Marilyn Strickland – Washington State’s Tenth Congressional District
For the fourth time Sierra Club endorses Marilyn Strickland for Washington State’s Tenth Congressional District which covers parts of Pierce County and Thurston County.
She was raised in Washington State, comes from a military family and works every day to make our nation more safe, just and secure for all of us.
In her first two terms in Congress, Marilyn has focused on delivering for our region and state and secured over $12 million in housing, pedestrian safety, clean water, workforce development and transit investments directly for the South Sound. She also delivered $7 billion in bipartisan infrastructure investments for Washington State and over $300 million for the South Sound through the American Rescue Plan.
Beth Doglio – Legislative District 22, Representative Position 1
Beth Doglio is a Sierra Club member who is widely recognized statewide as a leader working toward environmental solutions.
Beth served as a State Legislator from 2017 until 2021 when she left to run for Congress and returned to the Legislature in 2022. She was endorsed by Sierra Club in 2020 for her campaign for Congress as well as in 2016, 2018 and 2022 for the State Legislature.
Beth is a proven environmental champion having sponsored climate legislation and passed bills that created the first in the nation State Women’s commission. Beth served as the first executive director of Washington Conservation Voters. Her priorities if elected include development of a clean energy economy, creation of good-paying jobs and climate justice. She is a strong believer that healthcare is a human right, addressing our housing affordability issues, developing solutions for the gun violence epidemic, investing is education and reforming our criminal justice system. Beth has received numerous awards and recognition including solar champion award, hero for housing award, courageous award, and outstanding legislator.
As Sierra Club members, we need Beth in the State Legislature. She will continue to be a leader and to champion Sierra Club priorities.
Lisa Parshley – Legislative District 22, Representative Position 2
Lisa Parshley is a strong and tireless advocate for safety, affordability and the health of our environment.
Lisa served on the Olympia City Council where she recognized climate change as an existential crisis and developed the Declaration of Climate Emergency passed in Thurston County and Tumwater. She also worked to build and pass the Thurston Climate Mitigation Plan and the regional Sea Level Rise Plan.
Carolina Mejia – Legislative District 35, State Senator
Carolina Mejia has been a Thurston County Commissioner since 2021, having served as Commission Chair and Chair of the County Board of Health. In those roles she has worked closely with families, workers, small businesses, service providers and community members across the region.
Carolina has proven to be a strong advocate for under-served communities in need of affordable housing, access to public services and quality health care. Her environmental accomplishments include the implementation of Thurston County’s integrated water initiative, habitat protection and responsible growth. Her leadership style brings diverse groups together including Tribes, local governments, Sierra Club and other environmental advocates to focus on solutions. Her priorities include clean water, salmon recovery, resilient infrastructure and responsible planning for climate impacts. Our Sierra Club Political Committee believes it’s time for a change in the 35th Legislative District and with the shift in demographics of this district and Carolina’s significant name recognition we believe this is the time to make that change happen.
James Pierson – Legislative District 35, Representative Position 1
Jim Pierson’s priorities include climate change and long-term environmental resilience. To that end, he worked tirelessly to protect the land surrounding the potential Thurston County airport from development prior to Governor Inslee signing the document to stop that work. He is knowledgeable on a variety of environmental topics, including data centers, flood control, and sea level rise. He has gone door-to-door throughout the district to speak with numerous voters about their concerns and their hopes for the future. Our Committee is encouraged by his environmental positions including climate change, wildfire risk, water supply, salmon recovery and long-term sustainability for both rural and urban communities.
Maria Littlesun – Legislative District 35, Representative Position 2
Maria Littlesun is a member of the Skokomish tribe, and has lived in Shelton all her life. She currently works for the Squaxin tribe, providing services to fellow tribal members in a variety of areas. While this is her first time running for office, she shared with our committee that her reasons for running for this position include environmental, public education, and senior care. Her environmental focus is to protect our natural resources. She has demonstrated this through her work with the Upper Creek Coalition on the topics of salmon spawning and culverts in the Shelton area. Her hobbies include many outdoor activities as she works to protect these areas for future generations. Our committee recommends endorsement based on her focus on protecting our fragile ecosystems in the South Sound.
Tye Menser graduated with honors from Harvard College, with a degree in Government and then completed law school at the University of California at Berkeley. He spent a summer studying Spanish in Morelia, Mexico, and studied law, in Spanish, at the University of Chile in Santiago.
In September 1997 he began a 20-year legal career that has included commercial and intellectual property litigation, criminal defense, and family law. During the early part of his career, he spent 7 years in northern Alaska with the Alaska Public Defender Agency providing legal services to indigent clients who could not otherwise afford an attorney. For half of that time he represented Native Alaskans in the remote Arctic village of Kotzebue.
Previously, Tye served on the Thurston County Water Conservancy Board and spent a decade serving the community in the Thurston County Public Defense office.
Tye is running for re-election on a comprehensive platform that includes responsible management of taxpayer dollars, reforming our criminal justice system, and protecting our environment. His record during his tenure as a commissioner includes championing environmental issues and serving on the Alliance for a Healthy Sound, the Capitol Lake/Lower Deschutes Workgroup, Climate Action Steering Team, and the LOTT Clean Water Alliance.
Tye has proven to be an effective County Commissioner, is a current Sierra Club member and deserves to be re-elected.
The Thurston Public Utility District owns and operates 272 water systems serving approximately 10,500 families, businesses, schools and parks. Electing Chris Pettit provides the District with a proven environmental professional with the skills to make significant improvements.
He has decades of experience in water policy, environmental stewardship, and public service including leading environmental departments at the local and state levels. As Director of the Office of Water Policy for the State of Florida he led the effort to revamp the conservation regulatory and cost share programs. In this role he worked with conservation organizations, landowners, agriculture representatives, governmental representatives, and environmental organizations including Sierra Club.
He now lives in Thurston County and is a practicing attorney representing utility districts across the state. His stated goal if elected is to protect and strengthen one of our community’s most essential public resources. Through his work supporting public water systems across Washington State — from infrastructure funding and technical support to policy development and long-term planning — Chris understands what it takes to keep utility services reliable, sustainable, and responsive to the people they serve.
