21-year-old Snohomish Councilmember: It’s difficult to be a Conservative in WA

I’m humbled and honored to have received the appointment to the Snohomish County Council. pic.twitter.com/VreDlT7mdx

— Nate Nehring (@NateNehring) January 24, 2017

After Nate Nehring tells people he graduated with an education degree from Western Washington, he often receives the same question: And you’re still a Republican, huh?

“It is difficult to be a Conservative in Washington state,” Nehring told KIRO Radio’s Jason and Burns. “… It’s difficult and I think that it’s really important that as a party that we are reaching out to young people and trying to connect with them on some of those core values that we share because I think that they really are commonly held by people of all ages.”

Rantz: Outrage fatigue has set in … at the wrong time

While thousands of young Washington Democrats have taken to the streets to protest and be activists, there has been a string of young conservatives quietly being elected or appointed to statewide offices.

State Rep. Melanie Stambaugh, 26, defeated incumbent Democrat Dawn Morrell to represent Puyallup. Russell Wiita won a Sultan City Council spot as a 21-year-old in 2015 with nearly 76 percent of the vote. And as of Jan. 23, at age 21, Nehring has become the youngest ever to serve on the Snohomish City Council.

Nehring, of course, is a bit more political than most recent college grads, thanks mainly to his father, Jon Nehring, who has been the mayor of Marysville since November of 2011. Nate said he learned how to run campaigns and listen to constituents from a young age and helped manage State Senator Barbara Bailey’s campaign before being asked to fill the open Snohomish County position vacated by Ken Klein, who resigned to take a job under County Executive Dave Somers.

“I really hadn’t planned on going into politics myself,” Nehring said. “I’d always loved the campaigning aspect of it but really never thought that I would have that as a career.”

Serving Snohomish County

Nehring landed a job as a middle school science teacher out of college but, after watching his dad and others, said he believes he can make a true impact on everyday people’s lives as an elected official. He said Snohomish County’s biggest issues on the Council’s docket are the budget and managing the expected growth in Snohomish County over the next decade.

“I think in the political environment you see a lot of people who are kind of self-serving or a lot of people look at politics and see much corruption and a lot of dirt there, but I think that as an elected official, if you’re putting people first and really trying to work hard to serve constituents instead of seeing it the other way around, that goes a long way, and the issues that come up in the policies all kind of go in flow with that,” he said. “If you’re working to benefit your constituency, whatever that might be, then everything else flows pretty naturally from that.”

As for young Republicans picking public office rather than activism or nonprofits, Nehring said he didn’t know if there was a concerted effort by the party or coincidental, but that it is a noble pursuit either way.

“I think that there is a lot of anger, and that’s across party lines, whether you’re Republican, Democrat or Independent, there is a lot of anger at government and the political process,” he said. “But I think that taking that anger and working in a reasonable fashion to try to provide a means to promote good policy, whether it’s locally, at the state level or at the federal level, really is the best way to go.”

Listen to the entire conversation below.

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