Derek Sarley

Derek Sarley earned a high school diploma from Conestoga High School. He earned a bachelor's degree from Rice University in 1998. His career experience includes working as a communications consultant.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

For more than 25 years, I’ve worked in the business world, helping build a small PR startup into a 100-person firm serving clients across the country. I know exactly what small businesses face because I’ve lived it.

For the last decade, I’ve also served on the Walla Walla School Board, where we’ve raised graduation rates, expanded student opportunities, modernized curriculum, increased family engagement, and earned recognition as Washington’s School Board of the Year. While many districts cut staff and programs, we kept budgets balanced and invested in what matters most: strong schools and student success. I’ve served four times as board president, represented Walla Walla at the state level as legislative representative, and recently completed my term as president of WSSDA, advocating for all 295 school districts in Washington.

Those experiences, running a business, leading a school district, and navigating complex state policy, shape my commitment to representing every person in the 16th district.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

I graduated from high school in the 1990s, at a time when the American Dream still felt real. The economy was booming, democracy was ascendant, and for young people like me, the path to a good life was clear: work hard, get an education, buy a home, and start a family.

My own family lived that story. My mom left a dairy farm in Ohio to become a teacher. My dad worked summers at Bethlehem Steel to pay for college and later became a pastor. They taught my brother and me that if we worked hard enough, anything was possible.

As my daughters approach their own adulthoods, that promise feels increasingly out of reach for far too many families.We have built an economy where the wealthy do well while working people fall further behind. Those outcomes come from decades of policy decisions that had their successes but whose failures are now impossible to ignore.

You see signs of that struggle everywhere, especially in our schools, where kids show up hungry and working parents make so little that nearly 40 percent of SNAP recipients are in families with jobs. Economic precarity is fueling the divisions and resentments that are tearing our country apart. When people believe the game is rigged, they can be turned on one another, instead of against the systems that are failing them.Every generation inherits the responsibility to protect and renew the American Dream. Right now, we are not meeting that responsibility, and that is why I am running.

I believe government should be focused on making it easier for people to build a good life in Washington. That means increasing housing supply, strengthening our workforce, investing in education and training, addressing healthcare costs, and building a tax system that does not place the heaviest burden on those least able to afford it.

We need new, strong voices in Olympia who will fix our state budget mess and get Washington back to investing in what matters for the working families, farms, and small businesses that are the backbones of our Eastern Washington communities.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I am, first and foremost, an advocate for the people of this district. Their public policy concerns are my public policy concerns.

What I hear over and over on the campaign trail is that people are struggling just to get by. Prices never seem to stop climbing.

I am passionate about policies that expand opportunity and strengthen our communities. That means an economy that works for working people. Safe streets. Great schools. Affordable childcare so parents can work. A healthcare system that doesn’t seem designed to turn people down. A reasonable path to someday owning your own home.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Washington State Labor Council

Washington Education Association

Washington State Nurses Association

Washington State Stonewall Democrats

Democratic Parties of Benton, Franklin and Walla Walla Counties