There is something almost impressive about being treated like a newcomer in a city where I've lived since 1968.
My family's history in Tacoma goes back even further. 1908, to be exact. That's when my ancestors arrived to Tacoma from Norway. Since then, generations of my family have called this city home. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins and branches of the family tree that have been growing here for well over a century. We've worked here, raised families here, built lives here. We’ve watched Tacoma change, grow, stumble and reinvent itself more times than we can count.
But apparently, 118 years still isn't enough time to get noticed by the right people.
I remember the Tacoma Dome opening when I was a teenager. I remember José Canseco and Mark McGwire playing for the Tacoma Tigers before the rest of the country knew them as the Bash Brothers. I remember when downtown office buildings were full, downtown stores were busy and Christmas shoppers actually crowded the sidewalks.
“City sidewalks, busy sidewalks, dressed in holiday style” could easily have been written about downtown Tacoma in December.
I've watched this city change for decades. I've also known many of Tacoma's political people since long before they became political people. Before the campaign websites, government titles and carefully rehearsed speeches behind podiums.
I knew them before they became their own press releases.
I knew some when they owned video stores, worked as baristas, designed buildings, staffed libraries and taught school. I knew them while they were finding their way through life, just like the rest of us. And there's nothing wrong with any of that. Everybody starts somewhere.
Which makes it particularly amusing when some of those same circles decide somebody ELSE doesn't have the experience to participate. So, when somebody says I “came out of nowhere,” my first question is pretty simple: Nowhere to whom?
I didn't come out of nowhere. I came from outside Tacoma's preferred political circle. There's a difference.
Before 2021, I had never been a candidate for public office. But that isn't the same thing as having no political experience.
I may have been new to campaigning for myself but I wasn't new to politics, and I sure as hell wasn't new to Tacoma.
I'd spent decades paying attention, supporting candidates, forming relationships and watching the people, alliances and machinery operating long before my own name appeared on a ballot.
Meanwhile, I was raising my son on my own, building a long career in construction, marrying Kelli and concentrating on our family and our future. I didn't have an elected title. I didn't have a government paycheck and I didn't make politics my profession.
But stepping back isn't disappearing.
I never left Tacoma and I never stopped paying attention. I simply didn't feel the need to make sure my face appeared in every political photograph.
Apparently, that confused some people. By 2025, I'd already run a citywide campaign, advanced through the Primary and appeared on the General Election ballot for Mayor of Tacoma.
Calling me politically inexperienced by then wasn't analysis. It was refusing to update the story.
Somewhere along the way, being familiar with Tacoma's political establishment became confused with being qualified to participate in it. Those are two very different things. I've known people who spent years in politics and accomplished very little. I've also known people who never held public office but spent their lives building businesses, employing people, raising families and contributing to this community.
A political résumé can tell you where somebody has been but it doesn't automatically tell you what they're capable of doing.
When I ran in 2021, I wasn't part of the usual candidate pipeline. I hadn't spent years positioning myself for the next available government paycheck. I didn't have the political machine introducing me, explaining me or telling Tacoma that I had permission to run. That didn't make me an outsider to Tacoma, it made me an outsider to them.
Some people apparently believed that because they didn't recognize me, I hadn't earned the right to run. A few of those voices had lived in Tacoma for a fraction of the time I had.
Please pause for a moment and appreciate the arrogance required for that.
Not recognizing me doesn't prove I wasn't here. It proves you weren't looking beyond your own circle.
And no, I didn't “spoil” the 2021 mayoral election, either. I entered a democratic race, advanced through the Primary and became one of two candidates on the General Election ballot. I challenged an incumbent because I believed Tacoma deserved a choice.
Sorry, not sorry.
That is democracy. I lost that election. I accepted the result then, and I accept it now. But losing an election didn't mean I stopped being a resident of Tacoma, stopped caring about this city or forfeited my right to participate in its future. And my family's 118 years here don't give me any more right to participate than somebody who moved here yesterday.
That's exactly the point.
You don't have to agree with me. You don't have to support me. You don't have to like my politics, my delivery or the number of capital letters I use when I'm pissed off. But you don't get to decide that I haven't earned the right to participate simply because I wasn't on somebody's preferred guest list.
Tacoma isn't a private club. The ballot isn't a VIP section.
Nobody needs permission from an established political circle to care about this city, question its leadership or run for office.
I didn't come out of nowhere. I was here. Whether they noticed me is irrelevant.
Maybe you didn't recognize me.
But I recognized them.
Now that we've cleared that up, perhaps we can finally talk about Tacoma instead of who's allowed to run for Mayor.