Devin Rydel Kelly
From Ballotpedia
This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.
Devin Rydel Kelly (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Washington House of Representatives to represent District 27-Position 2. He lost in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Rydel Kelly completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Devin Rydel Kelly was born in Los Angeles, California. He graduated from Wood River High School. He attended Boise State University. He earned a bachelor's and a graduate degree from the University of Washington in 2004 and 2008, respectively. His career experience includes working as a nonprofit director. He has been affiliated with the Foundation For Tacoma Students.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Washington House of Representatives District 27-Position 2
Incumbent Jake Fey defeated Devin Rydel Kelly in the general election for Washington House of Representatives District 27-Position 2 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Jake Fey (D) | 75.5 | 49,311 |
Devin Rydel Kelly (D)  | 22.7 | 14,825 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.9 | 1,210 | ||
| Total votes: 65,346 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington House of Representatives District 27-Position 2
Incumbent Jake Fey and Devin Rydel Kelly advanced from the primary for Washington House of Representatives District 27-Position 2 on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Jake Fey (D) | 70.2 | 23,332 |
| ✔ | Devin Rydel Kelly (D) | 26.9 | 8,962 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 2.9 | 962 | ||
| Total votes: 33,256 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Rydel Kelly in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Devin Rydel Kelly completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Rydel Kelly's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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My name is Devin Rydel Kelly. I live, work and organize in Tacoma, Washington, and I'm seeking your support for my transformational, people-powered campaign for 27th Legislative District Representative #2. Join me in fighting for a future that works for all.
I’ve been a community organizer for over 25 years. My first major fight was a several year, inter-racial, inter-faith campaign to win minimum wage for migrant farmworkers in Idaho. We eventually won, despite being in a deeply impoverished, right wing and racist state. By the age of 21 this had already led me to develop beliefs in coalition politics, bold demands, and that working people from all backgrounds can organize, fight, and win. This is the same energy I brought over 20 years later to Tacoma For All’s recent victory for housing justice, and the campaign creating Tacoma’s non-police crisis responses team. All of this was just last year. This is the energy I want to bring to office.
I’ve long considered running, but this moment feels right to me for many reasons. I’m running now because our community is facing many intersecting crises that require deep, structural change based on organizing, rather than status quo politics. I’m running to confront the crises in housing, education, and our environment. I'm running to confront corporate domination of politics, and ensure our beautiful, diverse working class is at the table, not on the menu.- We must develop innovative strategies to make massive portions of the housing stock permanently affordable. We can keep working people housed by overturning the statewide ban on rent stabilization. We can dramatically expand supply through creating a statewide social housing developer. We can create a public bank offering near zero interest loans, both to support first time home ownership for low-income families and communities of color, and to allow older homeowners to age in place while converting their units to rent stabilized duplexes and triplexes.
- We must fully and equitably fund state education. For K-12, this means moving away from per pupil funding and taking into account historical racism and redlining. It means expanding accessibility and special education. It means investing in paraeducators, counselors, advisors, nurses, and mental health professionals that look like the students they serve and have good, union jobs. For higher ed, it means finally catching up with the rest of the developed world by making state colleges and universities tuition free and undoing decades of privatization.
- Climate change is the biggest existential threat we’ve ever faced. We must do whatever we can to prevent it turning into climate collapse. This means ending fossil fuel use today and finally ending the oil lobby’s grip on politics at all levels of government. I’m proud to refuse all corporate money, and specifically fossil fuel lobby money. It also means future proofing our infrastructure and utilities, which are crumbling after decades of neglect and require rebuilding. Why not build them green? We must create good, union jobs for people in existing sectors facing transition, especially those most dependent o fossil fuels. This is why a “just transition” to a green economy is a core component of my campaign.
I firmly believe that all of the things we most appreciate in society are the result of everyday working people coming together to make a better world. The crises we’re facing now require that we have leaders that think like organizers, not politicians. This can and must mean not only center the values and needs of our multi-racial, multi-generational working class, but also leaders that come out of our social movements and are accountable to them.
This informs my over 25 years of experience in major labor fights, racial justice fights, environmental fights and political fights throughout the Northwest. I want to bring this energy of coalition politics and radical imagination to the Washington State Legislature.
This informs my over 25 years of experience in major labor fights, racial justice fights, environmental fights and political fights throughout the Northwest. I want to bring this energy of coalition politics and radical imagination to the Washington State Legislature.
There are many activists, organizers, workers and troublemakers I admire. Ask me about some of them when we meet in person!
I have many political influences from across the left political spectrum, but most love the intersection of democracy, socialism, and challenging systems of oppression. I love the Frederick Douglass speech "No Progress Without Struggle" and in particular, the core idea... "Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has and it never will."
I deeply value integrity, boldness and humility. These can at times feel contradictory, but I feel it's important we embrace all of them. In particular, I believe politicians need to lead with their values and political priorities, rather than their personalities or loyalties, and that they must start from a bold position, knowing some amount of compromise is inevitable in politics. This is in stark contrast to "incrementalism," where politicians start from an already compromised position. Finally, I believe it's important that politicians stay connected to their constituents and political base, centering the most widely and deeply felt issues, and fight like hell for a future that works for all.
Humor, strategic thinking, tenacity and the ability to learn from my mistakes
Elected officials should govern effectively, lead with their values, and be clear about their political agendas. This means reflecting the will of your constituents and political base, rather than donors or career politicians. It means being in dialog with other elected officials, with voters and with organizations. It means working to improve society and leave it better than when you entered office.
I distinctly remember watching the Bush / Dukakis political debates with my dad's extending family while visiting Michigan when only eight years old. Jus before, there was an anti-Dukakis TV ad displaying an escalator letting felons out of prison by going over the wall. I remember thinking something like "that's ridiculous and obviously manipulative." (but with an eight year old's mind)
McDonald's... like two weeks.
I believe in a balance of power, and that the balance of power is best served when all parties are advancing their agendas transparently and boldly. A Governor should be clear about their agenda and budget priorities, then willing to hash out and work through disagreements with state agency and board leaders, legislators and the community.
Our greatest challenges will be in navigating climate change, and primarily its impact on our communities and infrastructure, and the influx of climate migration it will bring to regions like the Pacific Northwest. Crucially, we need to future proof our utilities and infrastructure now, and do it in a way that centers impacted communities and creates good, green, union jobs. Solutions to the climate crisis can't be just more giveaways to corporations, no matter how "green" they may be.
We also face multiple intersecting crises in housing, education, youth engagement and mental health. My platform goes into all of these in more detail. But we won't be able to address any of them until we confront and overturn Washington's rigged, racialized tax structure and finally start generating progressive revenue from things like a billionaire wealth tax and corporate wealth taxes, particularly for Washington's wealthiest residents, who are among the richest in the world.
We also face multiple intersecting crises in housing, education, youth engagement and mental health. My platform goes into all of these in more detail. But we won't be able to address any of them until we confront and overturn Washington's rigged, racialized tax structure and finally start generating progressive revenue from things like a billionaire wealth tax and corporate wealth taxes, particularly for Washington's wealthiest residents, who are among the richest in the world.
While I generally think that legislators should have previous experience, I also think there are diminishing returns to that experience, particularly in part-time legislatures like Washington's. This system incentivizes retirees, self employed folks, or otherwise independently wealthy people to run, and causes the age range to be very out of sync with the population. I respect experience, but I also respect democracy, challenged races, and political transformation.
Absolutely! I think it's crucial for legislators to know and understand their colleagues, and to form coalitions with like-minded people. I also believe that occasionally, members of any caucus or party will have to compromise. But this doesn't mean I think we should celebrate "bipartisan" or "non-partisan" takes. Instead, we should move past personalities, lead with our values, and hash it out via debate and committee. Moreover, I think it's crucial that legislators start acting more like organizers than politicians. This means understanding the interests and values of other legislators, mobilizing and organizing with and against them, and mobilizing with their constituents, as needed.
Bernie Sanders
Not really. I love Washington and believe we need significant change in our political process and structure. But I have no interest in the "other" Washington at this point in time.
I hear countless stories of struggle, hardship, resistance and joy every single day I'm on the doors. These are the things that energize me to keep going, even and especially when it is hardest.
I look forward to advancing a Green New Deal bill in my early years, centering a just transition for workers, likely similar to New York's "Build Public Renewables Act." I also will sponsor statewide banking and social housing development bills.
Democratic Socialists of America (national and Tacoma chapters), United Auto Workers (UAW) Region 6, Indivisible Tacoma, Housing Alliance Action Fund, Tacoma City Council member Jamika Scott, many community leaders and activists
Housing, Education, Labor, the Environment and Community Safety
I believe deeply in financial transparency, both in government and in political campaigns. I am refusing to take any corporate or business agency PAC money. I believe in campaign finance reform, transparent disclosure of donations, and ending the revolving door system between corporations, lobbyists and elected officials that so many politicians benefit from every day.
I think initiatives are an essential part of Democracy and I support keeping and even expanding them. However, I'm deeply opposed to the current system of unlimited spending, which partially enabled the reactionary, billionaire-backed "Let's Go Washington" initiatives (all of which I oppose). We need to severely limit the amount of money that can be spent on initiatives (much like candidate races), while at the same time keeping it easy enough for working people to gather signatures for important changes.
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Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2024 Elections
External links
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Candidate Washington House of Representatives District 27-Position 2 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 8, 2024
Current members of the Washington House of Representatives
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Laurie Jinkins
Majority Leader:Joe Fitzgibbon
Minority Leader:Drew Stokesbary
Representatives
District 1-Position 1
Davina Duerr (D)
District 1-Position 2
Shelley Kloba (D)
District 2-Position 1
Andrew Barkis (R)
District 2-Position 2
Matt Marshall (R)
District 3-Position 1
Natasha Hill (D)
District 3-Position 2
Timm Ormsby (D)
District 4-Position 1
Suzanne Schmidt (R)
District 4-Position 2
Rob Chase (R)
District 5-Position 1
Zach Hall (D)
District 5-Position 2
Lisa Callan (D)
District 6-Position 1
Mike Volz (R)
District 6-Position 2
Jenny Graham (R)
District 7-Position 1
David Engell (R)
District 7-Position 2
Hunter Abell (R)
District 8-Position 1
District 8-Position 2
April Connors (R)
District 9-Position 1
Mary Dye (R)
District 9-Position 2
Joe Schmick (R)
District 10-Position 1
Clyde Shavers (D)
District 10-Position 2
Dave Paul (D)
District 11-Position 1
David Hackney (D)
District 11-Position 2
Steve Bergquist (D)
District 12-Position 1
Brian Burnett (R)
District 12-Position 2
Mike Steele (R)
District 13-Position 1
Tom Dent (R)
District 13-Position 2
Alex Ybarra (R)
District 14-Position 1
Gloria Mendoza (R)
District 14-Position 2
Deb Manjarrez (R)
District 15-Position 1
Chris Corry (R)
District 15-Position 2
Jeremie Dufault (R)
District 16-Position 1
Mark Klicker (R)
District 16-Position 2
Skyler Rude (R)
District 17-Position 1
Kevin Waters (R)
District 17-Position 2
David Stuebe (R)
District 18-Position 1
District 18-Position 2
John Ley (R)
District 19-Position 1
Jim Walsh (R)
District 19-Position 2
Joel McEntire (R)
District 20-Position 1
Peter Abbarno (R)
District 20-Position 2
Ed Orcutt (R)
District 21-Position 1
Strom Peterson (D)
District 21-Position 2
District 22-Position 1
Beth Doglio (D)
District 22-Position 2
Lisa Parshley (D)
District 23-Position 1
Tarra Simmons (D)
District 23-Position 2
Greg Nance (D)
District 24-Position 1
Adam Bernbaum (D)
District 24-Position 2
Steve Tharinger (D)
District 25-Position 1
Michael Keaton (R)
District 25-Position 2
Cyndy Jacobsen (R)
District 26-Position 1
Adison Richards (D)
District 26-Position 2
Michelle Caldier (R)
District 27-Position 1
Laurie Jinkins (D)
District 27-Position 2
Jake Fey (D)
District 28-Position 1
Mari Leavitt (D)
District 28-Position 2
Dan Bronoske (D)
District 29-Position 1
Melanie Morgan (D)
District 29-Position 2
Sharlett Mena (D)
District 30-Position 1
Jamila Taylor (D)
District 30-Position 2
Kristine Reeves (D)
District 31-Position 1
Drew Stokesbary (R)
District 31-Position 2
Josh Penner (R)
District 32-Position 1
Cindy Ryu (D)
District 32-Position 2
Lauren Davis (D)
District 33-Position 1
Edwin Obras (D)
District 33-Position 2
Mia Gregerson (D)
District 34-Position 1
Brianna Thomas (D)
District 34-Position 2
Joe Fitzgibbon (D)
District 35-Position 1
Dan Griffey (R)
District 35-Position 2
Travis Couture (R)
District 36-Position 1
Julia Reed (D)
District 36-Position 2
Liz Berry (D)
District 37-Position 1
Sharon Santos (D)
District 37-Position 2
Chipalo Street (D)
District 38-Position 1
Julio Cortes (D)
District 38-Position 2
Mary Fosse (D)
District 39-Position 1
Sam Low (R)
District 39-Position 2
Carolyn Eslick (R)
District 40-Position 1
Debra Lekanoff (D)
District 40-Position 2
Alex Ramel (D)
District 41-Position 1
Janice Zahn (D)
District 41-Position 2
My-Linh Thai (D)
District 42-Position 1
Alicia Rule (D)
District 42-Position 2
Joe Timmons (D)
District 43-Position 1
Nicole Macri (D)
District 43-Position 2
Shaun Scott (D)
District 44-Position 1
Brandy Donaghy (D)
District 44-Position 2
April Berg (D)
District 45-Position 1
Roger Goodman (D)
District 45-Position 2
Larry Springer (D)
District 46-Position 1
Gerry Pollet (D)
District 46-Position 2
Darya Farivar (D)
District 47-Position 1
Debra Entenman (D)
District 47-Position 2
Chris Stearns (D)
District 48-Position 1
Osman Salahuddin (D)
District 48-Position 2
Amy Walen (D)
District 49-Position 1
Sharon Wylie (D)
District 49-Position 2
Monica Stonier (D)
Democratic Party (59)
Republican Party (39)
