If Democrats take back control of the U.S. House of Representatives in January, expect Rep. Emily Randall to be among members of Congress buoyed by the new majority to investigate a Trump administration that has profited from being in power.
The Bremerton Democrat, a member of the House’s Oversight and Accountability Committee, hasn’t shied away from pointing out that Republicans in charge of Congress have been far too feckless as a separate branch of government. The president’s authority has gone largely unchecked in the first two years of his second term. With a Democratic majority, the freshman congresswoman hopes Democrats can reassert full legislative authority, so “we don’t have to give up on the separation of powers in the way that maybe the president wants people to,” Randall told the editorial board.
For that work, as well as other initiatives that improve the lives of those in Washington state, Randall deserves another term in Congress representing the 6th District, spanning Tacoma to the Olympic Peninsula.
Even in the minority for nearly two years, Randall has used limited power effectively. She’s repeatedly and vociferously denounced inhumane conditions at Tacoma’s ICE processing center, which is within her district. She also pressed for greater transparency and justice for victims of Jeffrey Epstein, helping press for all Justice Department documents related to the convicted sex offender to be released.
Randall won the seat in 2024, after former Democratic Rep. Derek Kilmer decided not to run for reelection. The daughter of a journeyman shipfitter at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, Randall recently founded a congressional ferry caucus, whose aim is to bring more funding to communities that depend on waterborne transit, including those in her district.
She’s helped revive an environmental-oriented Puget Sound Recovery Caucus, serving as its co-chair. And she worked to help pass the final step of the federal Elwha Dam removal project on the Olympic Peninsula — begun under former Rep. Norm Dicks — by returning more than 1,000 acres of that land to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe.
Randall’s opponent, Republican Teresa Fox, declined to be interviewed, indicating she did not want the editorial board’s endorsement. Voters should return Randall to Congress.
