Washington › King County › Washington House Position 1, Legislative District 37
2 candidates are tracked for Washington House Position 1, Legislative District 37 on the November 3, 2026 ballot: Kelabe Tewolde and Sharon Tomiko Santos. Candidate information follows official King County election filings; verify with the official election office linked below.
Kelabe Tewolde (prefers Democratic Party) and Sharon Tomiko Santos (prefers Democratic Party) meet on the November 3 ballot; Sharon Tomiko Santos is the sitting member, per the Legislature's roster. August 4 top-two primary: Kelabe Tewolde 51.5 percent, Sharon Tomiko Santos 47.9 percent, per the Secretary of State's official results. Washington's top-two primary sends the two leading candidates to November regardless of party; party labels are the candidates' stated preferences. The field is the VoteWA GENERAL 2026 candidate list (read September 7, 2026). This seat is elected by legislative district; only the district covering your address appears on your ballot.
Kelabe Tewolde is an educator at Rainier Scholars, where he has worked for more than eight years, and a former member of the Seattle Planning Commission, per his campaign site. He was raised in Seattle by his mother, an Eritrean refugee.
2026 priorities (per the campaign site)
- Addressing housing displacement and rising costs
- Reducing medical debt and expanding affordable healthcare
- Gun violence prevention
Source: candidate campaign site, roster verified 2026-09-07.
Campaign site →
Sharon Tomiko Santos, first elected in 1998, chairs the House Education Committee and previously worked in banking, legislative staff roles and nonprofit management, per her official legislative website. Her priorities include education equity, a well-trained educator workforce, and civil rights and economic justice issues, per the same source. No campaign website or questionnaire response was found as of September 7, 2026.
2026 priorities (per the official legislative website)
- Education equity
- Civil rights and economic justice
- Affordable housing
