Creating jobs, listening to voters: Career highlights for U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer
Congress can feel very far away, especially for those on the opposite coast as the U.S. Capitol.
Gig Harbor Democratic U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer knew that well when he joined Congress in 2013 to represent Washington’s 6th Congressional District, which includes the Olympic Peninsula, Kitsap Peninsula and most of the city of Tacoma. One of his office’s goals from the beginning was “to be available and accessible and accountable” to those he represented, he told The News Tribune in an interview shortly before the end of his sixth and final term as a representative.
To do that, he needed to show up to town halls, community meetings and events in his district while working to get “pucks into the net” in Washington, D.C. for his constituents, he said.
“Every now and then, someone will say, like: ‘Hey, you know, you were serving crabs out at the crab feed on the Key Peninsula, what were you doing that for?’ And the answer is because, literally when I served at the Key Peninsula crab feed, we left there with three pieces of casework,” Kilmer said.
“Casework” is the work that lawmakers do to help constituents who reach out to their offices for assistance, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Kilmer remembers one example when a veteran came through the line for food.
The veteran said: “I wish there was something you could do to help me with the VA (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs). I’ve been waiting on my benefits,’” Kilmer recalled. “And I said: ‘That’s actually something we can help with, sir. And here’s my card, and call our office, and we can go to work on your behalf.’”
Leaving Congress, what’s next
After leaving Congress, Kilmer is moving to a role as senior vice president of U.S. Program and Policy at The Rockefeller Foundation, a philanthropic organization that has “invested in American health, education, economic opportunity, and other initiatives since its founding in 1913,” according to the foundation’s news release.
He told The News Tribune he felt now was a good time to close out his congressional career because “after 20 years of elective office (including his time in the state Legislature), it felt like an appropriate time to start thinking about the next chapter.”
Kilmer first announced he wouldn’t be seeking reelection in November 2023, The News Tribune reported. The job “has come with profound costs to (his) family,” he said in his final remarks from the House floor Dec. 6, 2024. He expressed gratitude to his children, Sophie and Aven, to whom he addressed his final remarks as if they were another one of the letters he wrote them each time he boarded the plane to head to Washington, D.C. He also thanked their mother for supporting him and their family, even though their marriage didn’t last.
Voters elected Democrat Emily Randall to Kilmer’s seat after she beat Republican challenger Drew MacEwen in the November general election.
Kilmer wrote in a Seattle Times guest article Nov. 9, 2023 that he won’t run again for Congress.
During his time in office from 2013 to 2025, Kilmer prioritized job creation and economic development, a passion he says grew out of seeing friends and neighbors lose their jobs in his hometown of Port Angeles because of declines in the timber industry. That was his “why,” the reason he got into politics, he said in his final floor remarks.
It motivated his decision to introduce the Rebuilding Economies and Creating Opportunities for More People Everywhere to Excel Act (RECOMPETE Act) with Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware. The act, passed in July 2022, distributed federal grants to communities across the U.S. experiencing economic distress to help them create and execute 10-year plans to recover jobs and build back their economies, according to a news release.
The north Olympic Peninsula region received about $35 million for economic development through the program, according to the list of 2023-24 awardees.
Kilmer’s impact in Pierce County
The impact of Kilmer’s work in Pierce County included helping secure $54 million to make improvements and expand refrigerated cargo capacity at the Port of Tacoma’s Husky Terminal. A study found that in 2017, the port supported over 42,100 jobs, produced close to $3 billion in labor income and generated over $100 million in state and local taxes, according to the port website.
He also helped channel funding to the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton for seismic upgrades and other improvements, according to a summary of Kilmer’s achievements shared by his chief of staff. Pierce County residents are among those employed by the shipyard, according to Kilmer. The shipyard has hosted recruiting events in Puyallup and Tacoma.
His other achievements in the summary included securing $3 million to bring 200 units of affordable housing to the Hilltop neighborhood of Tacoma and $4 million to increase shelter capacity at the Tacoma Rescue Mission and other services, as a member of the House Appropriations Committee.
In 2023, he helped pass legislation that restored about 17 acres of land to the Puyallup Tribe by putting it into federal trust and allowing the tribe to access certain benefits tied to that status, which KUOW reported include tax-exempt financing and discounted leasing rates.
On the environmental front, Kilmer told The News Tribune he’s proud of helping pass the Promoting United Government Efforts to Save Our Sound (PUGET SOS) Act, which approximately doubled federal funding for Puget Sound environmental recovery efforts and helped take some of the load off of state taxpayers.
Prior to serving in Congress, Kilmer served in the state Legislature as a representative, elected in 2005, and a state senator, elected in 2007, for the 26th Legislative District, The News Tribune reported.
He pointed to his work co-sponsoring a bill in the state Legislature that authorized hospital benefit zone financing as an example of his public service work’s impact on Gig Harbor. The bill helped secure state funding to develop a roundabout in Gig Harbor North, providing the necessary road infrastructure to support a new hospital, he said.
That hospital, an 80-bed facility that Franciscan Health System was approved to build in May 2004, became St. Anthony Hospital, according to records from the Washington State Department of Health. St. Anthony Hospital opened in 2009 and added another floor to offer a total of 112 beds in January 2018, The News Tribune reported around its 10-year anniversary. Former Gig Harbor Mayor Kit Kuhn said at the time of the anniversary that the hospital is one of the largest employers within city limits and that it prevents residents from having to travel to Tacoma for care or visits to family members in the hospital, according to The News Tribune.
‘The will of the voters’
During his congressional career, Kilmer spoke about his views on American democracy.
During the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol, Kilmer told The News Tribune while in lockdown: “This is not going to get in the way of the will of the voters.”
“This is not how our system works,” he told The News Tribune Jan. 6. “We don’t get bullied by angry people who lost elections. Order will be restored. And then the work will continue to follow the will of the American people.”
His vision of democracy also included being a “loving critic” of its institutions, according to his final floor remarks. Kilmer became chair of the Select Committee on the Modernization of Congress in 2019, which he said sought to make the legislature more efficient, improve Congress’s work culture, reduce staff turnover and bring about other improvements.
One of the outcomes the committee helped achieve was a bipartisan approach to orientation for new members of Congress in 2024, according to Kilmer. That meant Democrats and Republicans got on the same buses and had opportunities to talk with each other while going through orientation.
Capitol Hill media outlet Roll Call reported that this wasn’t always the case in the past. According to Kilmer, 2024 was the first bipartisan-type orientation in over three decades.
Asked what advice Kilmer would give to residents on how to express their needs and get help from the federal government solving local issues, he said he would say the same thing he tells his kids: “Recognize that you’re the boss.”
“We’re not just sort of random observers of our system of government, we’re participants in it,” Kilmer said. “And that means that if we’ve got a need, that we can reach out to our elected officials . . . we have agency.”
