Sequim woman to run for House

Published 1:30 am Friday, March 27, 2026

SEQUIM — A former Irrigation Festival princess said becoming a mom has inspired her to run for office.

Kaylee Kuehn plans to run for the state House seat that will be vacated by retiring state Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-Port Townsend. Kuehn plans to run as a Democrat.

Kuehn joins Republican Aiden Hamilton of Port Angeles and Democrat Patrick DePoe of Neah Bay in vying for Tharinger’s seat. Filing week opens May 4.

“I have a daughter that’s 1 year old and I want her to grow up in a better world than what we have,” Kuehn said. “She’s my primary reason for running. I want us to have leaders who are thinking not only about right now but also about the future.”

Kuehn graduated in 2015 from Sequim High School, where she served as an Irrigation Festival princess and also competed as a wrestler. From there, she went to The Evergreen State College in Olympia for a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts with a focus on politics and social psychology. Kuehn also earned a master’s degree in education and became a high school teacher for math, history and government, according to her website at votekayleekuehn.com.

She also spent four legislative sessions in Olympia working as an intern and then as a legislative aide.

“I know how Olympia works, I know how session works,” Kuehn said. “I also have experience as a teacher, and in that experience, I brought kids to Olympia on a field trip and was able to get kids to ask their legislators questions and learn about the process.”

The idea to run for office first came to Kuehn through a conversation she had with state Sen. Mike Chapman, D-Port Angeles.

“I was talking with Sen. Chapman at the start of session this year and he was kind of pushing me to run for office one day,” Kuehn said. “He said I’d be really good at it.”

When Tharinger announced his retirement, Kuehn said she thought “this is the time.”

If elected, the first issue Kuehn wants to address is affordability.

“My husband and I don’t have debt, we’ve had good jobs, we’ve been financially responsible, and we’re still not in a place where we can purchase a house and live out that American dream,” she said. “Things are just out of reach that we once thought would be ‘of course’ things down the line, so I can’t even imagine for people who don’t have the experience or the financial know-how that we have.”

Kuehn wants people to be able to work one job and to be able to afford rent or their mortgage as well as groceries and other things they need.

Another issue she wants to focus on is health care.

“It’s frustrating that most countries have this thing figured out, and they don’t have it where their citizens are paying extreme monthly premiums so they can’t afford anything else or anything extra like going on vacation,” she said. “Health care and better accessibility is a huge priority for me.”

As a teacher and the daughter of teachers, education also is important to Kuehn.

“In Washington state, it’s a paramount duty to fully fund education, so I want to focus on that,” she said. “We have crumbling infrastructure in our schools. There are things like that that shouldn’t be happening in our state and in our community.”

Kuehn also wants the state to be doing more for its veterans.

“We need to honor the people that do the work to protect our communities,” she said. “Out here, public safety is a big deal, too. Local law enforcement is just working really hard to keep our communities safe.”

If elected, Kuehn said she wants to work with both sides of the aisle.

“I don’t want to be someone who lets identity politics control decisions,” she said. “I’m someone who will focus on what’s best for the people.”

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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.