Meet Nate
Nate Powell was raised in Spokane’s Logan neighborhood by a family dedicated to Eastern Washington and public service. Nate’s father was a Spokane Valley firefighter at a time when a union salary lifted his family into the middle class. His grandparents, both educators, worked in Eastern Washington public schools while maintaining ties to their family farm.
Nate grew up believing what most Eastern Washington kids are taught: you show up, you work hard, you contribute. And our government should respect that hard work by doing right by all the people it serves.
Two weeks after graduating from Spokane’s Lewis and Clark High School, where he was a team captain in wrestling, Nate enlisted in the United States Marine Corps. After receiving training in aviation ordnance and two active duty deployments, he attended college on the GI bill. While in school, Nate met his wife Paxton, and they made Spokane home when Nate joined the Spokane Fire Department – continuing the commitment to service that runs in his family.
Today Nate and his wife, a Spokane City employee, are raising their daughter hoping she will have the same opportunities that have defined our Eastern Washington way of life. But Nate knows that working families are under growing pressure as billionaire-backed corporations turn basic needs like housing, healthcare, and childcare into just another means to extract profit. A working parent shouldn’t need to dedicate an entire paycheck to childcare, and no one should be forced to choose between paying their bills or getting much needed medical care.
Responding to 911 calls every day, Nate sees what happens when the system is rigged against working families – medical emergencies delayed because people can’t afford care, parents stretched thin trying to keep a roof over their heads, and communities struggling to stay afloat. Those calls are a daily reminder that the decisions made in D.C. have real consequences here at home.
Nate is running to give hard working families a voice in our government. As a dad, union firefighter, and veteran, he knows that the system no longer respects hard work because it is tilted toward the powerful, and that too many politicians would rather serve those interests than stand up for working people.
Nate Powell will bring our voice to Congress and stand in the way of the billionaires, big corporations, and lobbyists who profit at our expense.
