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Anneliese Feld is running for the Washington State House of Representatives in the 2nd Legislative District. This district has a number of challenges associated with its relatively very large size and rural communities where many barriers create challenges for traditional door knocking.
Republicans have represented this district since 1995, however many constitutents are tired of lack of change regarding traffic, taxes, and increasing crime. Furthermore, the representatives have voted against some highly supported issues, such as protecting gender pay equity and banning bump stocks, yet they did support measures that would protect legislators privacy without allowing for public comment. Anneliese is committed to putting the needs of people over party, and brings a unique perspective since unlike her opponents, she comes from a poor background.
Since she does not have ties to wealthy donors, she needs public support to fund her grassroots campaign. As the saying goes, a woman's place is in the house, so let's send her there!
More about Anneliese:
Anneliese Feld is a Washington native, and although she moved around a lot as a child, she considers District 2 to be her true home and often tells people this is the only place she wants to raise her young children. When she first moved into the district, she attended Spanaway Junior High and then Spanaway Lake High School. Her mother later moved out to Kapowsin, making her brother a rival at the new Graham-Kapowsin High School years later!
Anneliese was raised in a single parent household and understands the struggles that many families face. She knows what it is like to depend on food stamps (before the EBT card) and food banks, and scrimping and saving just to get by. Although she has no personal memory of it, knowing that she and her mother had to stay in the YWCA shelter as a young child truly shaped the way she sees the world.
Humbled by her early life, Anneliese has been a dedicated social servant. As an elementary student, she organized coat and food drives for local homeless children. As she got older, she began volunteering in food banks and raising money for organizations through walks, runs, and donation drives. It wasn't until her early 20's when she realized that she could actually make a living doing what she loved as a social worker. In 2010 she began attending the University of Washington School of Social work.
As a student, she took advantage of every opportunity possible. She held two chairs, Community Service and Fundraising, for the Organization of Student Social Workers, and Public Relations for Mortar Board Senior Honor Society. She double-minored in Education, Learning and Society and Diversity, and taught a Transfer interest Group Class for incoming transfer students like herself. Because she wanted to work with abused and neglected children, she knew that she should work with parents first to understand the entire family dynamic. To gain experience with parents, she began an internship as a chemical dependency professional at the Thunderbird Treatment Center at the Seattle Indian Health Board. Although she was achieving nearly perfect grades in all of her classes despite having an overloaded schedule, volunteer and internship commitments, she was almost unable to complete her education at the University of Washington.
In 2011, there was debate in Olympia whether or not to increase tuition at the University of Washington. If tuition were increased to the level that was being discussed, Husky Promise, a tuition program to help first-generation low-income students cover tuition, may not have been continued. Fearing her future, she joined with other undergraduate and graduate students to organize a plan of action for the Huskies on the Hill Day. As a team leader, she led four fellow students in meetings with various representatives and senators. In the end, the Huskie Promise was saved and she was able to complete her education. During her senior year, she earned a very competitive internship at the Washington State House of Representatives where she worked for the House Chair and Vice Chair of the Ways and Means Committee, Representatives Hunter and Darnielle respectively, and Representative Mark Miloscia. In May 2012, Anneliese graduated first in her class from the University of Washington.
Anneliese then continued her education at the University of Illinois where she earned a USDA Fellowship to study childhood obesity. She has completed her Masters in Public Health, and will complete her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies in the summer of 2018. Her research has focused on the impacts of child care licensing regulations on the utilization of a federal program, the Child and Adult Care Food Program, and children's overall health. She has had an opportunity to share her findings at with fellow scientists, academics, professionals and law makers around the country. As a graduate student, Anneliese also got a chance to work with the YWCA again, where she served as a mentor to young women in the Women in Leadership program.
During her graduate studies, Anneliese was married to Josiah Feld, and they had two beautiful daughters, Annette and Annabelle. In August 2017, the family moved back to Graham, WA so they could be near family and Josiah's eldest daughter Marley. Josiah has since started a small business remodeling and painting homes. In their spare time, they enjoy camping, fishing, hiking, and searching for painted rocks and geocaches.
