Rep. Adison Richards Running for Reelection in 26th LD

Adison Richards

I want to make sure our state is doing everything that we can to protect jobs and keep people employed.”

Adison Richards, 34, is a “hometown” guy, running for reelection in swing district 26, which runs from Bremerton to Gig Harbor and includes the Key Peninsula.

Richards graduated from Peninsula High School and completed law school at Villanova University in Philadelphia. Currently living in Gig Harbor, he volunteers locally with the Peninsula Cross Country Team and plays trumpet in the Down Home Band on the KP.

Elected in 2024, Richards began his first term in January 2025, serving as House representative in Pos. 1 for the district. If reelected, his second term will begin in January 2027.

Richards, a Democrat, developed a pragmatic approach to problem-solving in Olympia, he said, and has voted against the majority of his own party at times. “I have had public disagreement with the direction that we’ve gone on the budget and taxes,” he said.

One such vote was against the Millionaires Tax (Senate Bill 6346), a 9.9% income tax on household earnings exceeding $1 million per year, which was signed into law March 30. The law will take effect in January 2028, with the first tax returns due in January 2029.

Richards told KP News the tax does not offer relief to lower-income families. Let’s Go Washington, a group formed by Brian Heywood, has gathered enough signatures to place a tax repeal measure on the November ballot.

Looking to the future, Richards said, “I’ve been doing my homework on that, and I have ideas on where we can make reforms and adjustments.”

Washington State faces challenges in many areas in the next legislative session, which begins Jan. 11, 2027. Richards sees the budget as the biggest challenge: “Some very hard decisions will have to be made. The budget has grown significantly more than the revenue streams can support.”

Washington has lost millions of dollars as a direct result of federal government policies cutting support for food benefits and healthcare access, according to the Department of Social and Human Services. The state is likely to lose $3-5 billion over the next two years because of the federal HR 1 (the One Big Beautiful Bill Act) passed in May 2025. Health care services, hospital funding, and food assistance will suffer significant losses, many affecting low-income families.

In addition, Washington’s unemployment rate stands at 5.2%, and projected job growth is 0.85% from 2024 to 2029, according to the Washington State Employment Security Department.

“There is so much economic instability that’s happening because of what the federal government is doing,” Richards said. “I want to make sure our state is doing everything that we can to protect jobs and keep people employed.”

Permitting reform is of particular interest for Richards. He said the current regulatory framework exacerbates the state’s budget problem.

“I’m asking questions across the board of what we are doing to stabilize costs of delivering services, trying to get to the root causes of some of those issues driving our budget deficits,” he said. “For example, on escalating insurance and energy costs and delays, permitting delays are crucial.”

Companies lose business when they are unable to make forward progress due to excessive permitting delays.

Richards and Sen. Deb Krishnadasan (D-26th, Gig Harbor) co-sponsored companion bills HB 2198 and SB 5968, legislation that would establish timelines for permit response and give rebates for permits that weren’t processed promptly. The bills did not pass in the last session, but Richards hopes to get them through the Legislature in 2027 if he’s reelected.

Richards said that his focus for the campaign and for the next legislative session will be to address cost of living, affordability, and public safety. Protecting individual rights and reproductive freedoms are also important issues for him.

“We just see a lot of grift in the federal government, on a whole host of things, where it seems like people are making a whole lot of money off our tax dollars. At the same time we’re seeing all these cuts to public services. And, at the same time, we are now in another seemingly endless war that’s driving up the cost for everybody.”

When asked about life on the Key Peninsula, Richards said, “We need a community that we can afford and is safe; that’s what I think about every day. We have a real tension right now between maintaining a rural character and being under tremendous pressure to develop, and the fact that more people live there and we have major infrastructure needs.”

Richards supports development along the I-5 corridor as a strategy to reduce the pressure for development of rural areas. Encouraging density along the I-5 corridor would help leave the rural character of the outlying areas intact.

Richards is proud of his work directly affecting the Key Peninsula, which includes funding for KP Civic Center building maintenance, a generator for the Mustard Seed Project, food benefit assistance, and funding for public transit. The district is also seeing immediate relief from the derelict vessels bill, which allows the removal of hazardous boats from local bays and marinas.

“Working for this community is the biggest privilege I’ve ever been given,” Richards said.