Campaign Phone Number
2064121535
Biography (max 750 char)
I’m a longtime community organizer who is trained in policy. My career centers the core question: how do we deliver what our communities need? I’m running for State Senate to bring community voices directly into Olympia and deliver on the priorities I hear every day: affordable housing, stronger public schools, safer neighborhoods, and reliable transit. I will champion accessible healthcare, climate justice, and an economy where working people can thrive. And I have the skillsets in tax policy, progressive revenue, and equitable policy design to secure the sustainable revenue we need. You deserve leadership centered in community and action, and with your vote – we will Build Different together.
Our state is built on the backs of working people. Yet, each year, working families are forced to sacrifice more – funding is cut for healthcare, education, public transit, childcare, and vital programs.
WA has a budget problem, and I will secure sustainable and diverse sources of revenue to settle it. First, I will look at the state's 40 largest polluters and make them pay (currently they get free credits to pollute). Secondly, I will work to expand the tax brackets for Capital Gains Tax & REET. Thirdly, I will close current tax exemptions for corporations who are recording record profits -- they should pay more than 0%.
We cannot solve our budget crisis with legislators who are unwilling to challenge corporations and those pocketing the most. Vote Brown.
There is immense responsibility for Washington to strengthen civic participation and public trust in our elections. For many community members, our vote is our voice. And when that vote does not carry the change we were promised, it can lead to greater disengagement. I have studied and innovated on ways to increase public trust and bring government to those who have never had their voices heard.
The State needs to lead on innovative tools that better our democracy: ranked choice voting, community assemblies, participatory budgeting, and increasing the competitiveness of elections. Our ability to meet the needs of the everyday person in our State is contingent on our ability to hear them. It is our responsibility to make it happen. Vote Brown.
My role as State Senator is to listen, build alongside the leaders in our communities, grow the capacity of what we know works, and stop what harms us. We need more investment in after-school programs, humane responses to our neighbors in crisis, community gathering places, and methods that make us collectively feel safer; dignified; valued; and human.
At the State, I will build this social safety net by securing the funding for local organizations, promoting alternative models for community safety, standing against the rise of surveillance on our neighbors, and building robust after-school programs. Vote Brown.
Reliable news outlets are essential for a democracy. What we read has great influence of what perspectives we hear, what positions we take, and what policies we support. When these outlets are concentrated, it grows harder to get a wide spread of perspectives.
The State needs to invest in more local journalism and stand against the growing concentrations of news outlets in just a few hands. I will support initiatives like Sen. Marko Liias' last session (SB 5400) to establish the Washington Local News Journalism Corp. Additionally, I will advocate for additional funding to support apprenticeship programs and train up the next generation of journalists. Prioritize local journalism, civic trust, and Vote Brown.
Redistricting processes must lead in transparency. How our maps are drawn + what district we belong to directly impact our access to civic participation. It is the basis of whether we have representative democracy or gerrymandering.
At the Senate, I will work in coalition to bring this incredibly important process to the people in 2031. 1) We can reform the 4-member and party-appointed commission to increase representation. 2) We can pilot a consistent workforce (beyond the short window, every decade) that engages community and refines needs. 3) We can apply the Open Public Meetings Act (Chapter 42.30 RCW) and require all discussion, map drawing, and deliberations to be open-to-the-public.
No one should doubt they're being represented fairly. Let's build more transparently. Vote Brown
The greatest challenges are displacement and rising costs. The State can do many things and a Senator must stand to support their community. This means defending needed dollars and programming, leading in bold legislation to address key needs (displacement, education, immigrant rights), and being proactive. For example, the rise of data centers will directly increase the utility costs of the 37th + the proliferation of ICE will put many community members at risk. A legislator should be judged both on what they do inside Olympia and how they lead in their communities.
Our ability to be effective is largely dependent on how we spend the 9-months out of session. I will be with my community every day, preparing, learning our needs, and creating an exacting plan that delivers. Vote Brown.
Campaign Phone Number
2067053585
Biography (max 750 char)
Chipalo Street was raised in a working-class community. He was lucky enough to discover a love of technology at his public school, a passion that pushed him to earn a Bachelors and Masters in Computer Science from Brown University. Chipalo joined Microsoft where he works to keep their technology compliant with government regulations. Recognizing that the education that provided him with such great opportunities Chipalo co-founded the Teacher Scientist Partnership at TAF Academy. Here he developed and taught a computer science curriculum in south Seattle. In addition to his work at Microsoft, Chipalo started a small real estate company that views rental homes as partnerships between the owner and tenants. Despite around 1/3 of his tenants l
I’ve been Vice Chair of the Finance Committee for four years. During that time I’ve successfully worked to make the estate tax more progressive and close corporate tax loopholes. We fell short getting the wealth tax across the line but won an even larger victory this past year – passage of the historic Millionaires Tax.
Going forward we need to turn our attention to supporting the Millionaire tax at the ballot and in the court, as well as focus on implementation. We don’t want special interests to carve out exemptions. We can also consider restructuring our B&O tax and revisit progressive sources of revenue like the wealth tax.
Washington should strengthen public confidence by making elections secure, transparent, and accessible. That means protecting vote-by-mail, language access, and ballot drop boxes. We should also expand civic participation through ranked choice voting and campaign finance reform. Democracy works best when every eligible voter can participate and trust that their voice will be counted.
I believe public safety policy has to be broader than simply adding more officers. Communities need tools that prevent harm before it happens, respond to crisis without unnecessary escalation, and connect people to housing, behavioral health care, youth services, and economic opportunity.
The governor called for $100M to hire more police. I worked to make sure HB2015 looked at public safety more comprehensive than just policing. Ultimately the bill created a funding structure that can support co-response teams, peer counselors, behavioral health personnel, community outreach and assistance programs, alternative response programs, and mental health crisis response which reduce the number of people who enter the criminal legal system.
Washington should support local journalism because communities need reliable information to participate in democracy, hold government accountable, and understand decisions affecting their lives. The state should explore sustainable, viewpoint-neutral ways to strengthen local news, including grants for civic reporting and support for nonprofit/community-based media. Strong local journalism is especially important for communities that have been undercovered or misrepresented, including immigrant, BIPOC, rural, and low-income communities.
Ideally, Congress should end partisan gerrymandering nationwide so every state plays by the same fair rules. I understand the argument for, and support implementation of, retaliatory gerrymandering when other states manipulate maps, but that is not ultimately healthy for democracy.
The greatest challenge facing my district is affordability. Families are being squeezed by the cost of housing, health care, child care, utilities, and basic necessities, and too many people are being pushed out of the communities they call home. State government must respond at the scale of the crisis: build more affordable housing, strengthen tenant protections, move toward universal health care, and make child care a public good that every family can access. We also need progressive revenue so these investments are funded fairly, rather than asking working families to shoulder more of the burden.
