Jim Clark (Washington)

Jim Clark (No party preference) ran for election for Governor of Washington. He lost in the primary on August 6, 2024.

Clark completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Jim Clark's career experience includes working as a computer engineer. He served in the U.S. Army Reserve from 1988 to 1996. Clark earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1992, a graduate degree from Pepperdine University in 1999, and a graduate degree from the University of California at Santa Barbara in 2002. Clark has been affiliated with National Parents Organization, Citizen Wildlife Monitoring Project, and Computer Technology Investigators Northwest.^[1]

Elections

2024

General election

General election for Governor of Washington

Bob Ferguson defeated Dave Reichert in the general election for Governor of Washington on November 5, 2024.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Bob Ferguson (D)	55.5	2,143,368
	Dave Reichert (R)	44.3	1,709,818
	Other/Write-in votes	0.2	8,202

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 3,861,388
= 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.

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Governor of Washington

The following candidates ran in the primary for Governor of Washington on August 6, 2024.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Bob Ferguson (D)	44.9	884,268
✔		Dave Reichert (R)	27.5	541,533
		Semi Bird (R)	10.8	212,692
		Mark Mullet (D)	6.0	119,048
		Leon Lawson (Trump Republican Party)	1.8	35,971
	Submit photo	Jim Daniel (R)	1.5	29,907
	Submit photo	Cassondra Hanson (D)	1.2	24,512
		EL'ona Kearney (D)	1.2	24,374
		Jennifer Hoover (R)	0.8	15,692
		Andre Stackhouse (G)	0.6	11,962
		Don Rivers (D)	0.5	9,453
	Submit photo	Martin Wheeler (R)	0.4	7,676
		Chaytan Inman (D)	0.3	6,427
		Ricky Anthony (D)	0.3	6,226
	Submit photo	Jeff Curry (Independent Party)	0.3	6,068
		Fred Grant (D)	0.3	5,503
		Brian Bogen (No party preference)	0.2	4,530
		A.L. Brown (R)	0.2	4,232
		Michael DePaula (L)	0.2	3,957
		Rosetta Marshall-Williams (Independence Party)	0.2	2,960
		Jim Clark (No party preference)	0.1	2,355
	Submit photo	Edward Cale (D)	0.1	1,975
		Alex Tsimerman (Standup-America Party)	0.1	1,721
		Bill Hirt (R)	0.1	1,720
	Submit photo	Frank Dare (Independent Party)	0.1	1,115
		Alan Makayev (Nonsense Busters Party)	0.1	1,106
		William Combs (Independent Party)	0.1	1,042
	Submit photo	Brad Mjelde (No party preference)	0.1	991
		Ambra Mason (Constitution Party) (Write-in)	0.0	0
	Submit photo	Bobbie Samons (No party preference) (Write-in)	0.0	0
		Other/Write-in votes	0.1	1,347

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 1,970,363
= 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.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign finance

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Clark in this election.

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

Jim Clark completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Clark's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I have lived in Lake Stevens, Washington for over 18 years and firmly believe that Washington is one of the best states in the country. I am running for Governor to highlight the need for family court reform so that Washington is a better place to live for all families.

One of the biggest problems in Washington State is the lack of child custody and support protections that has resulted in a 'F' rating by National Parents Organization.

Like many parents, I did not understand how unfairly parents are treated within the biased family court system until I filed for divorce. As an honorably discharged U.S. Army infantry soldier with no criminal record and who had been the stay-at-home parent starting from when my daughter was 3 months old, I expected a collaborative divorce with a 50/50 plan and the sharing of child support (residential credit). What happened instead was a 12-year struggle in which every court commissioner and judge at every local, state, and federal level refused parental equality.

Four years ago I began to volunteer for National Parents Organization to help reform the family law system in Washington State. Last year I served on the 2023 Child Support Workgroup to help make recommendations to the Washington legislature to improve child support.

A top priority of the next governor should be to enact a Shared Parenting Bill of Rights to reform our failing court system to benefit children.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

A Shared Parenting Bill of Rights first and foremost reforms our family law courts to protect the rights of all fit, willing, and able parents to have the default presumption of equal shared custody. The benefits of 50/50 shared parenting for children are well documented by decades of scientific research and apply to even high conflict separations and divorces. Five states (have already done so with very positive results.
Child support reforms are needed to automatically share money between parental homes that share custody (Residential Credit). This ensures that child support equally protects children in both parental homes and that payments are more equitable and predictable, which in turn will reduce conflict. Currently, even in the families that already share custody 50/50, child support is shared in only one out of four cases.
Washington State needs to reform court funding and staffing levels so that justice is speedy and cases are not unnecessarily delayed. Regardless of whether an innocent parent needs custody restored or a guilty parent needs custody removed, delays in the court system hurt children and should not drag on while children grow up.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Reforming family law and our court systems has the tremendous potential to improve public health in Washington State. The divorce industry profits from the destruction of our families and taxpayers pick up the financial tab for the many ways that children are hurt. Worse yet, the divorce industry takes trial lawyers away from criminal justice system where the severe backlog of criminal cases results in prosecuters often declining to prosecute new criminal cases that would otherwise be winnable. Fixing our severely broken divorce system will refocus those lawyers on putting criminals in jail instead of putting two parents on trial to determine which one is the better parent. Courts should focus on prosecuting criminals, not parents.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Theodore Roosevelt. His life was defined by public service and finding purpose in trying to improve the lives of others. He worked very hard each day and overcame many setbacks in life. His effort and determination are what helped him persevere when the odds were often against him.

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

When I read Bernie Sanders book, Outsider In The White House, what struck me was how if he could find even the smallest amount of common ground with an opposing legislator, then that would be a starting point to work together. My understanding is that he has been one of the most productive legislators in terms of both bills introduced and legislation passed.

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

An elected official should want to make the lives better of as many people as possible. Government is run by people and having the right attitude and for the right reason can make a hugely positive impact on the people that live here. The most honorable officials have a 'servant leadership' mindset and do their best to help all that need them.

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

Servant leadership and doing one's best to equally serve all constituents. I also believe in respectful dialog, finding common ground, and compromise to create legislative solutions and have signed the Building Bridges Candidate Pledge.

As an independent candidate, I am not aligned with any political party and am not forced into any ideological pigeon-holes. My engineering background and analytical skills seek the data that will enable informed and rational decisions that do the most positive impact for the most people.

What do you believe are the core responsibilities for someone elected to this office?

A core responsibility is to make this state a better place for everybody to live. To choose the issues to lead on that will be the most impactful to the public health of as many people as possible. And to conserve our national resources and preserve our environment for future generations.

What legacy would you like to leave?

To be able to change the laws in Washington State to equally protect the rights of all fit, willing, and able parents to be equal participants in their children's lives. This would help fix the root cause issue of our family law courts creating a public health crisis.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

When John Lennon was shot. I was in 6th grade and they brought us to the gymnasium bleachers to share the news.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

My first job when I was probably 10 or 11 was mowing my dad's 5-acre lawn on a Ford riding mower. I did that for the next few years until I moved out of state.

What is your favorite book? Why?

Generation X: Tales for An Accelerated Culture by Douglas Coupland. I first read it the summer of 1992 when I found myself working as an office temp stuffing envelopes for slightly more than minimum wage after graduating college that spring with a Computer Systems Engineering degree. The promise of a high paying and technically challenging future seemed frustratingly distant as I learned what a McJob was.

If you could be any fictional character, who would you want to be?

MacGyver because I like to use science, engineering, and logic to solve problems.

What was the last song that got stuck in your head?

In The Waiting Line by Zero 7.

What is something that has been a struggle in your life?

The family law court system at every level has been the greatest struggle and biggest obstacle that has held me back in life.

The past 15 years of my life have been completely and unnecessarily changed by the fight to first get equal shared custody of my two children and then for the next 12 years trying to get a child support order that shared support through what is called a residential credit deviation. In all my years, in perhaps dozens of court hearings and going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in 2020, never once could I get a ruling or order from the court that equally protected both parental homes.

Fighting for parental equality takes up a considerable portion of my free time even as my children are now both in college and there are no more child custody or child support orders to litigate. I believe if I can reform the court system and make equal shared parenting the default option for all parents in Washington State, then something good will have come out of all my struggles and time spent.

A governor is the top executive authority in his or her state. What does that mean do you?

The priorities that the Governor sets are often times the legislative priorities that get enacted. Therefore, the governor has a power spotlight to highlight and address the most pressing issues that the state must solve. That means the governor must lead by educating both the public and the legislature on the importance of the various priorities each legislative session.

Governors have many responsibilities, which vary from state to state. Which of those do you personally consider the most important in your state?

Appointments may be the most impactful because the people in those positions work on the issues of vital interest to the residents of the state. Appointing qualified and dedicated candidates is how a governor amplifies his influence and makes government more functional or less. Choosing people who are open minded, fair, and believe in public service are how the key influencers in government can be public servants rather than public tyrants.

Different states require governors to have different degrees of responsibility for the state budgeting process. If it were your choice, what do you believe is the appropriate degree of gubernatorial involvement with this process in your state?

The governor should highlight priorities and help set goals but much of the compromise happens in legislative chambers that actually balances the numbers and sorts out the details. The governor is the public face of our state government and needs to lead without getting bogged down in the details and potentially interfering too much in the legislative process.

In most states, governors have the power to make line-item vetoes. If that is true in your state, what would be your philosophy for how and when to use this power?

The Washington State governor does not have a line-item veto and that is likely a good thing. The issue is that if highly negotiated compromises could be changed by line-item vetoing any very specific portions of a bill, the final bill may become significantly different that the original legislative intent. This makes compromise and agreement more difficult when bills can be completely and arbitrarily changed after agreement.

What do you believe is the ideal relationship between the governor and state legislature?

The governor interfaces with the federal government and international trading partners, is the public face of state government, and helps educate the public and legislature on what the biggest priorities are and why. The state legislature adjusts the laws to accommodate those priorities and controls the funding mechanisms to keep the state operating. The ensure the legislature enacts and funds the governor's priorities, the governor and the legislature need to be in frequent communication about what the governor is willing to sign into law and how the legislature may or may not be able to fund it.

What do you love most about your state?

The natural beauty and four seasons are amazing. I have hiked, biked, skied, kayaked, traveled and explored all over the state and have only scratched the surface of all the places I want to visit.

What do you perceive to be your state's greatest challenges over the next decade?

The biggest challenge will be our electrical grid resiliency and supporting all the current and future electrical needs of our homes, transportation, and industrial sectors. Our information economy and cashless payments are useless without electricity. Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our data centers require significant more power and additional ground water for cooling. We need to be focused on developing additional generation capacity (solar, wind, nuclear, fusion, and others) with significantly enhanced battery technologies to store the excess power generated for a later time.

Helping homeowner's pair solar with battery backup allows fridges, freezers, and computer equipment to work even when the grid is down for days or weeks. Building industrial scale batteries can help smooth variations in wind and solar. The latest nuclear reactor designs can help fill in the power generation needs when instantaneous power is needed or during nighttime, snowy, or windless days. A mix of power generation capabilities is critical to supplying enough power when needed.

The book, The Grid, was published in 2016 and is as relevant now as back then for helping to highlight what the choices, trends, and impacts are as we prepare our electrical grid for the demands of the future that are here now.

Tell us your favorite joke.

A man dies and goes to the pearly gates. St. Peter offers him a choice: heaven or hell. The man peeks into heaven and sees people quietly reading books. It seems a bit dull. Then he looks into hell and sees a wild party with dancing, music, and laughter. He sleeps on it for a night and then comes back the next day excited and he chooses hell. But when the doors open, it’s all fire and brimstone. The devil grins and says, ‘Yesterday you were a recruit, now you’re an employee.'

Under what circumstances should the governor of your state be able to use emergency powers?

The governor can “prohibit” otherwise legal conduct to address an emergency such as those caused by natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. This is a vitally important power to have to address the unique circumstances that develop when disasters strike.

The governor can also "waive" existing laws and regulations when necessary, such as the in-person eyesight exam requirement for driver’s licenses during the COVID lockdown. The Legislature’s role is limited: it can review and extend “waivers,” but the governor alone determines when a state of emergency ends.

Both powers are necessary but need to be used sparingly and with consultation of those who are being affected.

What are your views on financial transparency and government accountability?

Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) and public records requests are the fundamental mechanism that citizens can find out what the government is doing in their names. Corruption breeds in secrecy and the various sunshine laws that ensure access to documents is absolutely critical to eliminating the fraud, waste, and abuse that occurs at all levels of government.

Do you support or oppose changes to the current state ballot initiative process? If so, what kind of changes would you consider?

I support the current state ballot initiative process and would support changes to make online signatures an option. As long as a voter's signature and/or approval can be verified, then that should count towards the required number of valid signatures for a complete/successful filing.

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.

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.

Jim Clark campaign contribution history
Year	Office	Status	Contributions	Expenditures
2024*	Governor of Washington	Lost primary	$0	$0
Grand total			$0	$0
Sources: OpenSecrets, Federal Elections Commission *This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* Data from this year may not be complete

External links

Search Google News for this topic

Footnotes

↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 5, 2024

[1] Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 5, 2024

[1]

	v • e State of Washington Olympia (capital)
Elections	What's on my ballot? \| Elections in 2025 \| How to vote \| How to run for office \| Ballot measures
Government	Who represents me? \| U.S. President \| U.S. Congress \| Federal courts \| State executives \| State legislature \| State and local courts \| Counties \| Cities \| School districts \| Public policy

Jim Clark (Washington)

Contents

Biography

Elections

2024

General election

General election for Governor of Washington

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Governor of Washington

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Campaign finance

Endorsements

Campaign themes

2024

Ballotpedia survey responses

Campaign finance summary

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2025 Elections

2026 Elections

2024 Election analysis

Trending

Public Policy

Information for candidates

Get Engaged

Services

Additional analysis

SITE NAVIGATION