A Conversation with State House Candidate Katy Cornell

Katy Cornell

Working with people is about loving and respecting them and allowing everyone to be themselves and not expecting everyone to be just like you.”

Katy Cornell, 37, grew up in Port Orchard, met her husband in high school, and was married at 18. They have three children, ages 15, 16, and 17, and live in Gig Harbor.

She earned an associate degree from Olympic College and a bachelor’s in psychology from Northwest University in Kirkland.

It was there that a different education began.

“We lived in the married dorms; I was studying psychology,” Cornell told Key Peninsula News. “We met an older guy named Daniel, who was from Burkina Faso in West Africa. He speaks with a French accent and stands out like a sore thumb in Kirkland, and we became really good friends.”

In 2008, the young couple accompanied Daniel to his home village of Rialo.

“Most of them had never seen white people before,” she said. “It was a very strange experience at 19 years old. They didn’t have clean water, education, healthcare, you know, things like that. We were able to fix a well for just $90 for 2,000 people to have clean water. And that just changes your life forever because you realize you can make a difference.”

In 2009, Cornell and her husband, Tom, founded Walk In the Light International, a faith-based nonprofit organization that employs local people to build wells, schools, and medical clinics in Burkina Faso.

“At our peak, we had 80 employees,” she said, all but two in Burkina Faso, on a budget of about $700,000 raised in the U.S. “But in the last couple of years, we transitioned our models,” handing over programs to local control to sustain them.

Cornell went on to earn a master’s in nonprofit leadership at Seattle University and became a pastor specializing in counseling. That work has led her from churches in Belfair to Tacoma to Romania, where she has trained local pastors to assist Ukrainian war refugees coping with PTSD.

In 2025, Cornell became interested in politics at home.

“We opened our church in Tacoma, now two years ago, and we moved out there, and I felt like I was living on the news,” she said. “We had homelessness come to our front doors; literally people were living on the front stoop of the church, passed out on fentanyl, and you start realizing there’s a big problem here. It was like my feeling in West Africa again: I see a problem, and I can’t continue my normal life now. I’ve got to do something about this.”

Cornell joined the 6th Avenue Business District association and heard stories of local merchants dealing with crime and homelessness. She and her husband also met some of the people committing those crimes.

“It’s twofold,” she said. “This isn’t OK for the businesses, and for the families, and for your safety. But then you get to know the people you’re trying to help with their mental illness or drug issue. You take them down to treatment, and they leave two days later, and you realize it’s just a very broken system.”

In 2024, Cornell volunteered for the Kelly Chambers campaign for Pierce County Executive, and helped Michelle Caldier Valdez in her legislative race and Tim Payne’s Port of Tacoma Commissioner race.

Now she is a candidate herself running as a Republican in the 26th legislative district for the seat Valdez held for 12 years before retiring.

KP News asked Cornell why she is running, what she hopes to accomplish in Olympia, and what it means to be a Republican.

“We have a small business, and I’m from a family of small businesses,” she said. “My mom’s been a hairdresser my whole life, and my uncle owns a sports bar in Port Orchard, and my aunt used to own a bakery in Silverdale. Small businesses are the backbone of our community, and I hate to see them struggle.”

One of the reasons they struggle is taxes, she said. Another is crime. 

“Affordability is the number one thing that everyone’s really concerned about, but to me, a lot of it ties back into public safety,” she said. “When you have crime and no consequences, costs go up for everyone.”

Cornell referred to a low or no prosecution rate for some crimes, such as shoplifting or drug possession and use, and repeat offenders released without meaningful support.

“I love the concept of treating the root causes of either mental health or drug abuse … but you can’t actually require the treatment needed,” she said. “So people are committing what they call petty crimes. They may not be violent, but they’re very expensive. I want to get to a place where treatment is either mandatory, or they go to jail. It’s up to them, but to go back out on the streets is not good for anybody. There’s still addiction. That’s someone’s son or daughter that could die from an overdose. That’s not loving; that’s not compassionate.”

One thing that surprised Cornell on the campaign trail, she said, is when people told her she sounded like a Democrat.

“I identify as a lot of other things before I do as a Republican, and I do describe myself as an independent Republican and very much libertarian. I think we should help people as much as I think my Democrat friends do. The difference is I haven’t always thought it was the job of the government to do it,” she said.

“So when I say more limited government, it’s not about less services. I want to empower our local communities and our local organizations to do the job because I think they can do it better because they’re closer to the people in need.”

In Olympia, Cornell said that means revising some criminal justice laws while maintaining or improving public services without increasing the budget or driving business out of the state. 

“Olympia does need more Republicans down there to bring more of a balanced approach so that we have to work together and that everyone is represented,” she said. “And I think that’s what helps create healthy communities. I learned that first-hand over 20 years. Working with people is about loving and respecting them and allowing everyone to be themselves and not expecting everyone to be just like you. I want to bring that to Olympia. I want to bring respect. That’s just a big part of why I’m running.”