Englund has spent her entire career as a Washington D.C. lobbyist and partisan operative for the Republican Party – a record wildly out of touch with the values and concerns of 45th LD voters
Jinyoung Lee Englund has an impressive resume of work for the Republican Party and its candidates – a career which seemed curiously absent from her announcement press release. Perhaps the Republican Party bosses know that her values don’t fit the independent-minded voters of the 45th district, who overwhelmingly rejected Donald Trump in last November’s election, and they’re trying to hide the truth about her career. Here are the facts the public needs to know about Jinyoung Englund’s history:
Jinyoung’s resume – partisan political work and D.C. lobbying
Jinyoung Lee Englund has spent her career with the Republican Party and the D.C. lobbying industry, where she represented shady financial interests.
- In 2008, shortly after graduating college, Englund was hired by the Republican Party to run a field office in Washington’s 8th Congressional District.
- From January 2009 through August 2011, Englund worked in the office of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers – one of Trump’s most enthusiastic backers and who Englund has referred to as a “mentor”.
- From June to November 2010, Englund took a break to return to the campaign trail and she was the scheduler for Dino Rossi’s failed campaign for U.S. Senate.
- From August 2011 to December 2012, Englund worked at the Heritage Foundation for the anti-labor, anti-minimum wage former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, who was Trump’s choice for Secretary of Transportation.
- In 2012, Englund was hired by the Romney/Ryan transition team that intended to move into the White House in case of a Romney victory.
- In 2016, Englund was an advisor at the Republican National Committee and defended the Jeb Bush campaign when Bush made his famously offensive “anchor babies” comment.
- In 2016, Englund was chosen as a future leader by a conservative Super PAC founded by conservative Sen. Ted Cruz.
- In 2013, Englund began work as a lobbyist or communications staff for a series of Bitcoin-related organizations – COINLAB, the Bitcoin Foundation, CoinDesk, and the Digital Currency Council – all of which involved promoting Bitcoin, an online currency often used to sell drugs, child pornography, and other contraband via the internet.
This isn’t one or two years – this is an entire career spent almost exclusively as a partisan political operative and/or lobbyist for special financial interests, with no connections to the 45th district community.
Jinyoung on policy – the Republican party line
Englund’s policy stances closely follow the Republican party line, as you’d expect for someone who has worked for the Republican Party for as long as she has. Some of Englund’s positions, in her own words:
- On a woman’s right to choose – Englund promotes debunked lies about Planned Parenthood and is openly anti-choice.
- On climate change – Englund believes it isn’t an issue to be concerned about.
- On taxes – she opposes the voter-approved estate tax on extremely wealthy individuals, which even far-right Republicans voted for when he was still in the legislature. And Englund supported Jeb Bush’s ultraconservative tax proposal, which would have provided massive tax cuts for the richest 1% at the expense of funding schools, health care, and essential services.
What other issues does Englund stand with Republicans on? Englund would be another vote for the Senate Republican budget, which raises $5.5 billion in property taxes (including an annual $763 property tax increase for the average homeowner in the 45th LD’s Lake Washington School District), raises college tuition, cuts essential services like homelessness prevention and early learning for kids, and fails to fully fund education. She’d be a party line for the Republicans on their efforts to lower the minimum wage, or rejecting efforts to help immigrants, or defunding Planned Parenthood.
Washington State Democratic Party Chair Tina Podlodowski said, “Jinyoung’s values are clearly out of touch with the voters who overwhelmingly rejected Trump last November. She’s an extreme conservative on so many issues, who’s spent her entire career promoting Republican politicians and shady financial interests.
“Republicans may like the idea of recruiting a hardcore partisan who they can control, but 45th district voters deserve better than that. Voters deserve a smart, independent voice who will work on real solutions to the challenges facing us, not a career Washington D.C. political operative who only represents whatever special interest is paying her at that moment.”
