Must Congressional candidates live in their districts? Answer may affect WA race

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Almost every election campaign video follows the same formula: why the candidate wants to run for office (and why they’ll be the best at it), who they are, and how much they love the district they’re representing.

But do Congressional candidates need to actually live in the district they’re representing? The simple answer is no.

The U.S. Constitution is clear about the requirements to run for Congressional office.

“No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty five Years, and been seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen,” it reads.

Still, one Washington state Congressional candidate in particular this election cycle has raised some eyebrows and taken a few jabs over the uncertainty of where she resides.

Hilary Franz is the current Commissioner of Public Lands, which is the leader of the state Department of Natural Resources. But this year she is running to represent Washington’s 6th Congressional District, a seat left open by U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, who announced late last year that he would not seek reelection. Kilmer has already endorsed Franz for the position.

The district encompasses the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas, as well as most of Tacoma.

In a blog published by the Northwest Progressive Institute March 21, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., seemed to take aim at Franz while endorsing Franz’s Democratic opponent for Kilmer’s seat, state Sen. Emily Randall.

“I’m with Emily for Congress because I know she will be a strong voice for working people — the friends and neighbors she grew up with in a district that is her home,” Murray was quoted as saying.

But a spokesperson for Franz pushed back on the idea that she is not a resident of the 6th Congressional District.

“Hilary is a proud resident of Grays Harbor County,” Eve Zhurbinskiy, Hilary Franz for Congress Campaign Manager, told McClatchy in an email.

Zhurbinskiy said Franz has spent the “vast majority” of her adult life living in the congressional district, and pointed to Franz’s time on the Bainbridge Island City Council from 2008 to 2011, the Kitsap County Regional Coordinating Council, and “working in all six counties as Public Lands Commissioner” since 2017.

In a campaign video released in November, Franz says that she raised her three sons in Kitsap County, where she began her career in public service.

Franz previously said that she moved to Seattle so her sons could attend the same high school as their father, but moved to Seabrook, south of Pacific Beach on the Washington coast, after they graduated.

Records from Grays Harbor County show Franz purchased a property in Seabrook in early 2023 after it was constructed in 2022. Hers is the only name listed on the property as the owner.

King County records show that Franz purchased a home in Seattle in 1998. Franz is listed with another buyer who appears on other properties she has owned. The home was sold in 2000, according to records, at which point Franz moved to Bainbridge. According to financial disclosure reports from the Public Disclosure Commission, Franz sold the Bainbridge home in 2016.

Records show Franz purchased a home in Seattle in 2016, which she sold in 2020. She then purchased another Seattle home in 2020. Records for that property still show Franz as the owner.

Aside from Randall and Franz, both Democrats, two Republican candidates are in the race for Kilmer’s seat so far: Elizabeth Kreiselmaier and current state Sen. Drew MacEwen, R-Shelton.

MacEwen told McClatchy in a phone interview that while he is not a Washington native, he has lived in the state since 1994 when he was stationed at the Naval submarine base in Bangor. MacEwen now calls Mason County home, and has since 2006.

The lawmaker said the 6th Congressional District is full of multi-generational hard-working families, and that living in a district an elected official represents is important because it gives them a “profound understanding” of the issues faced by people in the area.

“You can’t grasp those overnight,” MacEwen said.

He also added that he finds it interesting that Franz claims Seabrook in her home when her tax bills are still sent to her home in Seattle. Additionally, he noted that he has been in the Legislature longer than either Franz or Randall have lived in the district. MacEwen was first elected to the statehouse in 2012.

Randall, a Washington native, lived out of state until 2017 but said in an email to McClatchy that for 25 years overall Kitsap County has been her home.

“My neighbors in the 26th Legislative District — which comprises over 21% of the 6th Congressional District — have elected me twice in highly competitive campaigns,” Randall said.

Randall added that her “neighbor’s stories are my stories.”

But Washington voters don’t always care about where their representatives live.

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, a Democrat, lived slightly outside the boundaries of the 7th Congressional District when she was elected to Congress in 2016. She is now serving her fourth term representing district centered on Seattle and stretches from Shoreline south to Burien and Vashon and Maury islands.