Kristiana de Leon
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Contact
Kristiana de Leon (Democratic Party) ran for election to the Washington House of Representatives to represent District 5-Position 1. She lost in the primary on August 6, 2024.
De Leon completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Kristiana de Leon graduated from Kentwood High School. She earned a bachelor's and a graduate degree from Pacific Lutheran University in 2012 and 2015, respectively. She studied abroad at the University of Oslo, Sichuan University, and Minzu University. Her career experience includes working as a freelance writer, public school teacher, high school counseling office administrative staff, retail worker, working on political campaigns.[1]
de Leon has been affiliated with the following organizations:[1]
- Association of Secular Elected Officials
- Lake Sawyer Parks Foundation
- Sound Cities Association
- Enumclaw Youth Empowered
- Black Diamond Labor Days
- Washington Alaskan Malamute Adoption League
Elections
2024
See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
Nonpartisan primary election
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
Campaign finance
Endorsements
To view de Leon's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for de Leon in this election.
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Kristiana de Leon completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by de Leon's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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I am a coalition-builder whose approach to my policy and advocacy work, including for two terms on the Black Diamond City Council, is that “we all do better when we all do better.” Informed by this work and the voices and resilience of our diverse communities, we can no longer afford the current policy approaches that sacrifice vulnerable people, including rural and marginalized communities.
My endorsements at www.kristianadeleon.com/endorsements, and particularly my sole endorsement from the Washington Education Association, speak to my commitment to my priorities: fully funded public education, affordable childcare, a pathway to single payer healthcare, tax fairness, and climate solutions that work for us all.
- I am a former public school teacher.
Public Education is the Paramount Duty of our government, according to the Washington State Constitution. Despite that it, this critical infrastructure has constantly been underserved and treated as a backburner issue - and often with policy about education staff, without education staff. We need to reform our tax code to ensure that we can fix, rebuild, and build new schools: I serve in a school district where 70 year old buildings are leaking and molding and bonds can't pass.
We must fund more education support staff, including mental health workers, social workers, librarians, ESPs/Paraeducators, and nurses - and with more attention to admin training and support.
No unfunded mandates or charters! - Our tax system is ass-backwards, and only Florida’s tax system ranks lower in tax fairness.
It's a contributing factor for why we have people sleeping outside in the shadows of Fortune 500, why our schools are closing, why we can't keep more people from falling through the cracks due to medical bankruptcy or becoming priced out of their homes, and why rapidly growing cities like mine simply cannot pay the bills (In terms of our cities and counties needing support, the Growth Management Act is largely an unfunded mandate as a result of our overreliance on property taxes). We must “just transition” away from our overreliance on property taxes and into wealth taxes, expanded capital gains, and demanding highest earners pay fairly.
- Human rights:
LGBTQIA+ rights are human rights, and our policies and funding must align accordingly.
I believe in fighting for diversity and equity, including racial justice, beyond buzzwords or lip service.
Healthcare is a human right. All reproductive care, including abortion care, is healthcare. Adoption and foster care are not alternatives, but they are institutions that also need fixing yesterday. I believe in expanding access to all healthcare, including, long-term, building the infrastructure for single payer healthcare with the recommendations of the WA Single Payer Commission and input from healthcare workers such as doctors, pharmacists, and nurses.
Housing is also a human right: Yes to rent stabilization and piloting GBI.
Public education, reforming our tax code to be more equitable, building a pathway to single payer healthcare, protecting and expanding reproductive rights, church/state separation and stopping white Christian Nationalist policies, protecting and expanding human and civil rights - including criminal justice reform and providing more funding for/expansion of therapeutic and community courts programs, working alongside the labor movement, and environmental and climate policy that promotes Indigenous sovereignty and that provides more voice and agency to rural communities as well as historically marginalized communities - such as through work on the Growth Management Act and my work serving one of the fastest-growing, still rural communities.
Interestingly, I'd say the works of Carl Sagan and the various iterations of Cosmos have been a huge guiding light for me. What stands out in particular is the story of the scientist Vavilov, and other scientists who either defied authority or spoke truth before their views were accepted - and perhaps they did not live to see the fruits of their labor, but they did the right thing guided by conscience, empathy, and evidence.
As a Humanist and Atheist, I find both to be important, dually important. Atheist for what I don't believe in (a deity), and Humanist for what I do. Read the awkwardly-named "Humanist Manifesto III" for the best description of what I believe, which boils down to essentially "good without a God" as you don't need to believe in a deity to strive to be a good person.
In terms of how I got my first world views, I'd say Senator Paul Wellstone made the biggest influence, so book wise I'll say The Conscience of a Liberal :) Having a strong sense of accountability to the future - in other words,
1. Can you live with the decisions you made after you made them? Can you honestly answer that you made the best choice you could with the information you had?
2. How will others think about your actions? How do you think your actions will impact them?
3. Worrying less about whether or not you'll get elected and more about if you're using the time you were already trusted with by every single person who hired you at the doors and on their ballots.
Being willing to think independently but collaboratively. In other words, not "going along to get along," but instead striving to find common ground and, while not compromising values, being willing to craft more nuanced policy through navigating disagreements Treating this as a full job rather than a side hustle. Even if the legislature isn't year-round (although I think it's a good idea to at least expand session), we need to treat the job as a full responsibility. I left paid opportunities simply to serve on my City Council, and left past employment because my City came first, because my work ethic is that a hell of a lot more people hired me to serve the City than anywhere else. I am forever grateful for my spouse's union-bargained wages as a public school teacher that we can afford to get by so I can run and serve. But ultimately it informs me that we need to have more people who recognize both what it means trying to get by, and regardless - have that empathy and do that public service job accordingly. After all, many Washingtonians work just as hard as a legislator, if not harder, for less than their salaries.
Personally - that I lived an interesting life and that where I made mistakes, I tried to make it better and learn, and everywhere else - that I did the best I could with what I had and knew.
More broadly - I am guided by my Humanist values. I believe this is the only life that we have, thus my goal is that I did what I could to have made others have more opportunities to living their best one lives. I don't believe in a deity, thus I don't believe I am accountable to one. I believe I'm accountable to myself, the others whose decisions I impact, and the future.
My first few years of life were in the Los Angeles area, and I remember seeing the helicopters flying overhead (turned out it was for OJ - I was later told) and then the San Fernando 1994 earthquake - I was 5 at the time and still remembered the subsequent aftershocks. I was the first kid under the desk during the 2001 Nisqually earthquake, because I literally knew the drill!
I was a Page in the Washington State House when I lived in the 47th District! Like every nerd who does that job, I just had it for a week. I also fondly remember the pet fish at one of the reception desks called "John L. O'Fish" and now each time I go to Olympia - and last session it was at least 10 times - I still can't not think of the building and remember that Betta fish.
I think I have to say The Hobbit. It was a huge comfort to me growing up, especially if I felt lonely. It made me feel that it was okay to change and to grow, and that adventure can be a good thing!
Well, it would be great to be in the Pokemon Universe.
Either the soundtrack to Xenoblade Chronicles or Death Cab's "You are a Tourist"
(I'm also always in my Emo phase)
I have CPTSD! I'll leave it at that because I only have 2,000 characters. Otherwise I'll just say about it that being willing to examine my own trauma and be held accountable to it is also how I try to approach policy - a trauma-informed lens guides my work, and trying to approach policy work through and understanding that everyone has scar tissue has been part of how I strive to do work that is inherently relational.
1. Our public schools and their funding crisis, tax inequity, and staffing crisis due to issues related to unfunded mandates and restrictions on union advocacy
2. Balancing economic wellness for middle and lower income people with climate solutions
3. Economic inequality writ large, particularly housing affordability and access to transit.
4. Climate resilience and mitigation, especially in regard to agriculture and the need to bring agriculture to the forefront of the conversation - disproportionately the conversation is largely on urban areas and their realities Not necessarily. While I can't state enough the huge value I got through serving on the Black Diamond City Council in terms of experience and deeper knowledge of politics, I don't see why especially civically-minded people from other backgrounds shouldn't be running directly for state legislator. I am adamantly opposed to the "wait your turn" mindset, or other forms of paternalistic gatekeeping that is still far too rampant in politics today. Having people from backgrounds that reflect an intersection of an understanding of policy and government affairs, with lived experience, is what democratic representation is also absolutely about. For example, teachers who understand how policy and funding impacts their work, should absolutely be serving in higher numbers in the legislature. After all, those who can, teach, and those who can't write policy about it!
Oh gosh yes, and my working relationships with legislatures is largely what also spurred me to want to run for this position. I have taken it upon myself to cultivate relationships with many legislators, and also I have led efforts on advocacy days to help constituents lobby their legislators' offices - giving me a chance to also build even mor relationships. Long story short, I care about running for legislature because it is inherently relational in nature, and I thrive best in environments where I can collaborate and exchange ideas. I say this, ironically, as an introvert but my area of passion is policy - so that's what makes me "spark," so to say.
Senator Paul Wellstone with a more LGBTQ+ friendly stance
No. I truly care about advocating for my city and for public education - all of which are intersected with how I want to collaborate on policies that impact them most directly. I want no other elected office beside the one I'm currently in and plan to keep - in order to keep my ears to the ground, and to the state legislature. I am very passionate about the impact of local politics and policies, and so how the state is so closely intertwined with municipal issues is why I'm so invested in this position. Also, again, our tax code is ass-backwards, and that's a state issue. Also - I already left middle school to work in politics, which is middle school while adulting. Congress is like Lord of the Flies.
Well --- I really like dad jokes. They are my kryptonite.
This question is a bit too broad and without enough context to sufficiently answer it. If this question is about reflecting on COVID and executive powers, I think it's worth revisiting some rules on executive authority when there are extreme emergencies, such as natural disasters, epidemics, or other serious catastrophes. But again, I'd want more specific questions before I answer more.
Essentially anything on public education, including on reforms to our prototypical funding model, passing the bill to end student lunch debt, and making short-term solutions regarding bringing the super majority for passing a bond to simple majority. Also advocating for more state-funded pay for mental and behavioral staffing and community liaisons. And - for longer term solutions, proposing to advance pilot programs for school districts willing to work on different, evidence-based approaches to learning, and changing funding models accordingly (i.e. no longer tied to seat time and instead to learning methods and more nuanced staffing ratios). This includes, but is not limited to, more schooling opportunities built around trades programs, as well as outdoor learning, indigenous learning models created and led by tribal communities (in the meantime, enshrining "Since Time Immemorial" curriculum), multigenerational/early learning centers, and/or other "alternative" learning models.
https://www.kristianadeleon.com/endorsements
K-12 education, and otherwise, I know that whatever committees a rookie can be in, I can make the right impact. Appropriations would be great, of course.
Accountability is for everyone, and I'm in constant consternation that in a lot of ways, a small town city councilmember is held to higher ethics and standards than a lot of other higher elected positions - including, apparently, that of the President in regard to a recent SCOTUS ruling.
Yes - anything swiveled in by Tim Eyman, in particular, need to go.
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Campaign finance summary
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See also
External links
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 8, 2024
Leadership
Speaker of the House:Laurie Jinkins
Majority Leader:Joe Fitzgibbon
Minority Leader:Drew Stokesbary
Representatives
Democratic Party (59)
Republican Party (39)
