CAMPAIGNING TWO YEARS IN A ROW: Michelle Caldier Joins Housing Matters

There are only three districts of the 49 statewide that have two-party representation at the state legislature. District 26 is one of those districts, and I sat down with Representative Michelle Caldier (R) of the 26th. The previous Senator for District 26, Emily Randall, was elected to the United States Congress, and as such, Deb Krishnadasan (D) was appointed to take her place this past January. Appointed until such time that a special election can be held, and that is quickly approaching with the November 2025 general election. Michelle Caldier will be her opponent and has maintained her representative seat for a very long stretch of time. The 26th is a purple district, and the voters in her district have continually re-elected her and have shown they believe she will continue her great work in Olympia.Representative Caldier has always been an ardent supporter of RHAWA and our membership and will work hard for housing providers in the Senate if elected.

Thoughts on the previous legislative session with regards to Republican party unity.

“I feel like the Republicans did a fantastic job of being united. We knew that there was a very good chance that the Democrats would gain supermajorities in both the House and the Senate in the last election. So, one of the things that the House Republican floor team did was they hired a parliamentarian so that we could look at all avenues, so that our floor action was done as well as possible, and, I have to say that for being in a super minority, we kicked butt, and I was pretty proud of ourselves because we were able to stop a lot of bad things.”

What did she hear from constituents during the COVID Eviction Moratorium?

“With the eviction moratorium, where they said, ‘Oh, my gosh, you know what? If someone lost their job from Covid and we need to protect these people’ because, you know, what we heard over and over again was those evil landlords are the number one cause of homelessness, and I'm like, I thought they were the ones providing the housing to renters, you know, and that you have to have some sort of protections for both, you know, both sides. You have to have protections for the tenant, and you also need to have fair protections for the landlord, because if a landlord has somebody in there that either is causing problems to other people that are dangerous, you know, or they're not paying their rent. What we found was that, I mean, I had phone call after phone call from people, and they said, I have a mortgage on that property. Like, I'm going to have to go bankrupt. I'm going to have to foreclose on that home, and what can you do to help? And I think that when you have some people and their philosophy is only to protect one side and not thinking of the other side, that's where we get these issues, and I think the housing problem is going to get worse."

What about the newly enacted B&O Tax on self-storage units and facilities?

“So, just so you know that there is a pallet in the legislature, there is, I don't think there's a tax they didn't like. I mean, seriously, like they sit there and they say, ‘oh, we don't like regressive taxes’, but you increase the sales tax, and you increase the gas tax, you increase the ferry fares, you increase the tolls. All of these regressive taxes that you claim you dislike, and quite honestly, a B&O tax is a regressive business tax. It goes right off the top. It doesn't factor in what your profit margin is, and I think that's the frustrating thing is they talk from both, you know, two sides of their mouth, and I mean, I'm sorry, but if they could get their hands on a B&O tax for rental income, do you know how much money that is? Do you know how many great programs that could fund? And it would just be as screw you to all of the landlords that they dislike.”

How is she feeling running a campaign for Senate so quickly after running her campaign last year for State Representative?

“Beginning of February, we had doorbell teams out in the district. I would come back every weekend. So, we have now hit 30,000 doors in the district, which is huge you know, and that's the thing is, I've ran so many tough, contested elections because it's a swing district, so we get beat up regardless. And just so people know, Emily Randall, who won her bid to Congress when she won the seat, it was only 104 votes out of over 70,000. So that's a swing district race. So, it attracts all that outside dollars, because they can influence people's vote and they can say whatever they want.”

For my full interview with State Representative Michelle Caldier, check out the Housing Matter’s podcast at RHAWA.org/podcast and look for the link to the podcast platform of your choice. If you prefer the video version, check out the RHAWA YouTube channel.

If you want to learn more about Michelle Caldier’s campaign for State Senate or want to contribute financially or with your time volunteering, go to Michelle4Senate.com.