Within a Legislature that seems to prize high throughput of progressive legislation, prudence often is sacrificed for production. Olympia needs lawmakers unafraid to slow down the process so that meaningful deliberation can occur on potential laws whose broad impacts, good and bad, ripple across the state.
Since entering the state House in 2019, Rep. Amy Walen has been a champion for scrutiny and independence. The Kirkland Democrat is unafraid of bucking her own party’s legislative leaders when budgets and bills move so quickly they can’t be properly vetted by the members voting on them. For that reason alone, she’s earned another two-year term representing the 48th Legislative District, including Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond and parts of the shores of both lakes Washington and Sammamish.
A former Kirkland City Council member and auto dealership owner, Walen has been among few Democrats to question a dramatic expansion of taxes in Washington state in just two years’ time. In 2025, she produced her own credible budget framework to try avoiding a more than $9 billion buffet of taxes that drove up Washington state’s cost of living. This year, she penned in an op-ed an alternative — and far more transparent — path to a state income tax.
In short, she doesn’t go along to get along.
“If I don’t think a bill is ready … or I think it has consequences that are counterproductive to the people in my district or to the economy of our state, I will vote no on it,” Walen told the editorial board.
Because she has the audacity to slow the march of the majority, Walen has taken heat from Democrats in her caucus. Some question whether she’s truly progressive.
What nonsense. Walen has supported many progressive causes since joining the Legislature, including ending the death penalty, strengthening gun regulations and protecting reproductive rights. Her favorite bill? Removing immigration status as a requirement to gain many kinds of state professional licenses.
This year, Walen drew a Democratic opponent, Jessica Forsythe, who felt inclined to run because she felt Walen had become “unaligned” with the values of her district. But where Forsythe sees a liability, the editorial board sees an independent, contemplative lawmaker not beholden to special interests or ideology. Not all Democrats need to think alike. In a time when purity test politics put pressure on Democratic legislators, Walen’s skepticism is healthy and admirable.
Forsythe, a Redmond City Council member, is a competent candidate. She’s a well-organized policy wonk with a deep knowledge of housing and transportation issues facing the state.
But Walen’s willingness to roll up her sleeves on bills and the budget make her invaluable in Olympia. Voters should send her back for another term.
