U.S. House District 5

Elected Experience

Precinct Committee Officer; Student Bar Association President, UW Law School.

Other Professional Experience

Foreign Service Officer (diplomat), U.S. Department of State, 24 years; Spokane County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney; Legal Advisor, Nissan Motor Company Ltd. 

Education

U.S. Naval War College, M.A. (top 5% of class), National Security; University of Washington, J.D., B.A. International Trade & Investment; Central Valley High School, Spokane Valley.

Community Service

CIA Agency Seal Award Recipient; Spokane County Democrats Chair; Gonzaga Law School Mock Trial Judge; Eastern Washington University Cyber Security Hackathon Judge; Spokane League of Women Voters; Civics Bowl; American Red Cross; Manzanita House; Friends of the Bluff Fire Risk Reduction Team Leader.

Statement

Our billion-dollar-a-day war with no clear mission or exit strategy has crippled our economy. Rent and mortgages are unaffordable. Grocery prices keep rising while paychecks stay flat. Gas, diesel, and fertilizer prices skyrocket. Wheat that used to ship to Asia sits in silos. Tariffs close markets that farmers spent decades expanding. Hospitals hanging by a thread in Dayton, Ritzville, Colville, and Pullman. This isn’t working. We can help fix it by unseating our freshman Congressmember.

As a blue-collar kid from Spokane, I put myself through college and law school and came back to Spokane County as Deputy Prosecutor to stand up for survivors of violence and sexual assault. I served our country for 24 years as a diplomat with the U.S. Foreign Service in places like Afghanistan, Japan, Norway, and Pakistan. I negotiated tough trade and national security issues across political, religious, and national divides.  As your Congresswoman, I'll end the tariffs punishing our farmers and consumers. I’ll fund rural hospitals, Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. I’ll bring a prosecutor’s skills to keep us safer, and uproot corruption. I’ll keep politicians out of your doctor’s office.

The current Congressmember could have stood up for us. He said he would. He didn’t. He fell in line and surrendered his responsibility and power to help us. He seems more interested in cozying up to elites than keeping them in check.  No one is above the law. Not the powerful or well-connected. Nobody shielding sex traffickers from accountability. I’m running because our communities and our Country deserve better.

I’m ready to be your next member in Congress and would be honored to have your vote. Recommended by the Spokane County Labor Council, and hundreds of neighbors across Eastern Washington. Endorsed by the Ferry County Democrats, Laborers, Machinists #751, Electrical Workers #73, Steamfitters #44.

Elected Experience

US Congressman (2025-); Treasurer, Spokane County (2019- 2025); Washington State Senator (2011-2018).

Other Professional Experience

Former Advisor, Hecla Mining. During the 2007 “surge”, I joined the State Department In Iraq. In 2009 I worked on a civilian counternarcotics team in Afghanistan, supporting farmers to grow wheat. (It’s where I met my wife, Eleanor.) We saw firsthand the bravery and sacrifices of our military. With WSU coach Mike Leach, I taught a class on football and counterinsurgency strategy.

Education

Gonzaga Prep and Pullman High; WSU – BA, Economics (1999); Harvard – MPA (2002).

Community Service

Former WSU Medical School Advisory Council. Active member St. Augustine’s Parish.

Statement

Today, Eastern Washington families are still being squeezed by high prices, federal overspending, and crime.

During my first term in Congress, I have kept my promise to help secure the border, reduce taxes, and cut waste and fraud. There is more work to do. 

I sponsored legislation to prohibit Members of Congress from trading individual stocks and profiting from special knowledge. I voted for permanent tax relief for working families and fought for lower taxes, smaller government, and more freedom. I helped enact laws to increase military salaries, and I will keep fighting for Fairchild Air Force Base and our veterans. I voted for the SAVE Act requiring people to show proof of citizenship when they register to vote, and supported a new $50 billion fund for rural healthcare. I helped pass the Farm Bill through the House for the first time in eight years, including my amendment focused on Eastern Washington water resources. I’ve worked to protect our Snake River dams. 

Public service means helping people. My office has answered over 180,000 emails and phone calls, helped hundreds of people cut through red tape, and returned $3.8 million to local families. I will always fight for our values while also working across the aisle when it helps Eastern Washington, treating people with respect and pushing to restore integrity and civility to Congress.

I’m proud to be supported by agriculture leaders like Mark Schoesler, Mary Dye and Alex McGregor, community leaders including Mike Padden and Phil Altmeyer, business leaders like Duane Vaagen and Barry Baker, sheriffs from Ferry, Stevens and Walla Walla Counties, and many more.

I love Eastern Washington: I grew up in Colton and on the Palouse, and my wife and I are raising our five children in Spokane. I would be honored to have your vote.