Dylan Quarles (Port Townsend City Council Position 1, Washington, candidate 2025)
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Dylan Quarles is running for election to the Port Townsend City Council Position 1 in Washington. He is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.[source] He was on the ballot in the primary on August 5, 2025.[source]
Quarles completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Dylan Quarles provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on August 2, 2025:
- Birth date: November 16, 1985
- Birth place: Portland, Oregon
- High school: Port Townsend High School
- Bachelor's: The Evergreen State College, 2007
- Gender: Male
- Profession: Writer
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign slogan: Welcoming visitors, working for local families.
- Campaign website
- Campaign endorsements
- Campaign Facebook
Elections
General election
General election for Port Townsend City Council Position 1
Fred Obee and Dylan Quarles are running in the general election for Port Townsend City Council Position 1 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
Fred Obee (Nonpartisan)  | ||
 | Dylan Quarles (Nonpartisan) | |
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| = 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. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Port Townsend City Council Position 1
Fred Obee, Mikki Porter, and Dylan Quarles ran in the primary for Port Townsend City Council Position 1 on August 5, 2025.
Candidate | ||
| Fred Obee (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Mikki Porter (Nonpartisan) | ||
| Dylan Quarles (Nonpartisan) | |
| ||||
| = 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. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
To view Quarles's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. To send us an endorsement, click here.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Dylan Quarles completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Quarles' responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I'm a proud Port Townsend resident, father, and small business owner running to represent working families on city council.
After graduating from Port Townsend High School in 2004, I earned my bachelor's degree from Evergreen State College, working my way through school in maintenance and facilities—an opportunity that led to a decade-long career managing properties for one of the State's largest mental health nonprofits and later as a locksmith at Fort Worden PDA. Seeking to return to my nonprofit roots, I became a reading specialist for Quilcene School District, where I served as union treasurer and vice president, successfully bargaining for substantial pay raises and safety provisions during COVID-19. This reinforced my belief that when working people stand together, we create meaningful change. After my son was born, I became a stay-at-home dad, immersing myself in library storytimes, swim lessons, and park playdates—experiences that have opened my eyes to the shared struggles facing young families in our community. I'm also an author, having published five novels, a biography, and several volumes of "A Secret History of Port Townsend"—which was recently optioned for film.
I'm running because Port Townsend needs someone who understands what it takes to stay here with a family, someone ready to be a voice for working people when the loudest voices don't speak for us.- Housing shouldn't price out the families who keep our community running. As someone who's worked paycheck-to-paycheck and fought for fair wages as a union leader, I know firsthand how rising costs squeeze working families. That said, cities shouldn't be in the housing development business. Instead, they should remove barriers and streamline processes for the nonprofits and builders already doing the work effectively. I support empowering organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Olympic Housing Trust, and OlyCAP who have proven track records, and ensuring that large, for-profit developments contribute fairly to affordable housing solutions.
- Our infrastructure is the foundation everything else depends on—from safe drinking water to reliable roads that support local businesses. As someone with a decade of facilities management experience, I understand that deferred maintenance only gets more expensive over time. The current council is doing the hard, unglamorous work of catching up on years of neglect, and we need to continue prioritizing these essential repairs. However, we must balance immediate needs with long-term sustainability. I support smart investments in infrastructure that serve both residents and businesses without breaking budgets, and planning in a transparent way that helps our community understand why these investments matter for our shared future.
- Working families and community elders are already stretched thin. With utility rates set to increase substantially over the next several years, I strongly support preserving and expanding our income-based utility discount program to ensure essential services remain accessible to those who depend upon them the most. I will also advocate for progressive utility rate structures that don't penalize those who use less, review city fee schedules to identify opportunities for sliding-scale approaches where legally permissible, and explore options for credits for essential workers. Smart policy can ease the burden on families while maintaining the quality services our community depends on.
I'm passionate about policies that help workers, families, and elders build community resilience. My union organizing experience showed me how collective action creates meaningful change when people's livelihoods are at stake. This drives my focus on housing affordability, infrastructure policy, and economic equity—ensuring essential workers, families, and community elders aren't priced out by rising costs. And finally, I believe in transparent governance that listens to community voices before making decisions.
City Council is the ground floor of a vast and sprawling governmental apparatus—local, state, federal. It's where ordinary citizens can actually make their voices heard without needing expensive lobbyists or political connections, and it should always remain that way.
I really admire Carl Sagan for his ability to make complex ideas accessible without dumbing them down. He showed that you can be intellectually rigorous while still speaking to everyone, not just experts. I'm also influenced by Blaise Pascal, who understood that you can't change people's minds by arguing with them—you have to help them discover new perspectives themselves. This is exactly what I learned in union organizing: you don't win by being the smartest person in the room, you win by listening and finding common ground. Both men understood that real wisdom comes from curiosity and humility, not from having all the answers. That's the kind of leadership our community needs.
I read a lot of history, especially ancient Roman history. I'm particularly fascinated with those whose lives were not deemed worthy of recording—workers, women, anyone not wealthy or powerful. Mary Beard's SPQR does an exceptional job of illuminating the lives of ordinary Romans, not just emperors and senators.
I'm also a died-in-the-wool film nerd with too many films to list, but what draws me to both history and cinema is the same thing: stories that center ordinary people struggling against systems of power.
I'm also a died-in-the-wool film nerd with too many films to list, but what draws me to both history and cinema is the same thing: stories that center ordinary people struggling against systems of power.
I believe elected officials must listen first and lead with humility. Too often, those seeking office think they have all the answers—sometimes from their professional background, sometimes from their own personal beliefs. Real leadership means engaging with community voices, especially those who aren't always heard at public meetings. Transparency is also essential—voters deserve to understand how decisions are made and why. Integrity means keeping your word, admitting when you're wrong or don't know something, and changing your mind when presented with good reason. Finally, elected leaders must remember they work for the community, not the other way around. When people trust that you're fighting for them, not yourself, that's when real progress happens.
As the father of a three year old (somewhat feral) boy, I feel that my well of patience runs deeper than most. Additionally, I practice active listening on a daily, hourly, minute-by-minute bases and know just how important it is for constructive communication.
City council members should be stewards of public resources while representing all residents, not just those who can attend evening meetings, or lobby them through shared social groups. We're responsible for setting policy that keeps essential services running efficiently and affordably. That means making tough budget decisions, planning for long-term infrastructure needs, and ensuring our community remains accessible to workers, families, and elders. Council members should also bridge the gap between city staff and residents—translating complex issues into plain language that doesn't sound like lecturing, and bringing community concerns into policy discussions. Most importantly, we're accountable to voters, not special interests or political insiders—be they current or former. Every decision should pass the test: does this help or hurt the people we serve?
That of a good father, husband, community member, and story teller.
9/11, I was a sophomore in high school. I had to be up early every morning for jazz band. As such, I watched the second plane hit on live TV. Later, I watched the towers fall on live TV in health class. Even at that age, I knew life was never going to be the same again.
Movies Plus (RIP). I worked there all through high school.
It's a three way tie between The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman, The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, and The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. I also deeply love the novel Quo Vadis by Henryk Sienkiewicz.
Days Like These by Low
My wife an I lost our baby daughter in 2019. Her name was Rainier. I know what it means to come back from indescribable lost. Though I wouldn't wish it on anyone else, I know from experience that I can take a beating and get back up—every single day, without fail.
City councils have more power over utility affordability than most people realize. We can expand income-based discount programs and add sliding-scale approaches to fees. On housing, councils can mandate that large developments include affordable units or pay into affordability funds—it's called inclusionary zoning, and cities like Redmond have used it successfully for decades. When developers upzone to build more units, we can require them to contribute to the housing solution. These aren't radical ideas. They're proven tools that many Washington cities already use to keep communities affordable for working families.
Experience is often a benefit, but it doesn't always translate in a meaningful way. Issues of affordability, inclusion, and social justice are evolving so fast that past experience often falls well short of the mark. What's more important is the energy to think quickly and in bold new ways to tackle the issues of today, and tomorrow. We can't forever litigate the past. Our biggest challenges are still ahead of us.
The most important skill is the ability to listen—really listen—to people who don't usually get heard at city hall. You need practical experience and an understanding of how systems work, but you also need to translate complex policy into plain language that doesn't sound condescending. Union organizing taught me how to bring different groups together around shared goals, even when they disagree on other things. You need patience for the process but urgency about the problems. Most importantly, you need to remember that every policy decision affects real families trying to make it work in this community. If you can't connect policy to people's daily struggles, you're falling short of the mark.
City council is where policy meets the pavement—literally. We're close enough to residents to understand how a utility rate increase affects a family's grocery budget, but we have the authority to actually do something about it. Unlike state or federal representatives who deal in abstractions, city councilors see the immediate impact of every decision. We control the basics that determine whether working families can afford to stay—water rates, housing policy, permitting processes. It's also the one level of government where ordinary citizens can still walk up to their representative at the farmers market and have a real conversation. That accessibility creates accountability you don't get at higher levels of government, and it should stay that way.
I have been endorsed by small business owners, families, community activists, and sitting council members.
Government operates with taxpayer money, so taxpayers deserve to know exactly how it's being spent. Having worked extensively in facilities maintenance management for a large mental health nonprofit, I understand that transparency isn't just about publishing numbers—it's about explaining decisions in plain language that everyone can understand. Too often, financial information is buried in jargon or presented in ways that discourage engagement. When people trust that their elected officials are being honest about money, they're more likely to support necessary investments in infrastructure and services.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Note: Quarles submitted the above survey responses to Ballotpedia on August 2, 2025.
Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Quarles completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
