Washington State Wire Washington State Wire

Kan Qiu helped lead a coalition that organized a successful referendum campaign overturning the legislature’s affirmative action policy late in the 2019 session. Depending on one's perspective, this was a campaign about affirmative action, righting historical wrongs, equality, or what constitutes equality given the social forces shaping the political moment in which we find ourselves.

DJ Wilson spoke with Kan Qiu at the 2019 Re-Wire Policy Conference to discuss how the campaign he led to maintain the illegality of affirmative action came about, how the coalition unified as a response to legislative action, and what the results signify about the Washington State electorate.

Former Bothell Mayor Joshua Freed is running for governor in 2020 and centering his platform around the homelessness crisis.

At the 2019 Re-Wire Policy Conference, DJ Wilson sat down with candidate Freed to discuss his campaign, his professional evolution from family therapy to real estate development to politics, and his policy vision for Washington State.

Slade Gorton began his political career in 1958 as a Washington state representative, and was elected attorney general of Washington ten years later. He served as a U.S. senator from 1981 to 1987, and from 1989 to 2001.

In this podcast, Senator Gorton discusses the history, politics, and intricacies of redistricting in Washington State.

Senator Randi Becker is the Senate Republican Caucus Chair and is a member of the Senate Health & Long Term Care Committee. Representative Paul Harris is the House Minority Caucus Chair and a member of the House Health Care & Wellness Committee. In this podcast, the two legislators discuss their priority health bills, big issues we can expect to be tackled during session, as well as their plans for working through key health policy questions in the 105-day convening.

For this podcast, we sat down with four new Washington State legislators at the 2018 Re-Wire Policy Conference. Joining us were Representative-Elect Lisa Callan (5th LD) and Senators-Elect Mona Das (47th LD), Jesse Salomon (32nd LD), and Claire Wilson (30th LD). They shared with us their backgrounds, what pushed them to run for office, the biggest surprises during their campaigns, their mentors in the legislature, and their priority issues.