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Biography (max 750 char)
Claire Wilson has proudly represented the 30th Legislative District in the Washington State Senate since 2018. A longtime educator, community leader, and advocate for children and families, she brings more than 35 years of experience in early learning, public education, and family engagement to public service. In the Senate, Claire has worked to lower costs for working families while protecting reproductive freedom, expanding access to affordable child care and behavioral health services, and increasing housing opportunities. A lifelong Washingtonian and proud lesbian woman, Claire remains committed to making Washington more affordable while building safer, healthier communities where every person has the opportunity to thrive.
Preserving investments in human services, child welfare, juvenile justice, and childcare/early learning are some of my top budget priorities, as I am committed to strengthening our local communities and infrastructure, even as we deal with difficult budget years. Cuts from the federal government left our legislature in an unfortunate position to reduce or pause investments we’d made in recent years. We need to do everything we can to avoid making more cuts, including exploring all of our progressive revenue options and building on the Millionaires tax.
Washington has one of the best and most accessible voting systems in the country, and the federal government’s attempts to decrease public trust in mail-in voting are a tragedy. We can and must take action to increase public trust in the system and further improve access. We can do more to increase awareness around primaries, odd-year, and special elections, and find ways to make voting more accessible and appealing to communities of color, young people, and people with disabilities. It is also important to create transparency around the voting process and combat the misinformation around the integrity of mail-in voting.
Gun violence is arguably the most urgent public safety crisis in our country. We’ve done good work in recent years to pass effective gun safety legislation, but there is more work to do. We need to look upstream to the circumstances and situations that cause gun violence and address them. Investing in our most vulnerable and overlooked communities to ensure that people have food security, safe communities, good schools, mental health supports, and real opportunities is the best way to avoid future public safety issues. In addition, we need to take more steps to address the drug addiction crisis, focusing on treatment and rehabilitation to ensure that people can actually heal and recover.
With disinformation at an all-time high, it’s more important than ever that we support local journalism and ensure access to reliable news sources. Washington has already taken some good first steps. The Murrow News Fellowship has placed journalists in newsrooms across the state that otherwise couldn't afford them, and we eliminated the B&O tax for publishers to help outlets stay afloat. We do have a role to play here, whether that's expanding fellowship programs, exploring how we make sure the tech platforms that profit from local news content help sustain it, or looking at tax incentives that support subscriptions and local advertising.
I support changes in 2031 that ensure fair representation of Washington’s communities and better transparency to the public regarding the redistricting process. I believe we can better reflect our state’s changing demographics and needs by expanding representation on the Redistricting Commission and reforming our process to cause less confusion and difficulty.
The affordability crisis continues to affect working families not just in my community, but across our state and country. Compounded with the housing crisis, Washingtonians in the 30th LD and beyond are facing difficult choices between everyday necessities and rising rent or homeownership costs. To combat this, I’ve advocated for investments in affordable housing, transportation, support for those experiencing homelessness, and expanded career opportunities for our youth. However, I believe our state needs to do more to address affordability by closing tax loopholes for big corporations and Washington’s wealthiest and lowering the burden of taxes on our working families.
