The Inlander10%
Meet the four candidates in Washington’s 3rd District race hoping to replace 23-year veteran Rep. Timm Ormsby 13%
By Colton Rasanen11%
7/29/2026, 12:00:00 PM
Keywords: Sectioncover, Linkinbio
BS Summary: This article contains 31 faulty reasoning types, including Appeal to Emotion, Self-Serving Bias, and Anecdotal, with Halo Effect as the most egregious example at 10.3% saturation with 169 hits. Analysis detected 1,700 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,641 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 24.9% and a BS Rank of 13% (22,083 of 25,260 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 87.40% of the article peer group.
For a period in the late 2010s and early 2020s, Eastern Washington had a healthy selection of senior legislators in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.
However, these past few years have seen a lot of turnover in the region’s representation in Olympia.
In 2024, former 3rd District Sen.
Andy Billig retired after 12 years, while the 7th District elected two new representatives.
Additionally, former 4th District Sen.
Mike Padden spent more than 40 years in the Legislature before retiring and being replaced by Sen.
Leonard Christian.
With House longtimer Timm Ormsby retiring, the trend continues this year in the 3rd District, which covers most of the city of Spokane (northeast Spokane is in the 6th) and is considered the most Democratic-leaning in all of Eastern Washington.
In fact, since 1949, the 3rd District has sent only one Republican to Olympia.
First appointed to office in 2003, Ormsby soundly won 11 elections over the past 23 years.
Now four candidates, including Democrats Donovan DeLeon, Luc Jasmin III and Pam Kohlmeier and lone Republican Natalie Poulson, hope voters will send them past the top-two primary to get the chance to fill Ormsby’s seat.
DISTRICT 3, POSITION 2
DONOVAN DELEON, 51, DEMOCRAT
Born in Moscow, Idaho, Donovan DeLeon has spent most of his life in the Inland Northwest.
He graduated from Coeur d’Alene High School and then earned a political science degree from the University of Idaho.
Although he’s a Democrat in a blue state, DeLeon says he doesn’t like the way things are going here.
“It just seems like nothing’s changing, or at least not for the good.
So that’s why I feel like I have to put myself out there to raise a lot of the issues that aren’t being raised,” DeLeon says, “and try to get people to take a different look at how we’re conducting business.”
Part of that dissatisfaction comes from his work experience in the region.
During the pandemic he closed his online business, Annie’s Thrift and Vintage, because he claims it was deemed nonessential.
And now that he works as a paratransit driver, he says he’s seen firsthand some of the issues facing Spokane’s elderly and disabled population.
If elected, DeLeon says his top priorities would be healthcare and housing.
“If you don’t have health, you don’t have anything else,” he says.
“Housing is one of the most important things we’ve got to concentrate on, and it’s something that we can control far more [in the state Legislature] than we can the actual cost of healthcare.”
To improve housing options, DeLeon recommends a sliding scale for fees and permits to lower the cost to build homes in more rural areas, and creating communal housing, particularly in places like the vacant retail space in Spokane’s downtown area.
“You would have several people with their own room that locks, you know, but they would share some of the more common things such as a common kitchen or maybe you have just a couple of bathrooms in there that they would share,” he says.
“That would be far more feasible.
It’s also way cheaper.”
LUC JASMIN III, 40, DEMOCRAT
Among the four candidates running for Ormsby’s seat, Luc Jasmin III likely has the most name recognition.
A first-generation Haitian-American, childcare provider and small business owner, Jasmin III says he’s worked with local elected officials for the past 13 years on policy that largely focused on early learning and education.
Since 2022, he’s been Eastern Washington’s liaison to the governor’s office.
The relationships he’s built along the way are what inspired him to run for office.
“I can’t think of anybody who is better suited to be our state representative.
Not only because I’ve built relationships over the past decade, but also because I know exactly how Olympia works inside and out,” Jasmin III says.
“I bring a unique voice, too.
Not only as a small business owner, but as someone who is really representing immigrant and refugee populations.”
His priorities include protecting Washingtonians’ rights — voting rights, reproductive rights, LGBTQ+ rights, women’s rights, immigrants’ rights — and addressing the cost of living.
“To address the cost of living, the biggest thing is housing.
We need to make housing cheaper, and we need to pay people what they deserve,” he says.
“The main bills that I will focus on will focus on those two things.
…We can incentivize building for all income levels downtown, and I really worry about our seniors because that’s one of the fastest-growing populations falling into homelessness.
So I’ll look to really bolster seniors’ fixed-income supports.”
Of the four candidates, Jasmin III has pulled in the most high-profile endorsements, including from former Gov.
Jay Inslee, current Gov.
Bob Ferguson, 3rd District Sen.
Marcus Riccelli and Rep.
Natasha Hill, and almost the entire Spokane City Council.
“In order to affect change, there needs to be those built relationships and understanding of coalition building,” he says.
“I don’t know what else I would need to do to show that not only am I ready from day one, but I can really collaboratively bring some wins for our region.”
NATALIE POULSON, 48, REPUBLICAN
A mother of three and a special education and elementary teacher with more than 20 years of experience, lifelong Spokanite Natalie Poulson says she’s running because she’s seen how the region has declined.
“My adult children are struggling.
They’ve got two jobs and roommates, and when I was in my 20s, I bought my first house, and so I’m struggling with that,” Poulson says.
“Then, I would say watching Spokane change.
Just going downtown, you see just the addiction and mental health crisis, and it’s unfortunate that they just call everything homelessness.
I don’t believe housing first is working.”
When asked how she would change the state’s approach to these issues, she said a review is needed to understand exactly where taxpayer dollars go.
Poulson says that while she doesn’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all solution for building more housing in the state — she advocates for local control in these types of decisions — she thinks cutting back some red tape in the homebuilding process could help.
This isn’t Poulson’s first attempt for a 3rd District seat.
In 2022, she ran against Ormsby and lost with just 40% of the vote.
The race wasn’t close, but it marked the first time Ormsby received less than 60% of the vote since he faced Republican Ryan Leonard in 2004.
Poulson thinks her moral conviction is what makes her a solid candidate for the 3rd District.
In November 2021, she protested Spokane Public Schools’ pandemic mask policy and was then fired for it.
“I was supposed to be the teacher working with these kids on their social-emotional learning, and I was watching them deteriorate, and nobody would listen to me,” Poulson says.
“So I stood for them, which I believe is a good trait [when] running for office.
I’m going to stand when it’s really hard.”
PAM KOHLMEIER, 56, DEMOCRAT
Dr.
Pam Kohlmeier isn’t new to running for election — in 2024, she lost to Republican Rep.
Joe Schmick in the ruby red 9th District south of Spokane with just 35.9% of the vote — but this year marks her first time running in the 3rd District.
A former emergency room doctor who later earned a law degree from Gonzaga University, Kohlmeier has spent most of her career working between the two fields.
After her child died by suicide in 2022, she decided she would run for office to make a change.
“I was in kind of that hard spot with grief, thinking there has to be something I can do so other moms don’t have to go through this with their kids,” Kohlmeier says, explaining that she’s running now for the same reason.
“I really feel like, you know, the healthcare system needs someone else at the table.”
Her top priorities if elected include increasing access to healthcare and providing assistance to hospitals so they can afford to stay open.
Part of that, she says, is pushing toward universal healthcare coverage in the state.
“We have this whole vast area in the middle where you have a job, and if your job gives you wonderful benefits, then that’s great,” she says.
“If your employer doesn’t offer you something, or you have a part-time job here and a part-time there, it’s on you to be able to get your own policy.
And a lot of people cannot do it; they can’t afford it.”
When asked how she would change that as a legislator, Kohlmeier says the state needs to “rethink the narrative” to have a more proactive budget, rather than what she describes as a reactive one.
“There are good people in this race, but I’m the only physician on the ballot for the state House,” she says.
“We have not had a physician in our state Legislature since 2013, and the healthcare issues just keep getting worse and worse.”
DISTRICT 3, POSITION 1
<ul><li>Voters in Washington’s 3rd District will also decide which two candidates in the race for Position 1 will advance to the general election in November.
Currently, the seat is held by Rep.
Natasha Hill, who was first elected in 2024.
</li><li>Hill, a Democrat, faces off against a familiar opponent in Republican Tony Kiepe, the businessman she beat by 17 points in the last election, and John Kness, who has no party preference and says he’ll do whatever voters ask him to if elected.
</li><li>Primary ballots must be postmarked by Aug. 4 or returned to a ballot drop box by 8 pm on election day.
Contact the Spokane County Elections Office at 509-477-2320 to receive a replacement ballot or if you notice any issues on your ballot.</li></ul>
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