Three Republicans vie for open seat in Washington's 6th Legislative District

May 5-OLYMPIA - The race for an open seat in the 6th Legislative District has drawn interest from three Republicans who are in local office or have previously worked in state government.

Two contenders who wish to follow outgoing Republican state Rep. Mike Volz currently hold other offices: Jennifer Morton on the Airway Heights City Council and Alan Nolan on the Mead School Board. A third candidate, Isaiah Paine, previously served as a legislative aide in the state Capitol.

Candidate filing week, which runs through Friday, will give additional candidates the opportunity to declare their candidacy.

Only Republicans have won seats in the district since 2010.

Ahead of candidate filing week, The Spokesman-Review reached out to the three candidates who had previously filed paperwork with the state Public Disclosure Commission to express their interest.

The Spokesman-Review spoke with all three candidates about their interest in the position and what they hope to accomplish if elected.

Jennifer Morton

Morton was elected to the Airway Heights City Council in 2019, according to her biography on the city's website. Raised in Davenport, Morton has experience in "aerospace distribution, financial services, city government, and human resources."

In an interview, Morton said her experience at the local level was her "initial impetus to run for office."

While on the council, Morton has focused on ensuring residents can access clean and affordable water, quality housing for current and new residents, the city's K-12 education system and increasing access to public transportation and infrastructure.

If elected, Morton said she would focus on increasing public safety, affordability and accountability, "which we certainly need from Olympia, just making government work for us."

To increase public safety, Morton said she would support legislation that increases the number of law enforcement officers in the state, though she said she would defer to the county sheriff and prosecutor on how this could be done.

Morton said she would support "taking a pause" with recent taxes implemented by the Legislature to "really just assess if we're getting the results that we're looking for."

"I would support looking and examining the policies that have been passed and really assessing them and taking a pause," Morton said. "And hopefully finding something that works better for everyone, and not just for Olympia."

Morton wants the state to examine the business and occupation tax, which is applied to net revenue and not profits, and the income tax on millionaires the Legislature passed this year, which she said has prompted businesses like Starbucks to look to grow outside of the state.

"But really assessing 'Is this going to benefit the state overall? And is it going to benefit the 6th District, with these tax policies?'" Morton said. "Or do we really need to take a pause, reassess and possibly look at maybe restructuring these policies?"

Morton said she would also support a gas tax holiday or reducing the gas tax.

"The gas tax directly impacts citizens on a regular basis," Morton said. "Even though it may not appear so, it may not be necessarily a direct tax, but indirectly it's impacting just regular citizens and businesses and commerce in general throughout the entire state," Morton said.

Morton is a graduate of Davenport High School. She also earned a bachelor's degree in liberal arts from Eastern Washington University in 2009 and master's degrees in public administration in 2011 and business administration in 2019, according to previous reporting by The Spokesman-Review.

Alan Nolan

In an interview, Nolan said he is running for the Legislature for "very similar" reasons to what prompted his run for the Mead School Board. After working to elect other members to the board in Mead, he decided to "step up" after a candidate he initially supported in his district opted not to run.

"And having spent the last couple of years on the school board, and I feel that we've been relatively effective," Nolan said, while acknowledging the criticism the board has received for some of its more controversial decisions, which he believes is unfair. "One of the things we've looked to do is take ideological issues out of the school and focus on educational outcomes."

Prior to his time on the board, Nolan said he noticed a "slow decline" in educational outcomes in the district, a trend he's seen elsewhere in the state.

"My concern is that the state agency that is most responsible is more interested in looking to tell people that everything is alright, and paper over what is some clear problems," Nolan said.

Many of the problems in the state, Nolan said, are "legislatively driven." If elected, Nolan said he would focus on budgetary reform, education and increasing the state's housing supply, among other issues.

"The housing shortage that I see, I think you can point to many things that the Legislature has done," Nolan said. "The Growth Management Act creates problems in terms of producing the amount of housing that we need, as does the Washington energy code."

While he said the Growth Management Act doesn't need to be completely repealed, it significantly limits where housing can be built. Nolan said he would like local jurisdictions to have greater authority to identify areas for development.

The state energy code, Nolan said, also significantly increases home costs while "pricing people out of the market."

"So those types of problems that I see, based off of my experience, as a school board member, as a military officer and leader, having run large organizations as well as my experience in the construction industry," Nolan said, "I think all of those serve me, to put me in a position where I can look to effect change where I think there are problems in the statewide guidance."

Isaiah Paine

After serving as a legislative aid for former Republican state Rep. Kevin Parker, Paine is looking to return to the state Capitol as a lawmaker himself. His decision, he said, was because "I'm sick of my friends moving."

"There are a lot of people who are great, who contribute to our community here, who just don't feel like they have a place in Eastern Washington and Washington anymore," Paine said.

Spokane, he said, is a "bit of a hard sell right now" due to a lack of transparency and increased taxes on the state level.

"It's just not creating an economic environment where it seems viable and sustainable," Paine said. "That certainly motivated me."

For the past five years, Paine has worked for the Spokane Home Builders Association on local and state policy to promote home ownership and attainability.

"Just understanding those challenges, and at the state level, there are significant impediments still that I'd love to be a part of finding a solution for," Paine said.

While the growth management was initially seen as a compromise between builders and the agricultural community, Paine said it's become a tool that's "limited growth" instead of creating smart growth, which has hurt the Spokane area.

"One of the things we're looking at is that we have an artificial limit on the supply of land, where 3.74% of our state's land mass is allowed to be built on," Paine said. "What that means is that it's illegal to build attainable land on the remaining 96.2%."

The increase in housing supply in North Idaho has motivated some to move across the state border while still working in Washington, "is not something that I think is beneficial. I don't think that's a good thing for our community."

"Even from a governance standpoint, that means that there's no property tax being collected. There are jobs that are being occupied, but it doesn't come with the benefits to education through property taxes; it reduces our sales tax," Paine said. "Surely, those individuals aren't contributing to the gas tax when they're pumping their gas in North Idaho, along with most of the people that live in Spokane."

Paine said he would also "love to see" mandatory sunset clauses in legislation that prompt lawmakers to consider whether it's meeting its intended objective.

"I think that's a good thing for us to look and measure and see, 'Did we accomplish what we set out to?'" Paine said. "Because if not, we should want to change it."

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This story was originally published May 5, 2026 at 12:11 PM.