Randall said that she would prioritize affordability of housing, childcare, and education if elected, along with healthcare and reproductive rights.
Editor’s Note: This is the second installment in a series about the leading 2024 candidates for Washington’s 6th Congressional District. Read the first here.
While contests to fill congressional open seats are often lively, Washington State Senator Emily Randall (D‑26th District: Kitsap, Pierce counties) has turned the race to succeed retiring U.S. Representative Derek Kilmer into a marquee competition this cycle. The sixth year legislator recently sat down with NPI to discuss her priorities as she vies with Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz for a spot on the November 2024 general election ballot in Washington’s 6th Congressional District.
Randall’s initial motivation to run for elected office was the election of Donald Trump. “I could feel myself in that moment,” said Randall in an interview on May 11th describing her 2016 election night experience. She said she had spent the day canvassing for Planned Parenthood Action Fund in New Hampshire.
“That was when I decided that I was going to run for the state legislature, because I knew the fight to protect abortion rights was going to the states.”
Eight years on, Randall said that expanding reproductive health care access remains at the top of her agenda. Catholic hospitals accounted for over 40% of hospital beds in Washington in 2020, leaving patients and observers alike concerned about restrictive rules that the organizations have the regarding types of care that they will provide.
Randall recently sponsored a bill, the Keep Our Care Act, that would to prevent health care mergers from reducing access to costlier services and critical care. Though the bill did not pass the state House, Randall said she was interested in devoting attention to the subject at a national level, where Catholic facilities hold around 15% of hospital beds.
“I think pulling up and looking at this from the federal level and creating a regulatory structure that is the same from state to state is not only good for patients and staff who are asking for more regulation, but it’s also good for businesses to know that there’s not one set of rules in Washington and another in Oregon,” Randall said.
Randall also said that there was more that the federal government, which currently spends far more on health care per person compared to other wealthy countries, could do to make the system more cost efficient and accessible.
“I think there are a lot of bigger things that we need to do to the system to pull out middlemen, to tackle [pharmacy benefit managers], to think about the billing systems to ensure that when you change jobs you don’t have to get all new doctors,” she said.
In addition to tackling healthcare access and cost, Randall said that she would prioritize affordability of housing, childcare, and education.
In the Senate, Randall has focused on the cost of education as the chair of the Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee.
Asked about whether she would support student debt relief in Congress, Randall said she would “definitely support” forgiveness.
“Every time I hear us facing a workforce shortage — doctors, teachers, coders — these very high-demand careers, almost all of them require some college education. And if we’re not making investments in those pathways, then we’re not preparing our country or our communities or our economy for the next generation.”
The Biden-Harris administration has announced over $150 billion in student debt relief as of mid-April, which includes assistance for nearly 5,000 Washingtonians.
Randall noted that workforce investments were necessary for individuals who did not want to receive a bachelor’s degree as well.
“Labor is at the table and often in the lead position for apprenticeships in Washington State. But in lots of other states, there’s no standard for what an apprenticeship means.”
With respect to housing costs, Randall said that the Senate “worked really hard” on rent stabilization over the course of the last legislative session, referring to a bill that would have capped rental increases at 7% per year. The bill ultimately died in committee in the Senate, lacking enough Democratic support to advance for a floor vote. Randall did vote in support of 2023’s major middle housing bill, now law, which allows housing development in some neighborhoods previously zoned for single-family homes.
In Congress, Randall said that she would fight for more programs and Housing and Urban Development block grants to assist both first-time buyers and renters who need greater assistance.
Randall made it clear that she would work with Republicans and Democrats alike to ensure that her agenda passed in what could be another divided Congress. “I try to show up at my neighbor’s door and talk to colleagues across the aisle and across the state about what motivates them, what the driving forces are behind this policy idea or their resistance and try to find places where we can work together as much as possible,” she said.
Another way that Randall said she could help constituents would be through continuing Representative Kilmer’s work on modernizing Congress.
As one of the youngest members of the state Senate when COVID-19 hit, Randall said she helped her colleagues adjust to an online legislative process — using Microsoft Teams to meet with colleagues and conduct floor action using Zoom. “I think seeing how quickly we can move when we are forced to, those lessons for me inspire me to follow in Congressman Kilmer’s footsteps to try and update an institution that is so entrenched in the way things have always been done or that they have been done for a long time.”
Whether voters in the 6th District will give Randall the chance to see her legislative agenda through remains to be seen. Washington Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz, Randall’s rival, has a nearly $300,000 fundraising advantage as of March 31st as well as the endorsement of Kilmer and his predecessor, the legendary Norm Dicks.
Randall, on the other hand, has the endorsement of United States Senator Patty Murray and Representatives Marilyn Strickland and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who represent the neighboring 10th and 3rd Congressional Districts, respectively.
In Randall and Franz, voters have two strong Democratic women with experience governing at the state level to choose from. But the sheer number of big-name endorsements likely signals that this race is important for another reason. Just two members have represented the district for the last forty-seven years, making it conceivable that November’s winner will be in Congress for many years into the future.
