Community Government

Two familiar faces and a political newcomer seek state House seat

Three candidates – Democrat Adison Richards and Republicans Jesse Young and Jim Henderson – are running to replace freshman Rep. Spencer Hutchins for the 26th Legislative District’s Position 1 in the House of Representatives.

Hutchins, a Gig Harbor Republican, did not seek re-election this year, citing concerns about his ability to provide for his family on a legislator’s salary.

The race to replace him includes: 

• Richards, who narrowly lost to Hutchins in 2022 in a contest marked by the comity between the two candidates, both young lawyers with Gig Harbor roots.
• Young, who held the seat for four terms before giving it up in favor of an unsuccessful bid for state Senate in 2022.
• And Henderson, a business owner and lobbyist making his first run for elective office.

(Click here for each candidates’ stands on some of the top issues in the race.)

The Pierce County Elections Office mailed ballots to registered voters on July 19. Voters must return them, via mail or at a drop box, by election day, Aug. 6.

The 26th District includes Gig Harbor, the Key Peninsula, South Kitsap County and parts of Bremerton.

Adison Richards

Richards is a 2010 graduate of Peninsula High School. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Washington in 2014 and a law degree from Villanova University in Pennsylvania in 2018.

His law career includes three years at the Northwest Justice Project and more recently working in housing law with Kitsap Legal Services. He earned 49.48 percent of the vote in the 2022 campaign, losing to Hutchins by 735 votes out of nearly 75,000 cast.

A longtime Key Peninsula and Gig Harbor-area resident, he now lives in Bremerton. His campaign website and mailers often note that he’s lived in every part of the 26th District.

“I know the district backwards and forwards,” Richards said. “I know what issues we’re facing, whether it’s the Fox Island Bridge or the Gorst corridor. Or the fact that you don’t have a bus that’ll get you from Key Center to Purdy.”

Self-described moderate 

Richards called himself a “pragmatic” Democrat and agreed that moderate is a fair description. He cited his views on housing as an example.

Deep blue Washington state would do well to look to red states as it addresses its housing shortage, he said.

He said Idaho has a reputation for shepherding builders quickly through the permitting process, allowing new housing to be built more quickly. Cities like Charlotte, N.C., and Austin, Texas, also are not facing the housing shortage the Puget Sound region is.

“That’s happening in the red states,” Richards said.

“My philosophy is, I don’t care where the ideas come from. I don’t think either party has a monopoly around good ideas.” 

Top fundraiser in race 

Richards’ campaign has raised more than $140,000 for the race as of Tuesday, July 23. That’s the most of any candidate for either 26th District House race and the 11th-most of any 2024 candidate for state representative. 

Top donors include the 26th Legislative District Democrats, labor unions and political action committees as well as individual donors.

He’s endorsed by most of the prominent Democrats in the area, including Pierce County Councilwoman Robyn Denson, outgoing U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer and both of the highest-polling Democrats seeking to replace Kilmer — state Sen. Emily Randall and state Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz. At least five Gig Harbor City Council members endorse Richards. 

Outside of the issues Gig Harbor Now asked him about, Richards said his priorities include “protecting women’s reproductive freedom” and supporting democracy.

“We need representatives who will not sow doubt about our elections, who will protect election workers and lead with integrity in the office to help create more confidence in our system. I’m committed to doing that,” Richards said. “I made sure to concede and congratulate Spencer two years ago when it was mathematically certain that I could not win, even after leading on election night and for four days, because that was the right thing to do and it should be expected of every person seeking office.”

Jim Henderson 

Henderson owns Landlord Solutions, a Tacoma-based business that provides tenant screening, eviction and other services for owners of rental properties. He has been a registered lobbyist since 2018, typically working on behalf of property owner groups.

He said he was inspired to run after being the victim of a robbery in Olympia on Feb. 8.

Henderson was working at a home near the Capitol building where he rents office space that morning. A man entered and demanded  “the keys to the safe and all the guns,” according to an Olympia Police Department account of the incident. When Henderson told the man he didn’t know about any guns or keys, the suspect struck him with the butt of a handgun.

An officer investigating the incident told Henderson he would not have been allowed to pursue the suspect, even if they had arrived before he left, due to laws in effect at the time.

“I thought, that can’t be right,” he said.

“I know that the Legislature heard from law enforcement and heard that this would be the interpretation” while considering police reform legislation, which limited officers’ ability to pursue suspects, in the early 2020s,” Henderson said. “For that not to mean anything to legislators, that was concerning to me.” 

Housing a key issue for Henderson

Henderson said lawmakers need to make a point of reviewing and revising passed legislation.

“Where we are making significant change, we need to ensure that the outcome is achieving the intent of the bill,” he said. “If not, we need to fix it. We need to keep what’s working and fix what’s not.”

He also said legislators need to be better about collaborating with stakeholders and ensuring accountability on spending. He gave an example from the area he knows best.

“Housing supply is critically low. We’re 50th out of 50 states in housing production … last in the county in housing production,” Henderson said. “We need to find out why more housing’s not being built. Let’s go to the people who build the housing.”

Opposition from county GOP

Henderson grew up in Federal Way, graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School and moved to Tacoma shortly after. He moved into the 26th District in March.

He said he had long hoped to move to the area, but acknowledged that Hutchins’ announcement that he wasn’t running this fall accelerated his plans.

Hutchins endorsed Henderson for his old seat. So did the 26th District’s other Republican representative, Michelle Caldier, and several other legislative Republicans.

The county GOP, however, backed Young. Members of the county party created a website criticizing Henderson, the Washington State Standard reported earlier this month.

“They created a purity test and I apparently don’t pass that test,” Henderson said, adding, “I don’t see the purpose of (the website) other than to be malicious.”

The website accuses Henderson of being a Democrat and features photos of him with members of that party.

“I’m a Republican,” Henderson said. “What makes me moderate? That I’m not extreme? That I can work with people and listen to other ideas and try to learn something that I’m not expert in?”

Henderson and Caldier have campaigned on the idea that it’s crucial to keep the 26th District House seats Republican, lest Democrats amass a majority that allows them to operate without regard for the minority party.

“I’m the only Republican (in this race) that can win the general election,” Henderson said.

Henderson’s campaign has raised $82,000, a substantial amount, though third among the three candidates in this race.

Jesse Young 

Young first won election to the state House in 2014, months after having been appointed to the seat following Jan Angel’s election to the Senate. He served four full terms before seeking the district’s Senate seat in 2022. 

Young earned 49.09 percent of the vote against Randall, losing the election by only 1,276 votes out of more than 75,000 cast.

He is the father of six children, a Notre Dame graduate and operates an IT consulting business.

Young said he put a lot of thought and prayer into resuming his political career.

“One of the key factors was, I had a chance to take a break and decompress. Sometimes that can be a real blessing in your life that you don’t necessarily expect,” he said. “I wasn’t trying to take the time off, but I treasured it. That gave me enough of a perspective to know my heart was in it to still serve.”

Conservative and libertarian 

Young won those four terms in the state House as a strong conservative voice in one of the few true swing districts in the state.

“I’m a trusted conservative voice that will defend parental rights,” Young said. “There’s no guessing as to whether or not I’m going to stand and deliver on what I say I’m going to do. Everybody knows who I am, they know I’m going to stand on the issues.”

But Young also cited examples of what he described as a libertarian side to his conservativism. He worked with Rep. Tarra Simmons, D-Bremerton, on a bill to restore voting rights to formerly incarcerated felons. 

He also said he opposes “any type of bills … opposing gay marriage,” based on his libertarian leaning.

“A lot of the things that happen in politics, it seems to turn into … 30-second sound bites that want to paint somebody a certain way,” Young said. “But if you look into the record, I’ve been very independent and voted with the district.”

That said, Young added: “I strongly believe that Henderson is far more liberal than I am and is pretending to be something he’s not.”

Previous controversies

Young has raised more than $117,000 for his campaign as of July 23. The biggest contributions are from the state and county Republican Party organizations, according to Public Disclosure Commission data.

The Kitsap County, Pierce County and 26th District Republican Party organizations also endorsed Young, as did a number of Republicans in the Legislature and at the county level.

He was at the center of several controversies during his previous stint in the Legislature.

In 2017, former campaign and legislative staff members accused Young of berating them. The House restricted his access to staff. The Olympian newspaper reported that he served without the help of a legislative assistant from 2016 until he left office in 2022.

He also was fined for allegedly mixing campaign work and state resources in 2018, which Young characterized at the time as a mistake.

And in 2020, some Black Lives Matter demonstrators accused Young of accompanying armed counter-protesters to an event in Gig Harbor. Young told the Peninsula Gateway at the time that while he knew some of the counter-protesters, he was not there with them and in fact attended to “support the call for justice and peaceful protest.”

Working with Democrats

Despite his conservative reputation, Young argues that he is well-positioned to advocate for his district as a Republican in a House likely to remain in the control of Democrats.

“I have a lot of trust stored up with Democrat legislators,” Young said. He argued that he has co-sponsored more bills with Democrats than many of his old Republican colleagues. “That’s a way that you can measure trust. I have a lot of trust. People know that I’m strong on certain principles.”