Jamie Keenan-deVargas

Jamie Keenan-deVargas earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington in 2026. Keenan-deVargas' career experience includes working in retail.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Jamie Keenan-deVargas is a horticultural retail worker, a renter, and an artist. Jamie decided to run because he is extremely frustrated with the status quo. He is frustrated that career politicians - like the current incumbent - do absolutely nothing, collect a paycheck, and have lobbyists buy them lunch at the Capitol building. The establishment does not care about the working people in Thurston County. Jamie is a working person in Thurston County, and it is excruciating! Rent is out of control, gas prices and food prices are out of control, and nobody has offered solutions! Jamie will fight for policies that are based on real data and real results, and will pressure his fellow representatives to better represent the workers of Washington every step of the way. Jamie is absolutely not a career politician, and has no corporate funding or lobbying interests backing his campaign. Instead, he has the working people and working families of Washington State. Working families deserve stability. Housing is a human right. We need to build communities that are safe for women and marginalized groups, and communities where the working class can live and thrive without the constant threat of economic ruin or systemic violence. We cannot accept a Washington where young people are priced out of their hometowns and older generations cannot afford to retire securely.

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?

We need statewide rent caps!

We are in a cost of living crisis, and the only thing the state legislature has done about it is passed a law that lets landlords charge tenants 9.7% more for rent every year, while simultaneously encouraging the demolition of affordable housing and the construction of luxury apartments that are completely inaccessible to most people. Renters are losing the ability to pay for basic necessities every year, and our legislature is only making the problem worse. Jamie will fight to limit the purchasing power of private equity firms that are suffocating the market and driving prices sky-high, and take effective action to keep people from being priced out of their homes: he will pass statewide rent caps.We deserve free and effective childcare and healthcare!

Childcare is the most underappreciated service Washington should provide to its people, and it is the key to creating a more equitable democracy. Free, safe, effective childcare should be provided to all families until their children are in elementary school, at which point the state should provide extensive funding for after-school programs that end at the end of a standard work day. Washington also has the power to provide single-payer healthcare and ensure that hospitals, doctors, and nurses get paid fairly for the life-saving work they do. Jamie will cut corporations out of Washington politics and work with the true progressives to save lives and save wallets.Gas is a huge financial stressor for Washingtonians.

As with so many exacerbated costs in the modern day, gas prices can be traced back to huge corporations extracting record-breaking (windfall) profits every chance they get: COVID-19 and Trump's administration have all given exploitative oil companies opportunities to cheat the consumer. Although the state can't control the global price of oil, that doesn't mean there's nothing we can do, even if the establishment wants to make you think we're helpless. We:

Can modify antitrust enforcement to address tacit collusion between the refineries

Can implement a tax on price-gouging windfall profits, putting that money right back into the pockets of the people.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Jamie is most passionate about taxing the rich and improving the quality of life for working class Washingtonians. People over PACs.