Surrounded by supporters Lands Commissioner Hilary Franz announcing her candidacy for Governor along the Seattle waterfront Monday afternoon
You can add Hilary Franz to the growing list of people jumping into the 2024 Washington Governor’s race.
“I’m Hilary Franz and I’m running to be your next Governor!” The 52-year-old Lands Commissioner made the announcement along the Seattle Waterfront with temperatures pushing 90-degrees, “We are facing a rapidly changing climate that is bearing down on us” it’s a reality she lives daily “What was ‘Once-in-a-Lifetime’ events, is now once a month in this state.”
Franz knows the environment, but it’s workforce housing & homelessness that will be her top priority “We have to make housing work in our cities as well as our small towns, it will be my number one issue because no child, no person in this state should have to live on the street, they need to have housing.”
With just 6 years in state office under her belt the energetic environmental attorney was asked: Why you for Governor? “You can’t understand the issues if you haven’t walked the streets, gone on the waters” Franz says her job has taken her to just about every corner of Washington “I’ve shown up, I’ve listened and I’ve learned.”
The mother of three sons was raised by a progressive single father; and nights were often spent talking politics at the dinner table with her conservative grandfather ”The two would fight over every single issue and I would sit there and listen” Franz told the crowd while seemingly reliving those moments “And what it taught me is that often times when we are talking, we’re talking past each other and we’re not actually listening to what that person is saying, what their value is, cause often times at the value level we get along.” Dad was a “Union Guy” and grandpa was a rancher.
Franz is joining a growing field of candidates that could include fellow Democrat and State Attorney General Bob Ferguson along with Republicans Raul Garcia, Semi Bird, and Lauren Khan.
