(The Center Square) – Jaime Herrera Beutler, a former U.S. House of Representatives member elected from Washington state’s 3rd District, officially announced Tuesday that she is planning to run for state commissioner of public lands.
“Decades of undermanagement and neglect have turned too many of our public forests into crowded, diseased tinderboxes,” the Battle Ground Republican said in a news release. “Fires now run rampant every summer. They ruin our days with smoke, emit carbon, make home insurance unavailable and housing even more unaffordable.”
This year’s worse-than-usual wildfire season seemed to influence Herrera Beutler’s decision to run.
“And for those unfortunate enough to live in the path of one of those fires, they can cause unimaginable heartache,” she continued. “I spent a dozen years in Congress fighting for more resources to responsibly manage our forests, remove the dead and diseased trees that serve as fuel for the fires that plague us every summer, and quickly fight the fires that do occur. I’ll do the same as Lands Commissioner.”
Herrera Beutler was among the group of House Republicans who voted in favor of impeaching then-President Donald Trump in 2021. The next year, she was eliminated in the primary process, losing to former U.S. Army Green Beret Joe Kent as the GOP’s top choice. Kent would go on to lose to Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez in the general election.
Democrat Hilary Franz, who is a candidate for governor, is the current public lands commissioner. Gov. Jay Inslee announced earlier this year that we will not be seeking an unprecedented fourth term.
