Who is Janice Bridges, the ‘anti-racist grandma’ running for Pierce County sheriff?
There are two prominent candidates vying to become the next Pierce County Sheriff — Ed Troyer and Cyndie Fajardo.
Then there’s Janice Bridges, a self-proclaimed “anti-racist grandma.”
At 63, Bridges is officially running as a write-in candidate. She recently retired after spending 17 years working at Pierce County Juvenile Court at Remann Hall. These days, even in the midst of her grassroots campaign, Bridges said, she spends much of her time caring for her four grandchildren.
She also organizes a book club, where a group of “mostly old white ladies” like herself — or “Owls” as she calls them — regularly gather via Zoom to discuss readings by authors like Octavia Butler and Ijeoma Oluo.
So, Bridges doesn’t fit the mold of traditional law enforcement leadership in Pierce County.
Which is precisely the point.
While Bridges candidly gives herself “a snowball’s chance in hell” of winning, she threw her hat in the ring shortly after the August primary for one big reason, she said.
Neither Troyer nor Fajardo have come anywhere close to adequately addressing the need for police reforms brought to the forefront by the Black Lives Matter movement, Bridges believes.
That’s a problem, Bridges said, and so far the support her write-in campaign has received suggests she isn’t alone.
Speaking to The News Tribune recently, Bridges said she hopes to use her campaign to help inspire the difficult conversations — and systemic changes in law enforcement — that are long overdue.
Specifically, she’s focusing on the need to transform traditional policing and wants to redefine how law enforcement interacts with communities of color and those in crisis.
That includes a frank discussion about spending, and how at least some of the millions of dollars the county puts toward its police budget would likely be better spent funding social services and behavioral health interventions.
Defund the police?
Dis-invest in traditional police spending?
Bridges isn’t afraid to go there.
She said she’s here to shake things up and force the issues.
“It was very sad and tone deaf to me that none of the candidates were mentioning anything about the movement for Black lives,” Bridges explained of her decision to run as a write-in candidate. “In this moment right now, where there’s been so much outcry across the county and also right here in our community, I just couldn’t believe it. It really saddened me.”
Truthfully, Bridges candidacy started as a joke she wasn’t in on — or at least an act of flippant frustration.
Back in August, one of Bridges’ four grown children — 40-year-old Katy Evans, who works as the deputy director of Hilltop Artists — found herself unimpressed and uninspired by her choice of candidates in the Pierce County sheriff race.
Her mom, on the other hand, has the kind of skills and experiences that Evans feels the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department needs most, she said.
So Evans wrote in Bridges’ name on her primary ballot, fired off a few social media posts birthing the campaign slogan “anti-racist grandma” and figured that would be the end of it.
Instead, people took note and soon started coming out of the woodwork to lend a hand.
Initially, Evans said her mom — who she described as her “best friend” — was caught off guard and even “a little annoyed” by the online provocation.
But once they sat down and started discussing what a write-in candidacy could accomplish, Bridges jumped on board.
“She has a special set of skills that kind of make her a really good fit for something like this, if we’re really talking about a full examination … of what community safety can look like,” Evans said.
Evan noted her mom had spent years educating herself on the realities of racism in America and how it manifests in our justice system, which is something she’d like to see out of the next Pierce County sheriff.
“That was the seed,” Evans explained. “That’s how we started putting together what she wants to do and how she wanted to get the message out there.”
With a laugh, Evans — who’s now something of a quasi-campaign manager — described her mom’s run for sheriff as “deeply informal.”
Still, make no mistake: Bridges and her daughter are serious about the possibilities of the write-in candidacy.
On Friday morning, the pair were joined by volunteers waiving campaign signs at the busy intersection of 19th and Sprague in Tacoma. Bridges said she has raised just over $800 in small-time political contributions, which helped pay for 250 of the signs, which can now be found throughout the county.
After paying for the signs, Bridges’ campaign is $357 in the hole, which she considers money well spent.
Bridges believes her campaign is making progress. She recently earned the endorsement of the Tacoma Action Collective and a favorable nod in the Pierce County Progressive Voters Guide.
At the very least, her involvement in the race has forced Troyer and Fajardo to more publicly address the Black Lives Matter movement and calls for police reforms, she said, like when she pressed the issue at a recent University Place candidate forum.
“It’s about making sure that Black lives are being talked about and making sure that both of the candidates on the ballot know how many people are affected by it,” Bridges said.
“As an old white lady, I have felt very protected by law enforcement, which is by design. That’s what it was created to do, to serve and protect whiteness,” she continued. “Our Black neighbors leave the house and wonder if they or a loved one will come home alive or be the next hashtag. That difference in experience is something I can’t stand for.”
While Bridges is officially registered with the Pierce County Auditor’s Office as a write-in candidate, the votes she received won’t be tallied unless it’s close enough to impact the race — which she readily acknowledges is an extreme long shot.
Instead, when Pierce County election results drop Nov. 3 and the days that follow, Bridges’ votes will be lumped in with anyone else who receives a write-in vote, like “Mickey Mouse,” she quipped.
Winning was never the point, Evans reiterated.
“I don’t consider this candidacy a stunt, but I also recognize that it is easier for my elderly white mother to get into this conversation than it would be for many of our Black and brown neighbors, and that can’t be it. It has to be more than that,” Evans said.
“I think that this candidacy can be viewed as a success if there are folks beyond (Bridges) who are able to find ways to engage with the work of re-imagining community safety, and if this actually turns into something that seriously reconsiders what goes on in our city and in our county when it comes to armed law enforcement,” Evans continued.
“I will not consider it a success if there’s no movement in that direction.”
This story was originally published October 25, 2020 at 7:10 AM.
