Pierce County Council names person to replace Danielle as 27th District State Senator
Original article by Josephine Peterson at Tacoma News Tribune on November 2, 2021 at 7:21 pm
The three candidates in the running to replace state Sen. Jeannie Darneille when she resigns later this year to take on a new position. From left: Yasmin Trudeau, Desiree Wilkins Finch and LaMont Green. PHOTOS FROM LINKEDIN, SOCIAL MEDIA
The Pierce County Council on Tuesday selected Yasmin Trudeau to replace Jeannie Darneille as the state senator from Tacoma’s 27th Legislative District. The council unanimously selected Trudeau, a Democrat, to serve temporarily until Nov. 2022. The seat represents residents in Tacoma from Eastside to Ruston to the Port of Tacoma. “I have no doubt she will be an excellent champion for the people of the 27th District of Tacoma and a great addition to the Pierce County delegation,” council member Hans Zeiger (R-Puyallup) said. Trudeau is an attorney and legislative director for the Washington State Attorney General’s Office. She was supported by state Sen. T’wina Nobles (D-Fircrest) in the district’s Democratic precinct committee where three finalists were nominated. “My goal is to call issues out as are important, and it’s really to call people in so that we can figure out how to work on them,” she told the Pierce County Council on Tuesday. She told the council she grew up in a single-parent household and was homeless during high school. Trudeau is a Foss High School graduate. She said she has lived in most parts of Tacoma and wants to represent all of the city. “I think you go there and ask the folks, and you go to the apartments and ask the people there and get a foundational understanding of what they are going through and what they want,” Trudeau said. “You can’t leave any part of Tacoma out.” Darneille announced her resignation in September after holding the seat for nine years. She has taken a new assistant secretary position for the Women’s Prison Division in the state Department of Corrections. Two others were nominated by the precinct committee — Desiree Wilkins Finch, a community organizer and the owner of consultant agency RISE Leadership with Purpose, and LaMont Green, the director of diversity, equity and inclusion for the policy nonprofit Technical Assistance Collaborative. The public spoke for three hours in public hearing Tuesday, lending support to each of the candidates. Darnielle said in the district’s Democratic precinct committee that she had a “deep desire” to have her position filled by a person of color. Darneille was first elected to the Legislature in 2000 as a representative and elected to the Senate in 2012.