A third Democrat has announced a bid for the seat of outgoing U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, who is not seeking reelection after more than a decade in Congress.
Jefferson County Commissioner Kate Dean announced her bid Tuesday. Dean has been on the Jefferson County Board of Commissioners since 2017 and also serves on the Washington State Board of Health and the Puget Sound Partnership Leadership Council. Dean joins Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz and State Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, as confirming their candidacies in the race for Washington’s 6th Congressional District.
Kilmer’s decision to not run for reelection prompted Franz, state Commissioner of Public Lands since 2017, to drop her 2024 bid for governor to run to replace Kilmer in Congress. Randall, the State Senate Deputy Majority Leader, announced she also would run for the seat about two weeks after Kilmer’s announcement.
Republican State Sen. Drew MacEwen, R-Union, also announced last month that he was exploring a run for Kilmer’s seat.
Washington’s 6th Congressional District covers the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas and stretches into parts of Tacoma. Kilmer, a Democrat, was first elected to represent the district in 2012. The next elections for the U.S. House of Representatives will be in 2024, and the newly elected representative will start a two-year term in January 2025.