Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Yacolt, who represented Southwest Washington in Congress for more than a decade, announced on Tuesday she will run for Washington state commissioner of public lands in 2024.
The former U.S. representative will face six other candidates for the seat that runs the state’s Department of Natural Resources. She is only the second Republican from the seven-person pool to announce a bid for the spot.
A news release from her campaign for commissioner of public lands said, in Congress, she passed or worked on legislation surrounding responsible forest management and wildfire prevention, wildlife habitat conservation, protection of endangered salmon, combatting ocean acidification to reverse the deterioration of shellfish habitat, and increasing recreational access to public lands.
She also has a record of passing sea lion extermination and removal legislation on the Columbia River in an effort to protect the basin’s several endangered salmon species.
Herrera Beutler told The Chronicle this week she is passionate about natural resources and that some of the first legislation she co-sponsored in Congress in 2011 pertained to Forest Service roads and the timber industry.
When that bill passed in 2013, Herrera Beutler was quoted by the Washington Forest Protection Association, saying, “Our working forests are so critical to the livelihoods and communities of Southwest Washington.” The action promoted the association to refer to the former Congresswoman as “a strong advocate for rural communities.”
In the news release, Herrera Beutler said she was “pledging to support our state’s foresters and scientists in sustainably managing forests for social, economic and environmental benefits and reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfires.” If elected, the Republican would take over for Hilary Franz, D-Bainbridge Island, who has announced a run for governor during the same election cycle.
Herrera Beutler was heavily criticized by her party after joining just nine other House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald J. Trump after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
She said this week the commissioner of public lands position would be a chance to collaborate beyond partisan politics with a variety of agencies and organizations across the state, including tribes, conservation groups, landowners and representatives from the timber and sports industries.
“We are so fortunate to live in America’s most beautiful state, and all of us have a responsibility to keep it that way,” she said in the news release.
Herrera Beutler’s campaign statement said she aims to focus on Washington’s wildfires.
“Decades of undermanagement and neglect have turned too many of our public forests into crowded, diseased tinderboxes,” Herrera Beutler said in the news release. “Fires now run rampant every summer. They ruin our days with smoke, emit carbon, make home insurance unavailable and housing even more unaffordable. And for those unfortunate enough to live in the path of one of those fires, they can cause unimaginable heartache. I spent a dozen years in Congress fighting for more resources to responsibly manage our forests, remove the dead and diseased trees that serve as fuel for the fires that plague us every summer, and quickly fight the fires that do occur. I’ll do the same as lands commissioner.”
Herrera Beutler graduated from the University of Washington and recently completed a fellowship-in-residency at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics. She serves on the board of the National Kidney Foundation and as a strategic adviser to the Children’s Hospital Association. According to the release, she lives on 5 acres in Yacolt with her husband, Dan, and her three children, Abigail, Ethan and Isana.
“We’re raising our family in the path of the Yacolt Burn, which stood for over a century as the largest forest fire in Washington state history,” Herrera Beutler said. “In just the past decade, that terrible record has already been surpassed three times. I won’t leave my kids a legacy of burning forests and choking smoke. We can and will do better.”
The following people have also announced plans to be 2024 candidates in the race for Franz’s seat: Mona Das, D-Kent, Patrick DePoe, D-Neah Bay (a Makah Tribal member), Sue Kuehl Pederson, R-Lakewood, Rebecca Saldana, D-Seattle, Dave Upthegrove, D-Burien, and Kevin Van De Wege, D-Sequim.
Candidates for any local or statewide position are encouraged to send announcements to news@chronline.com for potential publication in The Chronicle in Centralia.
