Candidate has not yet responded.
Candidate has not yet responded.
Candidate has not yet responded.
Candidate has not yet responded.
Candidate has not yet responded.
Candidate has not yet responded.
Campaign Phone Number
5098500789
Biography (max 750 char)
An independent political candidate running for Washington States House of Representatives position in Legislative District 6, Aaron Croft has dedicated nearly 22 years of service to the United States, including combat leadership, foreign affairs, and work as a diplomat in a U.S. Embassy. His decorated, military career taught him the value of service, accountability, and putting people first- principles he now brings home to Eastern Washington. Aaron has deep local ties. He served at Fairchild Air Force Base and chose Spokane as the place to retire with his family. His wife grew up in Elk, WA, and both of their children pursued undergraduate degrees here in Eastern Washington. Their family’s roots run deep in the Inland Northwest.
Healthcare would be my top priority, followed closely by housing. Fix the staffing shortages, fund rural healthcare because it all spills into urban areas, and regulate and hold accountable the insurance agencies. Incentivizing the right housing/zoning laws, eliminate time delays, and removing barriers that make affordable housing too expensive for developers to even try. A lot of that is revenue neutral, but I have identified $1.5-2.5B that seems like it is from unsuccessful, underperforming, or never been executed programs where we can use that funding for healthcare and housing.
Engagement! We typically only hear from politicians when they need our vote or our money. I want to have constant engagement with the district. I want mini-counsels on all the different topics: healthcare, housing, homelessness, taxes, environmental, human rights, AI and data centers, education, and veterans. I want these groups to be made up of individuals from the community, both experts and simple consumers because we are likely sitting on the answers to every question out there. Politicians get in rooms together and talk as though they are the wisest, smartest people with all of the answers. The people have the answers, and when I have these little counsels, it will instill faith in the government by simply showing the people that their words lead to legislation.
Fund law enforcement and mental health fully, and train them properly. Our police are expected to do too much and wear too many hats. Provide them with better de-escalation training, less that lethal force, and have mental health experts respond where it makes sense with police in a "holding position" to an already volatile mental health situation. We jail entirely too many people because we have a shortage of mental health professionals, and it's easier to jail someone than to help them. Hiring more police only works if the judiciary bottleneck is also removed, so dedicated statte funding to hire more prosecuting attorneys, public defenders, and judges must also happen.
Funding, tax credits, and regulation of internet and media giants who abuse their information without crediting them. I think standardizing what principles local journalism should mean and stand for would be a good thing to prevent corruption and bias.
Any redistricting should be done by independent organizations in accordance with the census. Any types of partisan advantage should always be avoided, and we need rules in place, likely a constitutional amendment, to prevent people down the road from changing the rules and redistricting for partisan advantage.
Our real problem is R vs D, it's tribal loyalty overriding results. At roughly 60/40 R, this district keeps sending reliable 'no' votes to Olympia in a chamber Democrats control by a wide margin, so the majority has no incentive to negotiate and Eastern Washington loses leverage on budget and policy fights that affect it directly. Predictable opposition gets ignored; only legislators willing to negotiate get a seat at the table. We need a rep willing to cross the aisle and talk with both sides. Rural, minority-party districts across the state face this same structural squeeze. Elected officials need to model working across disagreement, not deepening it. Then the district starts to see real progress, and legislators addressing this side of the state's issues.
Campaign Phone Number
5099035701
Biography (max 750 char)
I moved to Spokane in 1989 as the daughter of Air Force veterans. I have lived throughout the district including Airway Heights and Indian Trail. I am a mom and foster mom officially, but unofficially I’ve been “mom” or “aunt” to many young people. As a disabled person, I know accessibility and affordability impact the health of our economy, but some of our representatives don't understand. They listen to big voices, but when a regular constituent travels to Olympia they “aren’t available”. How can someone represent you if they won’t listen? Send me to Olympia to be the voice for Eastern Washington and I will make sure we are heard. I will be “Approachable to everyone, Accountable to YOU.”
I believe that the ongoing issues with the budget can be addressed by focusing on modifications to our regressive tax code. We need to analyze why a majority of the tax burden falls on middle class individuals who are already struggling to make ends meet. Large corporations and individuals with an excess of income should be providing the majority of the tax revenue for our state. This needs to be done carefully to avoid shocking an already struggling economy. Reductions, when necessary, should be focused on those areas that can afford the tightening of financial flow. We need to protect groups that are already making a dollar stretch. Services that help the underrepresented, under paid, and those struggling already should not be the first target for cuts.
I believe transparency is absolutely essential to building trust in our elections. Washington provides a lot of this information but a large section of our voters don't know that. Programs that go out into the community to encourage registration to vote can also provide education to the public on ways that they can access the information. Civic participation is something people will do when they have time to do it. Right now individuals have to work two or more jobs just to make ends meet. Focusing on making living more affordable will free up time, and allow people to become involved. I also feel that people are tired of trying to communicate with their leaders and getting a form letter, or no response at all. Our leaders need to be out in the communities they represent.
I feel that furthering education within our policing programs to make sure that officers are given better tools to recognize mental health situations has been effective and needs more support. My personal experience with officer response teams that included a mental health professional showed me that this approach is vastly more effective, and can prevent the arrest of individuals who need a different kind of intervention. Individuals who commit a crime need to answer for that, but addressing the possible underlying reasons can do so much more for preventing a repeat of behavior and help improve our community and mitigate the burden on our prison system.
I want to see more accurate and local journalism. The valid concern with State involvement in supporting local journalism is the perceived obligation to the State for that funding and assistance. Local journalism needs support, but that support coming from the State needs to be carefully regulated and monitored by independent oversight to make sure that there isn't any implied or implicit pressure to modify the reporting. Truth in journalism is an ideal that we need to fight for aggressively. The strength of the press is in the ability to disagree with the government and hold it accountable.
Redistricting needs to be done carefully and with an eye to actual equal representation. I live in a district that was adjusted in a very odd way, and there have been a lot of questions about the motivation behind the changes. We need to make sure that redistricting is done in a way that is for the benefit of the voters, not the government, not the politicians. I feel that having more citizen input in this process could help highlight the focus needing to be on the people who live there.
My district is large and diverse. District 6 has urban, rural, small town and industrial sections. What works for one section of the district won't work for other parts. I believe a universal issue for my district is the cost of housing and the availability of housing options in the lower to middle class range. I think that government support for the organizations that have already established an infrastructure to fix these kinds of issues will be the best investment of time and resources. I would like to see the Legislature focus more on supporting existing, and successful organizations rather than trying to create new groups to solve the housing issue.
