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John Pestinger
John Pestinger (Democratic Party) ran for election for Washington Commissioner of Insurance. He lost in the primary on August 6, 2024.
Pestinger completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
John Pestinger was born in Portland, Oregon. Pestinger attended Juanita High School, Olympia High School, Utah Valley State College, Community College of the Air Force, and BYU Pathway Worldwide. He served in the U.S. Air Force Reserve from 1997 to 2006. Pestinger's career experience includes working in insurance, retail, landscaping, security, grocery, auto parts, and landscaping. As of 2024, Pestinger chaired the Washington State Veterans Employee Resource Group.[1]
Elections
2024
See also: Washington Insurance Commissioner election, 2024
General election
General election for Washington Commissioner of Insurance
Patricia Kuderer defeated Phil Fortunato in the general election for Washington Commissioner of Insurance on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Patricia Kuderer (D) | 56.6 | 2,091,969 |
 | Phil Fortunato (R) | 43.3 | 1,598,032 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 4,430 | ||
| Total votes: 3,694,431 | |||
 = 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. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington Commissioner of Insurance
The following candidates ran in the primary for Washington Commissioner of Insurance on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Patricia Kuderer (D) | 45.2 | 845,148 |
| ✔ | | Phil Fortunato (R) | 28.5 | 533,560 |
 | Justin Murta (R) | 10.1 | 189,582 | |
 | John Pestinger (D) | 5.6 | 103,986 | |
 | Jonathan Hendrix (No party preference) | 3.7 | 68,961 | |
 | Bill Boyd (D) | 3.1 | 57,387 | |
| Chris Chung (D) | 2.9 | 54,469 | ||
 | Tim Verzal (No party preference) | 0.8 | 15,742 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 1,738 | ||
| Total votes: 1,870,573 | |||
| = 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
- Khristopher Greene (No party preference)
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Pestinger in this election.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
John Pestinger completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Pestinger's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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John grew up in Washington, which gave him a profound love for the environment. He served in the US Air Force as Security Forces, and later as a Paralegal and Law Office Manager in JAG. The US Government is self insured JAG office handles claims on behalf of the US Government. John worked in the private sector for 19 years as an insurance claims adjuster for the top insurer in the country, helping people recover from the unexpected.
In 2019, John began working for the Office of the Insurance Commissioner as a Project Manager / Management Analyst 5, in the Policy and Legislative Affairs division managing the implementation of insurance laws. Recently, John switched to serve as the Project Manager in the Consumer Protection division.
John love the concept of insurance! He has spent 24 years working exclusively in insurance. John knows the profound impact insurance has on our lives. Insurance affects us before we are born, every single day of our lives, and even after we die.- The people of Washington, deserve quality and affordable health insurance. John helps to protect consumers from receiving surprise medical bills for emergency services. He works to assure that choices in healthcare remain with you and your doctors. John has a child with type 1 diabetes and knows the stress and frustration associated with dealing with insurance, health care providers, and pharmacies. Increasing access to affordable medical care and life-saving medicine is John’s top priority.
- We are all experiencing dramatic increases in the cost of insurance. Increasing environmental catastrophes, increasing frequency and severity of losses are making your rates climb, and legislative and regulatory uncertainty are making it worse. The job of the Insurance Commissioner is to regulate a healthy insurance market and prevent polarizing political agendas from destabilizing it. John will work to stabilize the market and bring down rates.
- The job of the Insurance Commissioner is to regulate a healthy insurance market. This means making sure that insurers are capable of keeping the promises they make. It means having a fair playing field for all insurers so they can compete for consumers. The regulator needs to balance the needs of insurers with needs of consumers. This requires big picture and long term thinking, to ensure quality insurance is available at affordable prices for all. It also means making sure promises made are promises kept.
Insurance
Health Care
Transportation
Infrastructure
Environment
Risk Management
Safety
In additional I am a strong proponent of fairness and equity. This means choice in health care for all. Affordable insurance for all. When considering impacts, you first have to look at the impact to all.
I'll let you know.
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 website
Pestinger’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
VISION &PRIORITIES Washington is facing emerging challenges to the regulation and enforcement of insurance policies and that deserves a candidate with expert knowledge of the industry.
The people of Washington, especially those with pre-existing conditions or living in underserved areas, struggle to find affordable and adequate insurance coverage. 02 RISING PREMIUMS Individuals and businesses are experiencing significant increases in insurance premiums, making it difficult to afford necessary coverage. 03 LACK OF TRANSPARENCY Increased complexity in how insurance rates are set and in the ways claims are processed, are leaving consumers feeling uncertain about if they are getting what they are paying for. [2] |
” |
| —John Pestinger's campaign website (2024)[3] | ||
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
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 20, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ John P for OIC, “Home,” accessed July 23, 2024
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