A recent WSU graduate is running for Washington state representative against incumbent Mary Dye for the 9th legislative district, which includes Whitman County.

Hailey Roemer graduated this past month with bachelor’s degrees in business administration and political science, and just weeks later on May 19 filed to run for office as a moderate republican. Her opponents are Republican Mary Dye and Democrat Jennifer Goulet.

Roemer decided to run after looking into current candidates and voting records and finding a lack of a voice for residents of district nine. Pullman has the largest population of all the areas in the district, which includes Whitman, Adams, Asotin, Garfield and Spokane counties.

“I kind of realized that there were some issues that were really important to people in district nine that weren’t currently being represented,” Roemer said, “namely education.”

She is a strong advocate of uniform funding for schools statewide, saying primary and secondary schools in Eastern Washington don’t have as much access to funding as those in Western Washington.

Another issue Roemer said she feels strongly about is improvement to transportation infrastructure in Eastern Washington, specifically Highway 26, which hasn’t been majorly updated in about 20 years.

She said she would push for improvements to Highway 95 as well, a road multiple WSU students have died on in car crashes.

Roemer is already putting together the legislation regarding infrastructure improvements and in the case she is not elected, she will hand it off to someone who can carry it out.

Roemer comes from a family of farmers and spent her childhood in Eastern Washington. She cited agriculture preservation as a major reason she is running for office.

James Allsup, president of WSU College Republicans, is working as Roemer’s campaign manager.

He said he hopes to have the College Republicans work with the Foley Institute to co-sponsor a debate between Roemer and Mary Dye on campus. The student vote will be essential to the election, he said, and he thinks Roemer will emerge as the clear choice.

“She has an education policy that reflects the needs of district nine,” Allsup said.

Washington’s primary in late July will decide which two candidates will move on to the general election in November.

Reporting by Dana Jensen

Correction: This article has been revised to reflect that Roemer’s policy on equal funding for education statewide refers to primary and secondary education, rather than university education.