Damion Jiles
A U.S. Army veteran is eyeing Washington State Rep. Paul Harris’ legislative seat as Democrat Damion Jiles officially kicked off his campaign as a Democrat candidate for the 17th Legislative District last week.
Jiles, 42, had an official kickoff event March 3 in Vancouver, starting his run against the incumbent Republican Harris for Position Two in the state House of Representatives’ 17th district. His run follows a bid for the Ridgefield School District Board of Directors in 2017 in which he lost to incumbent Becky Greenwald.
Though the school board run was his first foray as a candidate, Jiles said his political ambitions began a year prior when he had the opportunity to work as a campaign manager for Amanda Schroeder, a candidate for Multnomah County commissioner in 2016. Through that work, he discovered a desire to enter more fully into politics, first in the education realm and now state lawmaking.
“I like the way, in theory, our government is supposed to work,” Jiles said, adding that currently that ideal is not being met. Currently the 12-year Army veteran is back in school getting a political science degree he plans on completing in August, noting that through his studies he’s been able to see what’s holding back that ideal.
“You have things like partisan politics that are blocking the fact that we can’t even replace a bridge,” Jiles said, referencing the issue of replacing the Interstate 5 bridge over the Columbia River that has been divisive in past years.
When asked by the party to run Jiles said it was a “no-brainer” to take up the race. He listed his three main campaign policy points as infrastructure, health care and education, with a need for bridge replacement to improve the interstate corridor fitting the first point.
Regarding education Jiles said he wished to see the mandate laid out in the state Supreme Court’s McCleary Decision to fully fund basic K-12 education upheld. The inability for the Legislature to adequately address the mandate was pushing the problem onto the students, something Jiles said they didn’t deserve.
“I don’t think that children should have to suffer because some adults can’t figure it out,” Jiles remarked. He also brought back one of his points from his school board run, that of more focus on post-secondary education outside of traditional college that included career and technical education.
Regarding health care, Jiles referenced legislation at the state level looking to establish universal coverage in the state, something he would like to see happen as a way to address the crisis many are in regarding maintaining their health.
“You have people out here that are making the decision whether they go out and buy some toilet paper or they buy their insulin,” Jiles said. “You shouldn’t have to make those kinds of decisions.”
Jiles will be up against Paul Harris, who has won the past two general elections with more than 60 percent of the vote. In terms of bridging the gap in what could potentially be a very partisan race, Jiles mentioned that his ears are open to the concerns of Republicans — many of his friends fit into the “middle-aged, white” demographic associated with the party, and he has heard their concerns both agreeable to him and not.
Ultimately Jiles is running to help get the state government to that ideal functionality he found intriguing enough to have him put his name on the ballot.
“Things have to change, and we can’t keep just going along achieving the status quo,” Jiles said. He mentioned how during his school board run he learned how much of the issues that he had seen were not readily known by the general public — in the case of the board run he was spurred on by bullying going on in the school.
In the case of listening about bullying or in the current race for a seat in Olympia, Jiles stressed that he wanted to keep his ears open on what’s affecting those in the Seventeenth District.
“I want to hear what it is constituents have to say. I want to know what the issues are; I want to try and fix the issues,” Jiles remarked.
