises, so expanding mental health and substance use disorder treatment is essential. We must also invest in youth violence prevention, and victim services because safer communities result from addressing root causes while holding offenders accountable. Evidence-based policies that improve health, opportunity, and public safety will strengthen communities across Washington.
A strong democracy depends on an informed public and access to trustworthy local news. Washington should support local journalism through policies that promote transparency, public access to government information, and a sustainable local news ecosystem without compromising editorial independence. We should encourage civic education, strengthen public records access, and ensure communities—especially rural and underserved areas—have access to reliable local reporting. Independent journalism plays a vital role in holding government accountable, combating misinformation, and helping residents make informed decisions about their communities and elections. We continue witnessing many of the issues linked to misinformation post-pandemic. We can, and must, protect independent journalism.
Washington's bipartisan Redistricting Commission should continue drawing districts that provide equal representation while increasing transparency and public participation. Districts should preserve communities of interest whenever practical by keeping neighborhoods, cities, and regions with shared identities together rather than unnecessarily dividing them. For example, many residents view Spokane's South Hill as a single community and believe it should be within one state legislative district. Neighbors across the street have much in common and LD designations should reflect community connections. Redistricting should produce contiguous, compact districts, comply with the Voting Rights Act, rely on objective criteria, and ensure every Washingtonian has fair and effective representation.
The greatest challenge impacting the 3rd LD is healthcare access and funding. Our hospitals are already experiencing huge funding shortfalls and HR1 (the "One Big Beautiful Bill") is worsening this. Our state Legislature has not had a physician-legislator since 2013. We need one now. With healthcare funding becoming more and more challenging, I have medical-legal skills to help our state move toward a state-run universal healthcare insurance option that reimburses health systems at cost and is available to all residents. We need a physician in our state Legislature now to help address access, funding, and a multitude of other health-related issues. I will do all I can to help improve the health of our community.
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