Candidate Profile: Chad Magendanz
Chad Magendanz is running to represent District 5 in the Washington State Senate. This district, which covers Issaquah to Maple Valley and down to Enumclaw, has seen quite a few changes over the past year.
Chad Magendanz (R), a Naval veteran and former two-term State Representative for District 5 from 2013–2017, lost a bid for this very senate seat last November by only 3,400 votes in a district that is traditionally very purple. Tragically, the gentleman who won the seat, Senator Bill Ramos (D), held his seat for just a few months to start the 2025 legislative session before passing away while out on a trail run near his home. After Ramos’s passing, District 5 Representative Victoria Hunt (D) was appointed to the senate position and is now conducting her first campaign to hold the seat.
Mr. Magendanz is once again running for the Senate seat and is hoping to flip this back to the Republican Caucus. I had a chance to get to know the former state representative a little bit better and learn what he really enjoyed about serving at the state level and what he hopes to bring to the Senate if re-elected.
What first led you to run for public office?
“It actually started with education. I was a hiring manager at Microsoft, and I was getting really frustrated with the skills gap. Our schools weren’t turning out kids with the skills we needed in the high-tech jobs, and we were increasingly going abroad to China and India to get qualified candidates. As a parent at the time, I was really frustrated. I wanted my kids to have the same opportunity that I had coming to Washington. So, I started to get involved with groups like the PTA and the League of Education Voters. Next thing you know, I’m appointed to the school board, then re-elected to the school board, then I went through the legislative representative position, and then president. Then they encouraged me right when the McCleary ruling hit to get involved with state politics, because it didn’t take me long to realize that the decisions are made where the money is spent. As involved as we were on the school board, it was really down in Olympia where those decisions are made.”
Chad was quickly appointed to the ranking member on the House Education Committee and balanced the McCleary Decision dollars with a 105% increase in public school funding over an eight-year period, and the decision was validated by the state supreme court.
If elected to the Senate, what big first thing do you want to come out of the gate with?
“Well, the most important thing is I want to restore a little balance to Olympia. I served two terms when we had a part of the legislature. We were literally a purple legislature. The Senate controlled by the Republicans with a coalition of two or three Democrats joining them, and then by an outright majority in the Senate, and then the Democrats controlled the House. So, in that climate you have to work together, you have to find common ground and end up with a much better work product because of it,” Magendanz said. He hopes to help rebuild the so-called “roadkill caucus,” which for a time consisted of many moderate Democrats and Republicans who shied away from many of the more extreme views of their respective parties.
Thoughts on the recent passage of statewide rent control?
“Well, I’m an engineer at heart, and so I’m all about understanding the science and the numbers. To me, this is a pretty straightforward economic equation.We lack supply, and in order to create more supply, we need to make sure that we’re creating an environment where developers feel like they can build, and landlords feel comfortable that they can actually collect the rent, and we’ve done everything but that over the last few years. With the moratoriums, that’s really created an insecure environment for landlords to enter, and I know with rent control, I think you’re going to see a pretty mass exodus. For those that remain, if we can’t make a decent business proposition on being a landlord, we shouldn’t expect the number of units to increase.”
Mr. Magendanz is a high school teacher in the Bellevue School District, and he teaches mostly courses on tech-related items, but does one course in law.
“I think everybody who serves in the legislature should have some basic knowledge of constitutional law, criminal law, and civil law. It’s just that we walk in blind, and after having started teaching this course, I realize just how little people know.We cover basic tenant law, for example, because the focus being on: OK, what are your responsibilities as a landlord, as a tenant? Someone slips on your steps, what are the liabilities, all these things that kids don’t know.”
Chad and his wife have called District 5 their home for more than thirty years and raised two sons. Chad earned a degree in electrical and computer engineering from Cornell before earning a master’s in teaching from Central Washington University.
To find out more about Chad’s campaign or to contribute, check out vote4chad.com.