Community Government

26th Legislative District Position 2 candidates in their own words

Two challengers emerged from the August primary for the 26th Legislative District’s Position 2 seat have emerged. Democrat Renee Hernandez Greenfield will face off against Republican Katy Cornell to replace outgoing Rep. Michele Valdez (née Caldier) in November’s midterm.

Cornell, who was born and raised in Port Orchard, is a member of the Gig Harbor Planning Commission and a pastor at SOZO Church in Tacoma. Hernandez Greenfield has lived in the area for the last 24 years. She works in childhood education, and has worked both as an administrator of Head Start and Early Head Start, and as a Child Protective Services investigator for the Suquamish Tribe.

We asked each candidate the same four questions. Their answers are below.

Gig Harbor Now also published a short profile of both candidates. Find that article here.

Gig Harbor Now: Despite recent tax increases, the state is facing another budget shortfall. What steps should the Legislature take to reduce spending? Please be as specific as possible.

Katy Cornell

I believe when government works effectively, we can help more people for less money. As a nonprofit leader and small business owner, I’ve learned that responsible budgeting isn’t just about cutting spending. It’s about fixing the policies and systems that drive costs up in the first place.

First, I would require meaningful performance reviews of state programs, eliminate duplication, reduce unnecessary administrative costs, and pause nonessential program expansions. We need to measure outcomes, not just how much money we spend, and make difficult decisions when programs aren’t delivering results.

I would pursue several specific legislative reforms:

Child welfare accountability: Strengthen the Keeping Families Together Act to better protect children from dangerous drug exposure, improve caseworker accountability, and prevent tragedies. Washington’s 2024 budget included approximately $94.6 million for two major child welfare legal obligations. These failures have devastating human consequences and significant financial costs.

Criminal justice reform: Strengthen consequences for repeat misdemeanor offenses while expanding access to effective addiction and mental health treatment. When people repeatedly cycle through arrests, courts, and incarceration without meaningful intervention, taxpayers pay for the same problems over and over. We need accountability and treatment that produce lasting change.

Government accountability: Require independent reviews when agency failures result in major lawsuits or settlements, identify the policies contributing to those failures, and require corrective action. I would also strengthen performance audits to identify ineffective programs and unnecessary spending.

Nonprofit funding reform: Introduce legislation requiring state-funded nonprofits to demonstrate measurable outcomes, not simply document need. Having led a nonprofit for 18 years, I believe we should invest in organizations delivering meaningful results, provide opportunities for improvement, and redirect funding when programs consistently fail. Accountability should help nonprofits succeed, not bury them in paperwork.

Education and regulatory reform: Review mandates, administrative burdens, and regulations that increase costs without improving outcomes. We should prioritize classroom resources, reading and math proficiency, affordable housing, and an environment where local businesses can succeed.

Finally, we must grow state revenue through economic prosperity, not continually higher taxes. Encouraging business investment, job creation, and economic growth can strengthen our tax base while making Washington more affordable.

My priorities are protecting education, public safety, essential infrastructure, and our most vulnerable residents. Some reforms will save money immediately, while others will prevent expensive failures over time. 

We shouldn’t have to choose between helping people and being responsible with taxpayer dollars. When government works right, we can do both.

Renee Hernandez Greenfield

The millionaire tax won’t bring in a dollar until 2028, and only if it survives the repeal. The next budget has to close with savings. The state buys coverage for Medicaid enrollees, state employees and school employees through separate programs and separate contracts. I would combine that buying so Washington negotiates as one large customer, and I would start moving Medicaid off managed care, where insurance companies are paid to sit between the state and the doctor.

Also, Washington gives up billions a year in exemptions. Each should carry a sunset date, and the ones that can’t show the jobs they promised should end. I’d freeze vacant positions that aren’t direct service and cut outside consulting contracts before we cut a caseworker. What I won’t do is cut special education or behavioral health. The budget passed this March already made heavy cuts to early learning and childcare. Families in the 26th have absorbed enough. 

GHN: Do you support Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal’s request for an additional $2 billion for public schools in the next budget? Why or why not? If so, what would you fund?

Hernandez Greenfield

Most of Superintendent Reykdal’s request is just the state paying bills it already owes. About $1.2 billion goes to basic education, the obligation the Supreme Court enforced in McCleary, and a large share of it covers insurance and utilities. Right now districts pay those bills by laying off staff. I would fight for our public schools and if the Legislature has to phase it in, I would put these first:

• Paraeducators and classified staff. Reykdal asks for nearly $225 million in salary improvements. Some of these workers qualify for Basic Food while working full time for a school district, and districts can’t keep the jobs filled.
• Substitute teachers. The $100 million to shift substitute costs from districts to the state is money that goes back into classrooms.
• Transition to Kindergarten. The Legislature cut it by $27 million. I ran Head Start and ECEAP programs, and I watched children arrive in kindergarten with gaps we could have closed a year earlier.

I would also push for special education on top of this. My son has an IEP in the South Kitsap School District and OSPI has said special education needs at least $1 billion more. Districts cover that shortfall out of their general budgets, so every student pays for it. I won’t pretend $2 billion is easy in a year with a shortfall, that’s why we’ll need savings and revenue from my answer above.

Cornell

I strongly support fully funding K–12 education. It’s one of our state’s most important constitutional responsibilities, and our children deserve schools that have the resources they need to succeed. I want to carefully examine Superintendent Reykdal’s $2 billion request, understand the needs behind it, and evaluate where additional funding is necessary.

But before simply increasing the budget, we also need to examine the policies and rising costs putting financial pressure on our school districts. Schools are facing significant increases in insurance, utilities, transportation, labor, and other operating expenses. I would look for opportunities to reduce those costs through better energy policies, more affordable insurance, streamlined administrative requirements, and shared services where practical.

We need to address the root causes of rising expenses, not just continually increase funding to cover them. Once we’ve identified potential savings and evaluated the actual funding needs, we have a responsibility to find the money necessary to meet our constitutional obligation to fully fund basic education. That may require reprioritizing spending elsewhere in the state budget.

I would prioritize classroom instruction, special education, student transportation, and the resources our teachers need. I also want to protect Running Start and career and technical education while improving student outcomes in reading and math. My goal is to fully fund education at the state level, reduce pressure on local property taxpayers, and ensure we’re using every education dollar effectively. We need to do both: lower the cost of delivering education wherever possible and provide the funding necessary to give every child a quality education.

GHN: In order to address the lack of affordable housing in the state, Washington passed housing reforms in 2023 that require jurisdictions to encourage housing diversity and density. Would you expand those reforms, leave them as they are, or roll them back, and why? If you would change policy in any way, how specifically would you change it?

Cornell

I would keep and build on the reforms that expand housing choices and protect property rights, while modifying mandates to better reflect local conditions, infrastructure capacity, and community needs. I support allowing more accessory dwelling units, duplexes, townhomes, and other housing options.

As a member of the Gig Harbor Planning Commission, I’ve been working to create more opportunities for housing diversity. But simply requiring greater density doesn’t automatically make housing affordable. We need to address the root causes of high construction costs, including permitting delays, impact fees, energy codes, labor costs, and restrictions on available land.

I would pursue legislation to provide greater certainty for builders by ensuring projects can proceed under the applicable codes and regulations in place when a complete application is submitted, rather than facing costly changes midway through the approval process. I would also streamline permitting by eliminating duplicative studies, overlapping reviews, and unnecessary approval processes. We should coordinate agency reviews, establish clear timelines, and reduce delays without compromising essential environmental and safety protections.

Additionally, I would reform the Growth Management Act to allow greater flexibility in expanding urban growth areas where appropriate. What works in Seattle may not work in Gig Harbor, Port Orchard, or our rural communities. Local governments need flexibility to meet housing goals without overwhelming roads, utilities, schools, and emergency services. My approach is to expand housing choices, modify one size fits all mandates to fit local conditions, and reduce the actual cost of building homes. That’s how we can increase housing supply while making homeownership more attainable.

Hernandez Greenfield

The 2023 laws let duplexes, fourplexes and backyard cottages go up on lots that used to allow one house. That was the right call. Some cities adopted the new zoning on paper and kept setback, lot coverage and design rules that make a fourplex impossible to pencil out. The Department of Commerce should have authority to review those standards and send them back. 

Also, middle housing in Port Orchard and Gig Harbor depends on sewer and water capacity those cities don’t have yet. The state should stop raiding the Public Works Assistance Account to balance the general budget and steer infrastructure money to cities that zone for more homes. 

We also need to make permits predictable. Set firm review timelines, and require impact fees to match the cost of the roads and pipes a project needs. The Key Peninsula is rural, much of it on septic, and a fourplex mandate there would ignore that. The state should set the minimum and leave the rural edges room to plan.

GHN: About 11,000 people statewide have lost health insurance, due to stricter federal regulations. Starting in January, further regulations regarding work requirements will make it more difficult for even more people to qualify for health insurance. Do you think that the state should take a bigger role in helping the people who have lost health insurance and who will lose health insurance in January to get coverage? Why or why not? If so, what should the state do?

Hernandez Greenfield

The state expects at least 200,000 more people to lose coverage by the end of 2027, and many of them will still qualify. They will lose coverage over a missed letter. We need to stop that. The Health Care Authority is building a system to verify work status from data the state already has. The Legislature should make automatic verification the default and pay community health centers and tribal clinics to help people renew. For the people the federal rules shut out, I support state-funded coverage through Apple Health Expansion, and for those who can buy a plan, more help through Cascade Care Savings.

When people lose coverage, they don’t stop getting sick. They wait until it’s a crisis and go to the emergency room, and the director of the state Health Care Authority has warned that will lengthen waits for everyone. Keeping people covered costs less than paying for that.

Cornell

I believe access to healthcare is essential, especially for children, seniors, people with disabilities, and our most vulnerable residents. I take concerns about people losing coverage seriously, and I believe Washington has a responsibility to help protect access to care.

Before committing to major new spending, however, we need to understand who is actually losing coverage, who qualifies for exemptions, and what resources are already available.

The new federal Medicaid work requirements include several ways to qualify, including employment, education, job training, and community service. There are also important exemptions for people with disabilities, serious medical conditions, and other circumstances. I want to ensure those exemptions are implemented fairly and that eligible people aren’t losing coverage because of paperwork or administrative barriers.

We also need to examine Washington’s own decisions. Our state has already reduced Medicaid reimbursement funding, placing additional pressure on healthcare providers. We should evaluate how those decisions affect access to care, particularly for seniors, people with disabilities, and rural communities.

I would review our Medicaid eligibility policies, including expansions and continuous coverage provisions, to ensure resources are directed toward people who need assistance most. Any changes should be based on accurate data and an understanding of their impact on families and federal funding.

As a legislator, I would prioritize improving program efficiency, protecting essential Medicaid services, supporting healthcare providers, and addressing unnecessary spending elsewhere in the state budget so we have the resources to meet our most important obligations.

My goal is to ensure vulnerable people don’t fall through the cracks while building a healthcare system that is affordable, accountable, and financially sustainable.