After careful consideration and a vote by delegates to the Thurston-Lewis-Mason Central Labor Council (CLC), the CLC has announced in a news release it is endorsing the following candidates for the 2026 election:
• Lewis County Commission, District 3: Zac Eckstein
• Mason County Commission, District 3: Miguel Gutierrez
• Thurston County Commission, District 5: Emily Clouse
• Mason County Auditor: Tamra Ingwaldson
• Thurston County Auditor: Tillie Naputi-Pullar
• Thurston County Clerk: Nicole Miller
• Thurston County Assessor: JJ Olson
• Thurston County Assessor: Lynda Nashed Zeman
• Thurston County Sheriff: Kevin Burton-Crow
The CLC engages in a democratic endorsement process. Candidates seeking labor’s endorsement are interviewed by the CLC’s Political Action Committee, and then delegates to the CLC vote on who the local Labor movement in Thurston, Lewis and Mason Counties will endorse in the coming election. This year, in an effort to be as transparent as possible, the CLC invited members of the unions affiliated with the CLC to join them and ask the candidates their own questions, according to the news release from the CLC.
The CLC is committed to working to elect candidates in legislative and judicial races who will fight for working families, and encourages voters to check the Washington state Labor Council’s Statewide COPE endorsements in those races, the news release stated.
For more information on CLC’s Elections Town Hall, visit https://www.tlmlabor.org or contact Thurston–Lewis–Mason Central Labor Council Political Action Committee Chair Isaac Wagnitz at pac@tlmlabor.org or President Rachelle Martin at president@tlmlabor.org or 360-261-2090.
