Know the record before you vote
Mike Steele is a familiar name in Chelan County. He grew up here, and he runs the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce. But his campaign money, his votes on taxes and on abortion rights, and his ties to the short-term-rental industry tell a different story from the hometown one.
1 · The money
Steele represents Chelan County and the Cascade foothill towns. Most of his 2026 campaign money comes from somewhere else. His biggest source city is Seattle. Olympia is second. The city of Chelan, his hometown, gave $4,051.PDC data
2026 contributions by donor location · $143,419
"Seattle–Olympia corridor" means cities in King, Snohomish, Pierce, Thurston and Kitsap counties that are outside the 12th District.
Top cities, 2026
The donor list reads like a lobby directory. Most of these gave the legal maximum:PDC data
Steele's fundraising by election cycle
Totals through PDC's September 21 update. 2026 is still growing. Source: WA Public Disclosure Commission.
2 · Housing
Housing cost is the top concern for families in the Chelan valley. Short-term vacation rentals take homes off the long-term market, and Chelan County has spent years fighting over how to limit them. The county adopted limits in 2021 and rewrote them in early 2025.Chelan County
Steele has been Executive Director of the Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce for more than 20 years, including all ten of his years in the Legislature.His bio The Residents Coalition of Chelan County, a residents' group that fought to keep the county's 2021 rental limits, names the Lake Chelan Chamber among the groups that lobbied for the rewrite.Residents Coalition The Chamber's contract with the City of Chelan pays it up to $750,000 a year, pegged to the city's lodging-tax collections, the tax on overnight stays.All Things Lake Chelan
Holding a job outside the Legislature is legal and normal in Washington, and Steele discloses it. Nobody has accused him of breaking any rule. But when you ask whose interests he weighs on housing, it is fair to know who pays him and who funds his campaign.
Maggie Adams supports affordable housing with limits on short-term rentals.
3 · Taxes
Washington has the second most upside-down tax system in the country. The poorest fifth of households pay 13.8% of their income in state and local taxes. The top 1% pay 4.1%.ITEP On the Legislature's big votes to ask the wealthiest to pay more, Steele voted no.
Voted no after a 24-hour floor debate and called it "the wrong direction."Roll callHis statement
Voted no. It applies only to gains above $250,000 a year, and ITEP credits it with moving Washington off the very bottom of its fairness ranking. In 2024 Steele called it "essentially an income tax" and pushed for a hearing on the initiative to repeal it. Voters rejected the repeal.Roll callHis statement
Voted no. Voters later rejected a 2024 initiative to repeal it.Roll call2024 result
Maggie Adams supports a millionaires' tax and tax reform that makes large corporations pay their share. She wants that revenue to fund universal health care and child care, fully funded schools, and better teacher pay.
4 · Your rights
Before and after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in 2022, Washington passed laws to protect abortion access and the patients and doctors who rely on it. Steele voted against each of these bills on final passage. All four passed without him.
Updated the state's abortion-rights law so more trained health care providers can offer care, and barred prosecuting people who help a patient get it.Roll call
Shields patients and doctors in Washington from other states' subpoenas and prosecutions.Roll call
Let the state stockpile mifepristone after a federal court threatened to pull it from the market.Roll call
Lets youth shelters notify the state, instead of parents, when a young person staying there is seeking reproductive or gender-affirming care.Roll call
Each vote is the House final-passage roll call, as republished by LegiScan from the Legislature's official record.
Maggie Adams supports reproductive freedom and equal rights for LGBTQ+ Washingtonians.
5 · Accountability
Steele's big winning percentages look impressive until you check who he ran against. Since 2018 he has been unopposed or faced only other Republicans. This November is the first time in eight years that voters get a Democrat on the ballot against him.
| Year | Opponent | Steele | Kind of race |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Jerry Paine (R) | 60% | Republican vs. Republican |
| 2018 | Valerie Sarratt (D) | 63.8% | Last race against a Democrat |
| 2020 | None | 96.2% | Unopposed |
| 2022 | Robert Amenn (R) | 78.4% | Republican vs. Republican |
| 2024 | Daniel Scott (R) | 61.7% | Republican vs. Republican |
| 2026 | Maggie Adams (D) | — | Your choice, Nov 3 |
The district has also changed. The 2024 court-ordered map moved Douglas, Grant and Okanogan counties out of the 12th and added Monroe, Sultan, Gold Bar, North Bend and Snoqualmie. In the August primary the Position 1 race was decided by 174 votes out of more than 44,000. This district is competitive now. It deserves a representative who has to earn it.
6 · The choice
Incumbent
Chelan · Executive Director, Lake Chelan Chamber of Commerce · former White House political staffer under George W. Bush
Challenger
Snoqualmie · stagehand, costume designer and actor · business representative for IATSE, the stage workers' union
Ballots due Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 8 p.m.
State House, 12th District, Position 2. Check your registration and track your ballot at VoteWA.gov.
Sources