Someone should run
The short version
So I did.
I was born and raised in the Bay Area, California. My mom was a receptionist and my dad a machinist; they separated when I was young. I graduated from high school during the Great Recession and watched as the economy crumbled around us. In 2009 I was fortunate enough to go to college for my bachelor’s at UC Santa Barbara with the help of my family, and worked a part time job as a campus security guard.
When my grandfather was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer in 2013, I took a few weeks to visit with him. I was with him until the day he died. When I came home, the school wouldn’t refund the quarter — even knowing why I had left. A friend stepped in to help. Another got me a job at a froyo shop. I made up credits at community college, and returned to UC Santa Barbara in 2014 to finish my degree. Were it not for my friends and family I would not have been able to complete that degree. They taught me the importance of community.
Service
Nine and a half years.
After college I found jobs in my field were scarce. I worked at Office Depot, at Nordstrom, and as a security guard again, until 2015 when I joined the Navy. For nine and a half years I served my country as a nuclear reactor operator, deploying three times aboard the USS Theodore Roosevelt — once to the Middle East to assist the Kurds and our allies against ISIS, and twice more to the South China Sea for freedom of navigation operations.
I served alongside people doing hard work under hard conditions. Some of them were the most generous people I’ve known. Others showed me what stress can do when there’s nowhere for it to go. They all taught me that dignity and respect are practices, not feelings — they’re what you maintain under pressure, not what you have when it’s easy.
After my last deployment my wife agreed to move out to upstate New York with me, where we started our family. There I served the remainder of my term with the Navy and finished my Master of Public Administration in the summer of 2025. By fall I started a job as an HVAC technician, and we moved out to Washington and settled in Auburn to be closer to both of our families. They remind me why I still serve.
What service looks like now
Service didn’t end with the uniform.
I am running for state House Representative because my service did not end when I hung up the uniform. I am running because my son deserves to grow up in a community that isn’t torn apart by outrage media, and neighbors who used to know each other. And I am running because I believe that you deserve to be treated with dignity and respect by the people you elect.
Why I’m running
I’m running for the parents whose children did everything right — earning their bachelors, getting their masters, and are still unable to find a job, with no prospects of owning their own home.
I am running for the voter who has shown up for 50 years — at the polls, at the protests, in this room — who feels beyond tired.
And I am running for my son, who I want to inherit a Washington that is Evergreen, an economy that is fulfilling, and a democracy where his voice and the voices of all the children here are heard.
— Stephen, Indivisible Auburn, May 2026
Who this is for
Built for the people who live here
Families
Paychecks that go further, schools that work, streets that are safe.
Long-time voters
A representative who answers the phone and remembers the district’s name.
Young families
An affordable place to put down roots and a reason to stay.