Restoring Common Sense to Olympia

The Fight for Our Residents

The 2025 legislative session brought a crisis to the heart of our state. The majority party attempted to force the closures of our critical Residential Habilitation Centers. They targeted closure of Rainier School, Lakeland Village, and other Residential Habilitation Centers for our state's most disabled adults with a reckless plan.

This plan lacked any viable community care alternative. It placed profoundly disabled residents at extreme risk. It kicked them out of these facilities to a system that has no support. These individuals faced the terrifying reality of homelessness or even death. Worse, it's happened before in WA state! They did this years ago and it ended in people dying in silence!

I watched the debate, horrified, as policymakers treated human lives like spreadsheet line-items. They viewed our most vulnerable citizens as mere costs to be eliminated. I saw the gaps in our infrastructure and the failure of our leadership.

I realized the depth of our systemic failure during those heated debates. I saw a government that had lost its way. I spoke the truth about our broken systems.

"We have the inability to build. We have the inability to house. We have the inability to budget. We have the inability to do many things that we need to do to protect this community."

My Stand Against the Closures

I refused to accept this reckless path. I fought back against the proposed closures with every tool at my disposal. I stood up for the residents who cannot stand up for themselves.

I successfully killed the Senate version of the closure bill. We built a bipartisan coalition that stood up against he hyper-focused proponents of this policy. The coalition stood up to the governor, the speaker of the house, and the senate majority. We said, NO!

We refused to let the state abandon our citizens without a safety net. We fought the momentum of the majority party to a multi-day standstill. We protected our state's most vulnerable.

And we forced the legislature to adopt a transition oversight plan. We demanded accountability for every decision that affects these residents.

The opposition practiced irresponsible budgeting.

They prioritized ideological wins over human safety. They ignored the practical realities of care and the necessity of our existing facilities. They focused on cutting costs instead of providing solutions.

A Vision for a Balanced Washington

We must take Washington back. We must bring balance back to Olympia. We cannot afford in budget terms and in human terms policy that ignores the human cost of the decisions we make in Olympia. I want to lead a movement of common sense.

I envision a state where government executes the basics flawlessly. We need a government that protects the vulnerable instead of abandoning them. We need a government that creates meaningful ways to hear from our most disabled residents.

We need a government that manages our budget with integrity and foresight. A government that keeps itself out of these stark decisions.

We must stop the extremes that drive our policy. We must reject the idea that we can balance a budget by sacrificing our neighbors. We must return to the fundamental responsibilities of leadership. We must say no to the pervasive "progressivism" that would kill our disabled adults to score political wins.

We are building a new coalition. We are doing something different. We are bringing accountability back to the legislative process.

We are reclaiming our state from those who have broken it.

We are fighting for a Washington that works for everyone.

Stand with me.

Watch the Floor Speech

• VIDEO | A Democrat policy threatening lives in Washington state (House Bill 1472)
• This is a grave mistake — Reps. Travis Couture and Joshua Penner speak out against House Bill 1472 | House Appropriations Committee