Port Angeles Teen aims to become youngest state representative in Washington history
Eric Wilkinson: He isn’t old enough to buy a beer and is barely old enough to vote. But an 18-year-old Port Angeles student wants to become the youngest elected state representative in Washington history.
Eric Wilkinson: He’s a high school senior at Seaview Online Academy. He’s 18 years and two months old. And Aiden Hamilton says he’s ready for Olympia.
Aiden Hamilton: I’m not a normal student. I’m not a normal candidate. So, I would almost say normal rules don’t apply.
Eric Wilkinson: Hamilton is running as a Republican for the 24th District House seat—the seat currently held by long-time Democratic incumbent Steve Tharinger, a man approximately sixty years his senior.
Aiden Hamilton: I think a change in perspective in Olympia is a very big and important thing. Not one legislator can look a student in the eye in Olympia and say, “I know what it was like to lose two years of my education to a pandemic.” I know what that’s like. I’ve lived it.
Eric Wilkinson: For Hamilton, the motivation is personal. He says his family struggled after his father suffered a health crisis that wiped out their savings. They ended up moving in with relatives to make ends meet.
Aiden Hamilton: I don’t want to have to leave this place just to be able to afford to live. I feel like a lot of young people in my generation are looking for a way to get out of Washington rather than what they can do to stay.
Eric Wilkinson: If elected, Hamilton would break the record currently held by J. Vander Stoep, who was 23 when he was elected back in 1980.
Eric Wilkinson: People are going to say you’re too young. You don’t have the life experience. What do you say to them?
Aiden Hamilton: I’d say look at the people with “life experience” and see where that’s gotten us. We have a housing crisis, a fentanyl crisis, and a cost-of-living crisis. Maybe it’s time for someone who hasn’t spent thirty years in the system to take a look at it.
Eric Wilkinson: If no other challengers emerge, Hamilton will face Representative Tharinger on the ballot this November. In Olympia, Eric Wilkinson, KING 5 News.
