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Biography (max 750 char)
Debra Lekanoff has served as your Representative in Olympia for eight years, on Healthcare and Wellness, Housing, Rules, and Appropriations Committees, plus the MMIWP Task Force. She brings 30+ years in public service spanning healthcare, salmon recovery, climate, infrastructure, treaty rights, education, housing, and unions. Debra holds a BA in Business/Finance from Central Washington University. She's committed to every kitchen table issue: affordability, healthcare, housing, safety, and schools, while protecting salmon, forests, and the Salish Sea, supporting unions and jobs, defending reproductive freedom, and tackling fentanyl and homelessness. She helped fund three new ferries and sped up ferry hiring.
My top priorities are protecting healthcare access, housing affordability, and the services families rely on, while keeping our budget balanced and sustainable. On Appropriations, I push to fund what actually moves the needle: behavioral health, childcare, and infrastructure like our ferries. If savings are needed, I look first at reducing duplication and outdated programs before touching direct services. For revenue, I support closing tax loopholes that benefit large corporations rather than raising costs on working families, and I've backed responsible, targeted revenue tools that protect the middle class.
Washington should keep expanding what already works: vote-by-mail, prepaid postage, automatic voter registration, and same-day registration. I support continued investment in election security and cybersecurity for county auditors, plus clear public communication so voters trust the results. Civic participation grows when people see the government working for them, so I also support civics education in schools and translated materials and outreach for tribal, rural, and non-English-speaking communities who are too often left out of the process.
Real public safety means investing upstream and downstream together. I support funding behavioral health and substance use treatment, including fentanyl response, alongside fully funding law enforcement training and de-escalation standards. Community-based violence prevention programs, especially for youth, save lives before crises happen. I also prioritize crisis response teams that pair police with mental health professionals, and continued investment in housing, since stable housing is one of the most effective public safety tools we have.
Local news is a public good, and the state has a role in keeping it alive. I support the tax credits and grant programs Washington has created to help sustain local newsrooms, and I'd look at expanding them, especially for rural and tribal communities that lack reliable coverage. Reliable local journalism holds the government accountable and keeps communities informed on the decisions affecting their daily lives, from school boards to county councils, so protecting it is worth continued state investment.
I support strengthening transparency and public input in redistricting, including more community hearings before maps are finalized and clearer rules to prevent last-minute closed-door changes. I'd also support stronger protections to ensure tribal nations and communities of interest, including agricultural and fishing communities in our district, aren't split in ways that dilute their voice. Any reforms should keep the process independent and accountable to voters rather than incumbents.
The greatest challenge facing our district is affordability, from housing costs to the price of everyday essentials, layered on top of protecting the salmon, water, and treaty resources our communities depend on. The state must keep investing in affordable housing production, support family-wage union jobs, and fund the infrastructure, including our ferries, that connect our communities. The state government should also be a real partner to tribal nations on treaty rights and natural resource protection, not just a bystander.
