Betsy Robins is one of those people who leads from behind the scenes. She seems to be everywhere and she’s an encyclopedia of Clallam Democrat knowledge. She helps make things happen. 

My first introduction to Clallam Democrats was when I joined a sign-waving at the corner of Front and Lincoln Streets. I just had to do something after seeing a Trump tent down by Walmart. Betsy greeted me warmly, which made me feel welcome and part of the team. She’s been kind and attentive every time I’ve worked with her. She’s a model for any of us trying to make a difference. 

Betsy invited me to her lovely house downtown on Peabody Street, where she’s lived for over 30 years. While we enjoyed the view of the harbor, she told me a little about herself.

1. Tell me a little about your past – where did you grow up, where have you lived?
“I moved here from Seattle with my family when I was 21 years old,” says Betsy. She explains that she did a year at Washington State University (WSU), but when she was back in town, she met her husband and got married. She tells me she’s lived in Port Angeles since 1966. “We had kids right away, and I wasn’t very political at first,” she continues. “I started going to School Board meetings. A local paper saw me there and asked me to write a ‘school news’ column. Then I ran for School Board when I was 36, and served one term.” She continued to help the schools, working on winning the vote for levies (our local funding mechanism), and serving as levy chair once. She also worked as an educational aide helping special needs kids. She describes her career: “I worked for 30 years as a dental assistant. I loved the work. I worked behind the scenes and kept things moving.”

2. What led you to the Democratic Party? 
Betsy replies, “It started with the Hilary election, and the rift over Bernie. I got caught in the middle – it was a lot about personalities. Alliances are good – we need to work together to bring people in.” She explains how she found her role in the County Party. “I hang around, and when there’s something that needs to be done, I do it. When there’s a job, like planning events – I’m a helper.” Betsy explains her motivations for backing the Democrats. “No choice to me. Never an alternative to aiding all our citizens so they have an opportunity not just to survive, but to flourish. Education, basic things like housing, work – Democrats face those issues inclusively and cooperatively.” 

3. What has been the highest point for you as a Democrat?
Betsy ponders this question for a minute. “Obama’s election. It proved that a qualified person from any background can get elected. He was young and inspiring.”

4. What leadership positions have you held in the past? How did that experience prepare you for your position with Clallam Dems?
“I’ve been a Trustee for three two-year terms,” Betsy explains. “I was Membership Chair. Working with the School Board, levy committees, political committees. I organized campaigns with yard signs and newspaper ads. I had a leadership position with a women’s education organization, and I’ve been on nonprofit Boards, like the Fine Arts Center. I like to work together with people.”

5. What advice would you give to a volunteer thinking of taking on more responsibility in the Democrats?
Betsy waves her hand in a welcoming gesture. “Just come on in and participate. Just jump in. Give a listen and see where your interest and skills lie. There’s always a spot. Pick a committee. Get a feel for where you best fit in.” Betsy expresses concern that greeting a volunteer with ‘Here, do this’ may not work. “The hardest thing is getting to ‘I want to participate.’ Just try something out. Come down on Thursday and write post cards. Get familiar with the Party, and feel like you can join in.”

6. How do we pass the legacy of the Democratic Party to future generations?
Betsy considers this. “We need communication, and inclusive activities. Perhaps we could work with a Professor at Peninsula College. Port Angeles is a good ‘word-of-mouth’ town.”

Betsy ends our interview with her usual humble approach. “I had no education, I was just curious, interested, and got involved.”

Steve Tharinger has been our State Representative in the 24th District since 2011. He is halfway through his eighth two-year term, and is Chair of the House Capital Budget Committee, a highly influential position for funding infrastructure projects across the state. He also sits on the House Health Care and Wellness Committee and Appropriations Committee, as well as four other Joint Committees. Previously he served three terms as a Clallam County Commissioner, from 2000 through 2012. Steve found a break in his busy schedule to chat with me on the phone.

1. Tell me a little about your past – where did you grow up, where have you lived?
“I went to high school in the Twin Cities in Minnesota,” Steve tells me. “I got a degree in political science from Colorado College, then spent some time on the east coast.” Steve came out to Seattle in 1976, where he was a contractor building houses. But he wanted a change, so he moved to the north Peninsula, and eventually settled down in Sequim. He reminisces: “I built a boat, and started a woodworking shop for kitchen specialty bent wood materials.” 

When the Growth Management Act (GMA) was passed in 1990, Steve joined several committees. “I wanted to learn how to use planning to manage growth and maintain working landscapes,” he explains. “I loved the area, and I was concerned about losing farmland and conversion of timber resources.” He worked on the Timber and Mineral, and Agricultural Lands GMA committees, and went on to be Chair of the County’s Planning Commission, where he helped develop Clallam County’s Comprehensive Plan.  

In 1995, he ran for Clallam County Commissioner and lost, but ran again in 1999 and was successful. “There was a strong Republican organization in the 1990s,” he says. “If you were a Democrat, you had to walk around with a paper bag over your head. But now the County has shifted from red to more purple, especially in Sequim.” He worked with the county Democrats to help candidates. “I helped Evan Jones by putting up yard signs. It was not a strong party organization back then.”

2. What led you to the Democratic Party? 
Steve replies, “I like that it’s a big tent, inclusive, and supportive of trying to strengthen the community by addressing problems.” He explains that coastal counties like Grays Harbor were strongholds for “FDR Labor Democrats,” but that changed when timber jobs decreased.

3. What has been the highest point for you as a Democrat?
Steve quickly answers. “It’s been an honor to be an elected official, a County Commissioner and a State Representative. Those are the high points.” I asked him if he had any specific accomplishments he was proud of. “As a Commissioner, we addressed environmental issues, worked on the Dungeness Water Rule, tried to find a balance for water, fish,  agriculture, and development. I worked on health care issues, both at the Commissioner and State levels.”  Steve describes how he was able to get a higher reimbursement rate for hospitals, with a state/federal match. He was able to direct around $2 million to our hospitals. “I’ve been able to do that for the last 6 or 7 years,” he explains with pride. “Being the Capital Budget Chair, I’ve had some success funding childcare, behavioral health, and dental care facilities.” 

4. How have personal experiences helped you with leadership as an elected official?
“Showing up, being consistent, being someone who can work within a team ” Steve explains. He points to his experience in the early advisory committees and the Planning Commission. He says, “I had training early in mediation at the Dispute Resolution Center – be an active listener, be non-judgmental. It helped me to be a respected Committee Chair.” He says that Dispute Resolution Centers are being used by the Legislature, Courts, and more recently, for tenant-landlord disputes. “The statement I like is ‘turn judgment and fear into curiosity and understanding’.” He laments that people now are doing things without a rational basis, motivated by fear, leading to ideological rigidity.

5. What advice would you give to a volunteer thinking of taking on more responsibility in the Democrats?
“The worker bees – they are the core of what we do,” Steve says. “It’s good to help out, like with door belling, parades, and other functions. For people interested in more structured community engagement – get on committees. Cities and Counties are always looking for members for various committees. Activists sometimes get frustrated with committee work, but it’s important work and a good way to learn how things get done.”

6. How do we pass the legacy of the Democratic Party to future generations?
Steve considers, then responds. “Be focused on the issues that affect youth, like housing, employment, climate change.” He explains that the Party needs to be listening to those voices and the solutions they might be thinking of. But we need to avoid getting bogged down in process. “Help the party be an effective voice for those concerns,” he says. “For younger people, it’s their responsibility –  they need to speak out. But maybe we should not be so party-focused, instead be more issue-focused – less rules, more results.” He believes that the Democrats can be a good place to achieve success if we listen and evolve. But he acknowledges that there’s a lot of information out there and yet people are not truly informed, which can be overwhelming, and sometimes conspiratorial. “We need to filter through that and create a game plan,” he explains, “while recognizing that young people are very concerned and connected.”  

Tim Wheeler (Photo credit: Keith Ross / Keith’s Frame of Mind)

When Tim Wheeler walks in the Democrats HQ with me, he hands me two books. “I autographed them!” he says. “Did you see me in the Irrigation Festival?” I tell him I saw on Facebook that he was honored as a “pioneer”. He laughs and tells me one of the organizers is a big supporter of Clallam Democrats.  Sitting down with him, Tim’s smile and jolly demeanor may fool you into thinking he’s not serious. But at 85, he’s every bit the dedicated activist. He serves on the Clallam Democrats Executive Boards a Trustee for District 1, he shows up at just about every event, organizes sign-waving, draws custom-designed signs, writes opinion pieces, marches in parades…and on and on. Tim is a man of his word, and a man of many words. He seemed a great candidate to teach us about a life of activism.

1. Tell me a little about your past – where did you grow up, where have you lived?
​
“I was born in D.C., where my parents were federal workers. My Dad was blacklisted” (during the Joe McCarthy era) “and we left for Seattle, where most of our family lived.” Tim tells how his father looked around for a place to start a dairy farm, and bought a farm in Sequim in 1948. “My parents wanted to drop out, disappear. They had no radio or newspaper subscription. But they had 78 RPM records of Paul Robeson. I loved them!” When Robeson had a show in Seattle, Tim was nearly broke, but his Mom let Tim and his brother Steve hitchhike to Seattle to hear Robeson sing. He asked his teacher for permission to skip school for a day, and his teacher asked him why. When Tim told him he wanted
to see Paul Robeson, his teacher replied, ‘I wish I could go!’.

Tim thrived in Clallam County. “It was the basic democracy of American people. I was always welcomed in the community.” There was a strong left-wing community in Clallam then. “Port Angeles was founded by the Puget Sound Cooperative Colony. They were utopian socialists who believed in share and share alike.” Tim met organizers like Vivian Gaboury. “She mobilized the labor movement and community organizations to build what is now OMC to treat wounded
loggers, millworkers, and farmers.” He thrived in Sequim High School. “I loved it, there were many wonderful teachers.”

Inspired by his art teacher, he applied to Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he studied on and off for several years. During one break, he returned to Seattle and took classes at the University of Washington. “That’s where I met my wife Joyce. I was always drawn to activism, getting out in the streets and going to demonstrations. I helped the Student Peace Union at UW, and joined a march at the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle in 1962.”

After finishing at Amherst, he went to Portland to study to be a school teacher at Reed College. “I was thriving as a teacher, but also deeply involved in organizing. I was flunking out.” Tim got a cow-milking job, then a union job at a paper mill. “I met a CPUSA organizer, who heard I was a writer. He hired me, and I became a reporter in New York City.”  This launched a writing career that spanned four decades.
​
Tim continues with a burst of energy. “I was a go-getter as a reporter.” He provides an example. “There was an uprising in Newark, and people were killed. I went with a photographer to cover it. I walked into the police station and asked for the coroner’s report. The cop said ‘go back to New York’. As I walked out, the secretary up front whispered to me to go to the hospital to get the report. The report said that the victims were shot in the back, over and over. I interviewed a woman whose son was shot. I was always looking for the grassroots.”

He left New York to live 30 years in Baltimore, where his wife taught school and he worked from D.C. “Joyce was always the breadwinner,” he notes. He rose from a reporter to the editor of the People’s World. Finally in 2006, he and Joyce retired and moved back to Sequim. “I moved to the family farm with my sister Honeybee,” (another Clallam Dems activist) “and my brother Steve. Right away I plugged into political activities. Joyce and I worked to turn out the vote for Barack Obama, whose father Barack Obama (senior) visited our farm in 1962 when we were all students at UW. Obama carried Clallam County in both 2008 and 2012 by a handful of votes, thanks in large part to Joyce’s doorbelling.”

Tim continues to live on the family farm in Sequim. His place off Woodcock Road is easy to spot – the street is lined with political signs for Democratic candidates and causes.
​
2. What led you to the Democratic Party? 

Tim says “I’m drawn to the grassroots, both regional and local. Masses of people are the leading force to preserve and expand democracy and benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare.”
He describes with pride his work organizing street-corner sign waves. But he expresses frustration with the national Democratic Party. “I have very deep differences with them, such as with their attitude toward free-trade agreements. Clinton supported NAFTA, which wiped out union jobs.”

I asked about his involvement with the Democrats after a career with CPUSA. “The curse of the left is sectarianism,” he explains. “There are arrogant leftwingers who won’t compromise. We need a broad coalition, a united front, everyone welcome, Democrats, Republicans---in the mold of Abraham Lincoln---Independents, Socialists, Communists ready to unite in defense of democracy, race and gender equality, and world peace.”

3. What has been the highest point for you as a Democrat?

“There was an unforgettable moment,” Tim reminisces. “I was at a 2008 rally in Denver at Mile High Stadium with about 85,000 people. It was the end of the convention that nominated Obama. I looked around – ‘Look at this crowd! Such a mix of so many backgrounds.’ We still need that kind of coalition.”

4. What leadership positions have you held in the past? How did that experience prepare you for
your position with Clallam Dems?

Tim thinks for a moment. “I was editor at People’s World. I’m on the Executive Board of PSARA.” (Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action) “Now I’m a Trustee for Clallam Dems.”
“These are all important assignments” he continues. “But the important thing isn’t leadership alone.
It’s leadership plus grassroots activism. You need to be active and try to influence people.”

5. What advice would you give to a volunteer thinking of taking on more responsibility in the Democrats?

“Be consistent,” Tim responds. “If you make a commitment, keep the commitment. This is not momentary, it’s an ongoing thing. You have a responsibility to who you work with. If you take on a responsibility – be there.”

6. How do we pass the legacy of the Democratic party to future generations?

Tim answers immediately, “Recruit more young people. When young people are engaged, support them fully.” He continues, “Teach the history. That’s why I wrote my books.” He says we need to convince young people there is a future – avoid cynicism and despair. “We don’t have to accept the rule of billionaires. Young people are more radical. They care about immigrants, the cost of college, the loss of benefits. We need a program that appeals to young people.  We need a real campaign on the issues.”

[Tim Wheeler’s books include: News for the 99% (Volumes 1 and 2); News from Rain Shadow County; and No Power Greater – The Life and Times of George A. Meyers (International Publishers, https://www.intpubnyc.com/book-author/tim-wheeler/ 
and https://www.intpubnyc.com/browse/nopowergreater/)]

​Paul Pickett

I recently sat down in the Port Angeles Library with Hank Warren, activist, Precinct Committee Officer, and a long-time member of the Clallam Democrats Executive Board, where he now serves as a Trustee for District 2.

Hank’s eyes sparkled with a smile as he handed me his resumé. “I wanted you to have this to help you.” Hank has lived with his wife of 66 years, Raedell, for 50 years in Washington, of which 46 were in Port Angeles. He retired from the National Park Service, with his last assignment as Chief Naturalist of Olympic National Park. 

Hank has just turned 88 years old. 

Tell me a bit about your past? Where did you grow up, where have you lived?
“I grew up in California – born in Oakland, raised in Lafayette” he begins. He worked in a grocery store in high school, and in his dad’s homebuilding business. He served in the Air Force for four years as a nuclear weapons specialist, and when he left IBM hired him as a Customer Engineer. But he wanted a change. “I grew up loving to hike in Yosemite. I decided I wanted to work for Parks instead of going to medical school.” 

That led to a job as a ranger at Armstrong Woods State Park. “A manager in the National Park Service said he’d hire me whenever I wanted to come over.” So after 2 years working with the State, Hank joined the Park Service. His career took him to Lassen Volcanic National Park, then to Mount McKinley National Park as Chief Naturalist, then to a position as Assistant Chief of Resource Interpretation for the Pacific Northwest Regional Office, and finally to Olympic National Park and Port Angeles. He leaned forward and pointed at me: “I’ll tell you what made me a good employee – I was scrupulously honest!”


What led you to the Democratic Party? 
“We had a National Association of Federal Employees,” he explained. “They weren’t quite a union, but they’d track legislation and take pro/con positions on votes. It was pretty clear that the Democrats supported federal employees.” He mentioned that his grandmother was a cook for Earl Warren,  Governor of California and later Supreme Court Chief Justice. “I met him when he was Governor, and he treated me well.”

When he retired in 1995, Hank decided to get active. “I never let fear dominate me. I didn’t like what Republicans were doing. They only went after Democrats, and didn’t pursue good policies.” Hank focused on helping Democrat candidates. “The important thing” he emphasized with a smile and a jab of his fist, “is to be honest, hard-working, use good information, and vote your conscience.” 

What has been the highest point for you as a Democrat?
“When Biden beat Trump – I thought we’d shut this guy down,” he said. He observed that issues like immigration should be handled with compassion. “Mexican-Americans are humans, hard workers, but that’s not what the Republicans say.” He leaned back and looked at me intently. “Nobody at birth or as a young child got to choose their parents, their genetics or class, their family’s religion or politics, or their country of birth. Put yourself in the place of a child.”
​
What leadership positions have you held in the past? How did that experience prepare you for your position with Clallam Dems?
Hank has held leadership positions with national professional organizations, the U.S. Power Squadron, the Port Angeles Yacht Club, and Kiwanis. “I learned how to negotiate – put yourself in their shoes.” 

There were also his management positions in the National Park Service, such as Chief Naturalist. “I’m a strong environmentalist. But I was not paid to fight; I got paid to help things happen.” He shared stories about ONP projects he worked on. Because the Federal funds for the archeology project at the Ozette were placed in the Park budget, Hank was assigned as liaison with the Tribes for compliance. "I worked with the Tribe, and at their request even helped hire Native staff. Honest trust - that's how you work with people."

He told a story of his wife’s boss at Olympic Medical Center. “I’m not supposed to be alive”, he began. “When I was 70 I had a heart attack while I was down in Arizona. My wife needed help to get me home, so her boss went to Arizona and drove me home.

What advice would you give to a volunteer thinking of taking on more responsibility in the Democrats?
“Do it, but don’t impose your viewpoint. Whatever you do, try to walk away friends.” He explained that people vote with friendship. “Continue to help – we all need to do something.”

How do we pass the legacy of the Democratic party to future generations?
“That worries me a lot” Hank responded. “Try to be a good person yourself, and listen to yourself. People are human, you don’t know what they went through. Be a nice guy yourself, and do nice things.”

He handed me a sheet with the policy objectives he supports. At the end of the list was his ‘take-away’ message: “Those who providence has smiled upon need to help those that providence didn’t smile upon if we are going to have true liberty and well being.”

Policy objectives Hank Warren supports:

1. I oppose Trump and gang of thugs whose goal is to make him dictator for life and to trash all programs that support the middle and lower classes and alienating our allies in favor of dictators.
   
2. I encourage the democratic party to reach out more actively to middle of the political spectrum, making sure that the middle class understands that we want them to survive as we want all Americans to survive and respect each other. Especially, until Trumpism is defeated, people need to understand that just not voting or voting for lessor parties to make a statement is not good enough at the moment to get rid of the devil in the white house.
3. I cherish scrupulously, kind behavior, based on objective scientific knowledge and judgement.
4. I believe business profit should be regarded as a reward for quality goods and services rendered to customers, and fair treatment of employes, who in turn owe employers and customer's mutual respect.
5. I endorse compassionate emigration that permits talented people or those that are willingly to fill positions that go empty now. But I oppose unlimited emigration because, like it or not, nature's systems have limited carrying capacities.
6. I support expanding Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. Everybody has a right to good health care and good education if they are willing to study hard for it. The rich should pay their fair share to pay for all the foregoing.
7. The country benefits when the country has good professional national, state and local civil services.

      Henry Warren

​Julie Johnson, Neah Bay resident, is a State Committeewoman for Clallam County, Chair of the Native American Caucus of the Washington State Democrats, and was appointed a member of the Finance Committee and to the Executive Committee of the Washington State Democrat Party in January 2025. On February 17, I talked to her about her history of activism in the Democratic Party.

Tell me a bit about your past? Where did you grow up, where have you lived?
I am a Lummi Tribal member and when I was five years old my family moved to Neah Bay, where I spent my childhood. I married a wonderful Makah Man, a former teacher and coach here in Neah Bay. The first 15 years of our marriage we lived in Seattle. When we first moved to Seattle, I could not afford to attend college, so my husband would tape his Seattle Pacific University classes for me for two years. Eventually I attended several colleges: community colleges and University of Washington, as well as Evergreen and Western Washington whenever I could afford a class. Finally, I secured a bachelor’s degree in Social and Health Administration, with a minor in Economic Development. When my husband passed away about 11 years ago, I filled out a master’s degree scholarship application for Antioch University in Seattle. They asked me to submit an essay, I made the finals and then one day, they called me, “You have one hour to write a leadership paper -.”  Turn it in by 2 p.m.!  I won a $17,000 scholarship! Was so surprised!  This helped me get through the first year of my husband’s passing. I worked hard on a master’s degree in Community Organization.

What is your work experience?
I worked for the Makah Tribe as Social and Health Services Director for three years, and then moved into writing competitive grants and contracts. I worked with a Makah team to raise money to build a 250-boat marina, we worked closely with the Corp of Engineers to put in a breakwater to protect the Marina. Before that, I worked for the Lower Elwha S’Klallam Tribe as Planning Department Director. My job was to raise $1.6 million in research funding to “figure out how to take down the Elwha dams and restore the habitat in the Elwha River.” This was during the late 1980’s when Congressman Norm Dicks and Senator Slade Gorton were elected officials. 

​While conducting research of the history of the Elwha dams, elders of the tribe shared with me how the dams would release water without informing them. I asked “How did you notify everyone living here in the valley, when the water was raising?”  “Oh, we had cowbells, we would ring them when the water came into the valley.”  It was then that I noticed flood water lines in the tribal center in the late 1980’s. 

Representatives and owners of the Elwha and Glines Canyon dams and the Japanese Daishowa America owned a pulp and paper mill in Port Angeles, asked to meet with the Elwha Tribal Council with very little notice. The Tribal Council asked me to share some of our concerns. I shared,

​I learned so much working for the Elwha and will always appreciate the four years I worked for them. It was so exciting when we secured our first Head Start funding, LI-HEAP, AoA Senior Citizens Grant. It was like going to school and winning basketball games!  Jerry Charles, Chair of the Tribe was one of our biggest supporters! I so enjoyed working for the Elwha Tribal Council. 

The Makah Tribal Council directed me to negotiate the Self-Governance Compact agreement to take over the operation of the medical clinic, which serves 2,500+ individuals and meets all the same accreditation requirements as the Olympic Memorial Hospital and to raise funds to build a Wellness Center both projects were completed. In taking over the Self -Governance operation of the clinic, 389 budget line items were evaluated & negotiated under the direction Mr. Hubert Markishtum, Chair of the Tribe. 

 I was honored to be elected Vice Chair of the NW Portland Area Indian Health Board, which serves 43 Tribes in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho for five years. During this same time, I worked as the Makah Intergovernmental Director and Grants Writer. I also, represented the NW Tribes on the University of California American Indian Graduate Program Board for 10 years. We worked on developing curriculum for Tribal Health Directors and Area Federal Health Providers to ensure all medical clinics met the federal and state accreditation requirements and like health standards. This was a great learning experience. 

What led you to the Democratic Party?
After I retired from the Makah, I began doing on-site training with college credits for 46 tribes. I learned a lot, but I got tired of so much travel. In 2008, I went to a meeting of a small group of about 25 Democrats in Neah Bay, and they elected me to attend the “Port Angeles” Clallam County Democrat meeting. At this meeting, I was elected as a delegate to the 6th Congressional District Convention. At the 6th Congressional District meeting, I ran and won a position to go to the State and National Democratic Convention to represent our State of Washington. It was an exciting time. Now, I encourage others to run and experience these meetings. 

At the Seattle Airport, on my way to the Denver 2008 National Democratic Convention, I spoke to Senator Patty Murray. I asked Patty ‘What will I learn Denver?’ and Patty said you will learn how to network.”  I realized I knew how to network in Indian Country, and I had much to learn in this arena, so, I have been studying “how non-Indians work together” ever since. 

Attending the Clallam County Democrats was hard at first, I was reminded of racism my husband and I faced when we were first married and we would go to Port Angeles to shop, etc. I was reminded,
we are comfortable with our own people, but stepping into the non-Indian world, reminded me of:

1. When my husband and I were not served in a couple of restaurants here in Port Angeles.
2. When I could cash a check, and my husband could not, because he was darker than me.
3. Having people assume I did not know something, because I am native or grew up on the reservation.  
4. I have been asked, would the CCD support a Native person, a Native candidate?  

I remind myself we have four tribes located in Clallam County. Tribes are the largest employers in Clallam County. Most Tribal members are Democrat. And I ask myself, “Why are they not participating in the CCD?”  I was welcomed into the Clallam County Democrat Party. 

At my first State Democrat Convention in Spokane, I saw only four Natives attending this convention.

We had a meeting and they recruited me to be Chair of the State Native American Caucus, a position I still hold. We developed 10 goals. One included lobbying for “Drop Voting Boxes” on all 29 reservations.

This was accomplished. Another goal was the elevating the Special Assistance to the Governor Governor’s Office of Indian Affairs to the Cabinet level. This was accomplished the second week of February 2025!  I was re-elected as Chair of the Native American Caucus in January 2025 for two years with a room full of Democrats! 

​What has been the highest point for you as a Democrat?
Getting Native people to run and get elected. Our numbers are growing. When I began, ten years ago, Senator John McCoy was the only Native American legislator. Today for the first time there are 3 legislators who are Native in Olympia:  One Senator and two State Representatives. Another highlight was having Debora Juarez, the first native elected to the Seattle City Council since it was established in 1869!  Today we have 14 Natives elected to City Councils and higher positions here in the State of Washington! I am so proud of the Native Leadership here in the State of Washington at so many different levels! 

How do we pass the legacy of the Democratic party to future generations?
Go out and meet young people, all people, invite them in. We want to hear them. Reach them where they are at. I was on the Peninsula College Board of Trustees – the first Native woman. When I started there were 3 or 4 Native students and 1 native teacher. Today, there are about 100 native students attending Peninsula College. It is so important to have Native Instructors and on the Board of Trustees.

It is so important to do regular outreach, talk to our people, meet them where they live, and the key word is “invite native people in person” to attend our events. The Tribal Canoe Journey is a big gathering – it will be hosted by the Elwha S’Klallam Tribe on August 1st this year. It is anticipated 3,000 plus individuals will be attending this event. “Let’s have a Clallam County Democrat Voter Registration Booth” set up. 

I am so impressed with the years of great hospitality at the Clallam County Democrat headquarters on a weekly basis, I hope we will be able to do more outreach to all sections of Clallam County this coming year. 

A strong cultural tradition of all Native people is to “verbally invite” people to events. Hopefully we all can practice this in-person tradition this coming year. 
​