<\/a>King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn speaks during an October 2021 candidate forum in Enumclaw. Dunn is now running for U.S. Congress in the 8th District, a seat currently held by Democrat Kim Schrier. Photo by Alex Bruell\/Sound Publishing<\/p><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
Representing conservatives<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Dunn said his decision to run for Congress is largely because he thinks we are “headed in the wrong direction.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “Seattle is a great example of what can happen when there is no political opposition,” Dunn said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t He pointed blame to liberals for rising crime rates and less efficient enforcement and accountability in the justice system, inflation and high cost of living, even the homelessness crisis which he says is too focused on housing availability and not enough on substance abuse and mental health services infrastructure.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “What we are doing now is not working,” he said.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Recently, Dunn was the only King County Councilmember to vote “Not” on a non-binding resolution to “support a woman’s right to reproductive freedom” after a leaked draft of a U.S. Supreme Court opinion that would strike down the Roe v. Wade precedent that certain kinds of abortion are a constitutional right.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Dunn has previously maintained the position that the government should not interfere with an individual’s bodily autonomy and their right to make their own medical decisions. He said his public defense of workers who were to be laid off for refusing to get the COVID vaccine was evidence of his consistency on the principle.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “My view now is the same as it always was,” he maintained.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t When asked why he voted against a symbolic resolution in support of reproductive freedom, Dunn said he has learned previously that voting for a resolution means you are responsible for all the language in that resolution. Dunn said he believed that some language in the resolution that he believed was hyper-partisan.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Dunn said, as an elected representative of the conservative minority, sometimes it is his job to “play defense” against the agenda-setting majority. He sees this dynamic as one that is fundamental to the two-party system of governance. He said he often feels a responsibility to be the “thoughtful voice” of the opposition.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t In March, Dunn caught flak after he proposed pausing a progressive juvenile justice program that sought to divert young offenders away from the school to prison pipeline by enrolling them in restorative community justice programs. Community advocates, juvenile justice experts and even his council colleagues expressed concern and confusion over his proposal to pause a program that had only just begun months before.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t With South King County crime rates on the apparent rise, Dunn said the restorative juvenile justice program “goes too far” and keeps violent offenders from being held accountable.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Bridge builder?<\/strong><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Even though Dunn said he believes there is blame to place, he is adamant on running a positive campaign because he believes the political division and “tribalism” in Washington, D.C., are among the largest problems facing the country.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t With division and distrust between political parties at an all-time high, local King County elections even saw some of that nastiness rear its ugly head when former King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert put out a campaign mailer last year that depicted the only King County Councilmember of color, Girmay Zahilay, as a literal socialist puppet.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Many community members and Lambert’s council colleagues denounced the imagery and rhetoric as divisive and damaging to the community. It is hard to say how the campaign mailer impacted voter opinion, but Lambert, the 20-year incumbent, ended up losing her seat to Democrat Sarah Perry.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t When asked if politicians have a responsibility to not galvanize division and sow distrust between political parties, Dunn answered: “Hell yes, they do.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t Dunn emphasized that elected officials have a duty to unify the public in common goals and to be “bridge builders,” rather than bridge burners.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t “Instead of focusing on differences and attacking them,” Dunn said. “Let’s focus on what we have in common.”<\/p>\n\t\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" What it means to be the top Republican in a liberal King County government. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":849,"featured_media":57596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4,24],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-57595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","category-northwest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57595"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/849"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57595"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=57595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}