I AM AMERICAN (My Story)

I was born in Seattle in 1993, but my childhood was defined by the Cascade Mountains. After my parents split before I was born, my dad got full custody of me when I was a year old. Even though I have three half-siblings, we all grew up separate. For all intents and purposes, I was raised by myself by my father, only seeing my brothers and sister on the weekends. We all kind of lived and did our own thing, and the family as a whole wasn't close. Instead, I found my home outdoors. I spent my early years building tree forts, hiking out to lakes, fishing, and camping. When I was with my mom, we celebrated every holiday, but with my dad, life was about hard work. He built houses until the 2008 market crash took everything from us. We were homeless for a few weeks before landing in a duplex in Monroe. I went from the mountains to the city, spending my summers riding my BMX bike around town until dark, just being a kid.

School was never my strong suit. I was in IEP classes, doing remedial math until I tested out—and instead of moving me up, they just made me a TA for the class. At 16 and a half, looking for a path forward, I enlisted in the Army through the early enlistment program. I barely scraped by with a 2.0 GPA senior year, but the day I got my diploma, I was off to Army BCT and Airborne school. As I’ve shared In My Military Service section, my military time didn't go as planned, a few months after finishing BCT, Airborne School, and getting to my unit I went AWOL and was subsequently discharged 6 months later. Full Breakdown in (My Military Service) section. After getting back in WA, I pivoted into the medical marijuana industry, running a shop until the state transitioned to recreational rules. I adapted, applied for a recreational license, got approved, and moved out to Moses Lake to build a cultivation business from scratch.

For the last decade, I’ve been working as a security guard to keep things moving while trying to get the growing operation off the ground. My weekends are spent out at the sand dunes, and my day job has me watching over an old, decommissioned nuclear missile base. In 2018, the system turned on me. An ex-employee filed a harassment order against me, and the state red-flagged me. It took 18 months of grueling, expensive litigation, but I fought back, got the order reversed, and had my rights fully restored. That was the moment I completely lost faith in our government. Then COVID hit, and I watched the state strip away our day-to-day liberties.

Now, they are coming for our Second Amendment rights with a massive overreach. Under the state's new mandate taking effect in May 2027, you won't just face background checks—you'll be forced to pay for a state permit and take a mandatory live-fire safety class just to exercise a constitutional right. On paper, it's a multi-month bureaucratic delay. In reality, because class availability and state processing will be so heavily backed up, it could easily take well over a year before you’re even eligible to pick up a firearm. It’s a backdoor ban designed to price out and freeze out law-abiding citizens. I’m running for Governor because I know what it’s like when the government tries to break you, and I’m here to make sure they stop breaking Washington.

I’m laying my whole life out here because if I’m asking you to vote for me as Governor of Washington, you deserve the straight truth — the good, the bad, and the parts I’m not proud of.

I joined at sixteen and a half. I trained for a year and a half with my recruiter, graduated high school, went to basic training, passed it, then passed Airborne school. I was Airborne Infantry with the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg. I got to my unit and was there between 2012 and 2014.

I served alongside some of the best people I’ve ever met — people who went above and beyond every single day. But I wasn’t confident in my own abilities. They drill it into you: you have to be 100%. One wrong move, one hesitation, and you could get yourself killed — or get the soldiers next to you killed. That fear got to me hard.

So over a decade ago, while I was still stateside — not deployed, just on post doing regular duty — I went AWOL. I laid all my gear out neatly on my bed, cleaned my room, slid my key under the door, hopped in my car, and drove across the country back home to Washington State.

I stayed home for almost a month. Then I got pulled over on the highway for passing someone, got arrested, and was released the next day. Soon after I got a phone call from my PSG telling me to go to the airport, pick up a plane ticket waiting for me at the gate, and get on the flight with whatever gear I had. When the plane landed my team leader picked me up, drove me straight back to my barracks room on a Friday and didn’t even put me under guard, told me to show up for formation on monday.

That Monday my First Sergeant sat me down and told me he was going to do everything in his power to get me sent to jail. I kept my head down, did my job, never complained, never got extra duty, never got demoted. Three months later the same First Sergeant sat me down again and asked if I wanted to stay in or get out. He gave me a few hours to think about it. I remember sitting there knowing I’d probably regret it the rest of my life, but I told him I wanted out. 

They started the process. It took another six months and I was released with a General (Under Honorable Conditions) discharge and an RE-3 reentry code. I was a coward. Plain and simple. I fucked up. I broke my commitment and let people down. There’s no excuse for it. If you want to call me a piece of shit for it, go ahead. I’ve said worse to myself. I own it completely. No sugarcoating, no excuses. Hate me if you want — I won’t blame you and I won’t judge you for it. At no point will I ever blame anyone but myself.

I could have easily hidden this. I could have kept my mouth shut, lived my life quietly, and nobody would have ever brought it up. But I’m not doing that.

Our state is in absolute disarray — a literal shitshow. And our politicians keep smiling for the cameras, acting like everything’s fine while the world around us burns. I got sick of it. Screw what people think about me. Someone’s got to stand up who literally doesn’t give a shit what anybody says — someone willing to be honest about their own failures and still fight for real change.

That experience taught me hard lessons about personal responsibility and how systems can fail the people inside them. Because of it, I’m deeply aware of what our soldiers actually go through.

As Governor I would be in charge of the Washington National Guard. I get why some people would be hesitant to support someone with my background. But think about it — wouldn’t you rather have someone in charge who’s willing to stand up to the government and say “fuck no” than someone who’ll just send you across the sea to die in some foreign country on soil we have no business being on?

I’m not disrespecting any soldier who has sacrificed for this country. But we can all agree we’ve sent our troops to die in too many wars that 99% of us know nothing about. We aren’t being invaded. Bombs aren’t dropping. If there’s a war right now, it’s an informational one. We don’t need to keep shipping our soldiers overseas.

I will make sure our soldiers aren’t sent to die in endless wars anymore. When they do have to fight, they’ll have the proper training and gear they actually need. I’d also put the National Guard back on our streets more often. They should know every neighborhood in their city like the back of their hand — patrolling, training, and being part of the community. That’s half the battle, winning the hearts and minds.

I am a pagan who walks the path of my ancestors with deep conviction. I honor the old gods and live by the virtues of courage, reciprocity, community, truth, and personal responsibility.

My gods are curious, wise, and adventurous beings. They do not demand fearful exclusivity or punish honest exploration. Just as Odin wandered the worlds in search of wisdom, I believe true leadership requires gaining perspective from the people I serve.

Attending Jewish ceremonies, Christian services, Sikh gatherings, budist mediations or any other faith tradition as Governor is not disloyalty to my own gods — it is responsible leadership. It allows me to better understand and serve every Washingtonian, regardless of their beliefs.

I remain firmly rooted in my pagan faith and my own hearth practices. At the same time, I extend genuine hospitality and respect to all spiritual paths. My gods expect me to live honorably, and strengthen my community — nothing more, nothing less.

This is my guiding religious principle: Faithful to my path, open to understanding others, and committed to protecting the religious liberty of every Washingtonian — believer and non-believer alike.