The Love and Justice Alliance publishes endorsements every year. Our endorsed candidates demonstrate a commitment to values-aligned co-governance with the people.
Process
Each cycle, a committee of community members engages with Love and Justice Alliance staff and board directors to decide which candidates to endorse. Our endorsements will be announced within six weeks of the filing deadline.
Qualifications
All candidates must demonstrate a commitment to the following criteria to be considered for a Love and Justice Alliance endorsement:
- Ensuring equitable access to health care, housing, education and high-quality jobs.
- Morphing or dismantling oppressive systems.
- Engaging in the Love and Justice Alliance’s leadership development programs and collaborating with our organization.
- Embracing a “solidarity dividend” mindset.
- Valuing feedback from communities of color.
- Supporting global languages, cuisines, celebrations and traditions.
- Supporting multicultural ways of knowing, including generational wisdom and community-based participatory research.
2026 Endorsements
We proudly recommend the following candidates:
It is our hope that the Love and Justice Alliance becomes a political home for people from every corner of our region, who are seeking a way to pull up their sleeves and get to work, facing discourse, facing disagreement, and facing dissent, all with love—for each other, for others, for ourselves, for our nation—in our hearts.”
We’ve come together to interview and select candidates for endorsement who have pledged to create a southwest Washington where all of us can thrive.
All candidates must meet the following minimum qualifications to be considered for an LJA Endorsement.
Dusti Arab
Clark County Council, District 1
Clark County Council, District 1
Dusti Arab
Pronouns: She/they
Dusti Arab is an urban farmer, writer, and parent who founded Hearth & Hollow in early 2025 when it became clear that families were going to go hungry, growing edible vegetable starts and vending at the Vancouver Farmers Market specifically to accept SNAP benefits and make food-growing resources accessible to low-income families. With 15 years of marketing strategy experience working with mission-driven small businesses, she is running as a first-time candidate committed to holding the line against any expansion of the urban growth boundary, expanding housing affordability through community land trusts and missing-middle development, and banning data centers and detention facilities in Clark County.
Martin Pittioni
Clark County Council, District 2
Clark County Council, District 2
Martin Pittioni
Pronouns: He/him
Martin Pittioni currently serves as the executive director of the State of Oregon Board of Accountancy and has spent over two decades in similar leadership roles, primarily in public health. Martin has balanced agency budgets and brings decades of leadership experience serving or overseeing public agency boards and commissions. His accomplishments include a successful fight to secure the same level of public protection and oversight in mental health that applies to other medical services, and major contributions to improving the opioid crisis response during his service with the State of Washington Department of Health.
Deken Letinich
State Representative LD 18 Position 2
State Representative LD 18 Position 2
Deken Letinich
Pronouns: He/him/his
Born and raised in a three generation Clark County family, Deken Letinich knows that when workers and working families get the investments they deserve, then we all get ahead. Deken found his calling advocating for his union’s members and Southwest Washington workers. In 2018, he was Southwest Washington’s Labor Council Union Member of the Year. In 2024, Deken successfully advocated on behalf of working families for increased workplace safety and improving access to healthcare products on worksites.
Randi Knott
State Representative LD 18 Position 1
State Representative LD 18 Position 1
Randi Knott
Pronouns: She/her
The granddaughter of Holocaust survivors who emigrated to the U.S. from Ukraine, Randi has always been dedicated to the greater good. Before she owned and operated a B&B in Apple Hill and a horse ranch in Brush Prairie, Randi had over 25 years of experience in public, private and nonprofit sectors, evaluating policy’s financial impact on working families. Randi has always been active in her community and currently serves as an appointee of the Clark County Council to the Developmental Disabilities Advisory Board and Joint4ces, an organization supporting veterans’ transitions to careers in agriculture.
Sharon Wylie
Clark County Auditor
Clark County Auditor
Sharon Wylie
Pronouns: She/her
Sharon has more than 30 years of management, public relations and leadership experience in business, non-profits and government. As government relations officer for Clark County she developed yearly legislative agendas, strategies, and initiatives. Over the years, Sharon has worked both inside and alongside county government, and understands how much these systems matter in people’s daily lives. She has spent her career helping improve how government functions, making processes more responsive, practical, and centered on the public. She brings experience, a strong commitment to public service, and a belief that people deserve a government that is open, reliable, and accessible.
Ben Christly
State Representative LD 17, Position 1
State Representative LD 17, Position 1
Ben Christly
Pronouns: He/him
Ben grew up doing farm labor and holding W-2 jobs before he joined the United States Navy, where he served honorably. After his military service, Ben earned his nursing degree and has spent more than twenty years caring for others. Ben is also a small business founder who understands what it takes to build something from the ground up. He opened and operated a successful neighborhood business, giving him firsthand insight into the challenges entrepreneurs face, from permitting and payroll to economic instability and navigating crises. Ben was also elected to serve on the Clark County Charter Review Commission.
Diana H. Perez
State Representative LD 17, Position 2
State Representative LD 17, Position 2
Diana H. Perez
Pronouns: She/her/ella
Diana is a community advocate, biologist, public lands manager, state commissioner, and currently serves as the first Latina Councilmember for the City of Vancouver where she advances equity-focused policy, housing advocacy, and inclusive economic development. She is a recent retiree of the federal government with over 30 years of experience working with local, state, federal, tribal, profit and nonprofit organizations. She has fought wildland fires to protect land and property, planned and implemented salmon habitat recovery projects, and founded the SW WA League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Council and SW WA Equity Coalition.
Monica Stonier
State Representative LD 49, Position 2
State Representative LD 49, Position 2
Monica Stonier
Pronouns: She/her
Monica Stonier has spent more than 20 years in Washington classrooms. She still works as an instructional literacy coach at Pacific Middle School while serving as House Majority Floor Leader in Olympia. She is the first person of color to represent the 49th Legislative District, and the 17th before that. Her background is Mexican American and Japanese American. In Olympia, she leads her caucus on public education, healthcare access, worker protections, and behavioral health. She serves on the Appropriations, Rules, Education, and Health Care & Wellness committees.
Kim Harless
State Representative LD 49, Position 1
State Representative LD 49, Position 1
Kim Harless
Pronouns: She/they
Kim is a multi-racial, Indigenous, and Latina, raised in Vancouver. At 21, she became a mom juggling food stamps, Pell Grants, and work-study to earn an environmental science degree. She worked as a Sustainability Intern for Clark County Environmental Services and was later promoted to Operations Specialist doing system planning and contract management for our recycling and waste systems. From there, she served on the Clark County Charter Review Commission and then ran for City Council. She now works for the Native American Youth and Family Center, helping urban Native families reconnect with the land and heal from the legacies of colonization in southwest Washington.
Initiatives
We strongly urge you to VOTE NO on IL26-001, IL26-638, and I 645 this November.
No Hate in WA State
We urge you to VOTE NO on IL26-001 and IL26-638 this November.
Here in Washington, no matter where we come from or what language we speak at home, we care for each other and want to ensure our children feel safe at school.
Right now, while Washington families are struggling to pay for food and housing, a mega-millionaire is spending millions on two initiatives that threaten the safety of all Washington students – especially trans and queer youth. All young people deserve to feel safe and respected in school and have the opportunity to be themselves. No exceptions.
VOTE NO on I 645
We urge you to VOTE NO
on I 645 this November
Initiative 645 will cut $13 billion in funding leading to larger class sizes and fewer one-on-one supports for K-12 students as well as:
- Increased health care costs for Washington families
- More cuts to child care — making it more expensive for more working families
- The elimination of free school meals for many K-12 students
Initiative 645 also Increases the B&O tax on most Washington small businesses and increases taxes for hundreds of thousands of working families by limiting who’s eligible for the working families tax credit.
