OLYMPIA, Wash. — The end of Washington state's 2024 legislative session Thursday will mark the end of several careers of longtime lawmakers.
On March 6, Republican Sen. Lynda Wilson added her name to the growing list of legislators announcing they won’t seek re-election in 2024.
Earlier this session Democratic senators Andy Billig, Karen Keiser, and Sam Hunt announced they were retiring from the senate.
“I turn 81 in December, and I think it’s time for somebody else,” said Hunt, who first started working at the Capitol as a budget writer in 1980. “We didn’t have computers,” Hunt added.
The session's end allows legislators seeking other offices to begin campaigning and fundraising.
Several Democratic senators are running for different offices in 2024: Manka Dhingra is running for attorney general; Patty Kuderer wants to be insurance commissioner; and Mark Mullet is running for governor. Emily Randall is seeking the state’s sixth congressional district seat, and Rebecca Saldana and Kevin Van De Wege are in the race for public lands commissioner.
Republican Rep. Jaqueline Maycumber is running for the U.S. congressional seat in the Fifth District, and Kelly Chambers has filed for the Pierce County executive’s race.
House Republican representatives Spencer Hutchins and Joel Kretz announced they would not be seeking re-election and former House Minority Leader, J.T. Wilcox, last week said he would be retiring at the end of the year.
Wilcox, first elected in 2010, said politics have become more divisive since he took office.
”I think an earlier generation of legislators had more respect for the process and more respect for the institution and there really could be a partnership,” said Wilcox, R-Pierce County, “That may be part of the reason so many people are leaving this year.”