Michael Fitzpatrick (Poulsbo City Council Position 5, Washington, candidate 2025)

Michael Fitzpatrick

Nonpartisan

Candidate, Poulsbo City Council Position 5

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 4, 2025

Education

Bachelor's

California State University, Chico, 2012

Graduate

Stanford University, 2017

Military

Service / branch

U.S. Army

Years of service

2003 - 2008

Personal

Religion

Episcopalian

Profession

Teacher

Contact

Campaign website

Michael Fitzpatrick ran for election to the Poulsbo City Council Position 5 in Washington. He was on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.^[source]

Fitzpatrick completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Michael Fitzpatrick provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 10, 2025:

• Birth date: August 26, 1985
• High school: Happy Camp High School
• Bachelor's: California State University, Chico, 2012
• Graduate: California State University, Chico, 2014
• Graduate: Stanford University, 2017
• Military service: United States Army, 2003-2008
• Gender: Male
• Religion: Episcopalian
• Profession: Teacher
• Incumbent officeholder: No
• Campaign website

Elections

General election

General election for Poulsbo City Council Position 5

Michael Fitzpatrick and Kevin Sheen ran in the general election for Poulsbo City Council Position 5 on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate
		Michael Fitzpatrick (Nonpartisan)
	Submit photo	Kevin Sheen (Nonpartisan)

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	Incumbency information for this election was not available.
= 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.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Fitzpatrick in this election.

Campaign themes

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Michael Fitzpatrick completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Fitzpatrick's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

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Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

I’m an Army veteran; I served two tours in Iraq in the mid-2000's. Today I work as a college philosophy instructor part-time and a cat dad full-time. My years of military service, education, and teaching have afforded me skills, knowledge, and a temperament that would be of use to my fellow citizens. So I am making myself available to you ready and willing to serve.

I love the city of Poulsbo. My wife Mary and I moved here a few years ago, and we have found Poulsbo to be a beautiful oasis. I am not running for city council on an agenda. I’m not here to impose what I think on you. I am here to listen and learn, and to be someone that anyone in the city can approach and talk to about their needs and concerns.

Because I teach philosophy, my strengths include an ability to facilitate discussion, to hear multiple sides of complex issues, and to look for problem-solving opportunities that serve the common good. I’m here to listen to your needs and concerns, and to collaborate efficiently and effectively with fellow city council members on how to craft policies that benefit the whole community. If having more of these traits on your city council interests you, then please enlist my service with your vote.

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?

• My primary focus is listening. Too often those of us elected to office try to impose an agenda. I don’t want to do that. While I have a perspective and ideas regarding the needs of Poulsbo, I would much rather learn about the needs and concerns of my neighbors and advance their policy goals before my own. My top priority is to be someone easy to talk to, readily accessible, and willing to work hard to ensure that all our residents thrive.
• That said, I will be a voice on the council pressing for more urgency in addressing the gap in Poulsbo and Kitsap between wages and the cost of housing. The city needs to be more proactive, not merely reactive, in preparing the city for the unavoidable population increases our town will continue to experience.
• Another area of my focus will be on how to revitalize Poulsbo’s opportunities for intergenerational community and fun. We need better facilities for our senior citizen population, but at the same time those facilities should be places where families and children feel welcome. Loneliness and isolation remain major social problems for people of all ages, so finding ways to come together will improve the quality of life for all. Cross-generational play is one of the best ways to build lasting friendships and cultural belonging.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

I'm passionate about ensuring that people can live where they work, and that people can work where they live. My policy approach is always to ask: is this what is in the best interest of the working class. Whether it's housing or safety or city infrastructure, we need policies that empower working class families to be able to provide for themselves on reasonable wages.

What qualities does this office possess that makes it a unique and important part of the state government and legal system?

The city council is the most accessible form of government for most citizens. They can access us directly, not only in public comment but even by meeting us at a coffee shop or giving us a call. We can come to their house directly to hear their concerns. City council is where government can best show up for people's daily needs and lives.

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

My father worked for the California Dept of Transportation for 38 years. Growing up I was able to see the gift that public service was to him as he ensured that everyone had safe, high quality roads to drive on. Now it’s my turn to look for opportunities to serve my neighbors and fellow citizens. I’m offering myself as a candidate for city council so that I might be able return in gratitude all that has been invested in me by others.

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

Selfless service. My responsibility is not to advocate for myself or my own agenda, or to favor people who agree with me or align with my demographics. A civil servant listens to the needs of every resident and citizen within their jurisdiction. They strive to craft policies that benefit everyone, not just some. Most importantly, true public service is done out of love for neighbor and duty to one's community, not a desire for power or control. To become a public official is to become lower than one's neighbors, not above them.

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

To keep the community safe; to ensure that the city's infrastructure is prepared for population growth and demographic changes; to craft policies that enable working class families to have homes; and to facilitate the flourishing of small businesses within the city.

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

9/11. I was in high school at the time, and it was the first inkling I had that our domestic lives and policy decisions had effects that reverberated around the world, for better or worse.

Do you believe that it's beneficial for holders of this office to have previous experience in government or politics?

No, actually. I think the city council should be made up of a diversity of actual people with non-political experience. That way, they have to live under the policies they set for the city. I think policy makers at all levels of government should have to live under the laws they write for their neighbors. That said, I do have relevant experience, which is as a teacher I have a lot of experience working through complex subjects with people of differing perspectives. I teach political philosophy, which has given me the privilege of thinking about the ideas that ground our contemporary policy decisions, and how we could improve government. So while I do not think political experience is required, I think it is important that public officials know how to work well together with people across conflicting interests and perspectives.

What kind of skills or expertise do you believe would be the most helpful for the holders of this office to possess?

Loving to learn. Public service means encountering ideas, perspectives, problems, and topics that are totally unfamiliar to the office holder. We have to be prepared to buckle down and learn new areas of policy, study the data, and make evidence-based decisions. We also need to be capable of a certain kind of impartiality. While we are also people who live in the municipality, we cannot be serving our own interests. It must be that each policy decision clearly communicates to a reasonable observer that we have acted in the interests of the common good, not our own advantage.

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.

Other survey responses

Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Fitzpatrick completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.

• VoteWA Profile

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Candidate

Poulsbo City Council Position 5

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