About Ryne - Ryne Rohla for WA-44

I am a husband, father, man of faith and science. I’ve lived in Snohomish County most of my life, whether in Lake Stevens, Stanwood, Arlington, or Everett. My family now resides in the Silver Lake area, just a mile from where my wife Hally grew up and near my father-in-law who battles Parkinson’s. My wife and I have two young daughters, and I want to give them the best possible community, economy, and future.

I hold a PhD in economics which I use every day to fight for Washingtonians as the primary antitrust enforcement economist under the Washington State Office of the Attorney General. My job is to look out for consumers and make sure all businesses, no matter how large, compete by the same fair rules as each other. My work has won millions of dollars for Washington taxpayers from giants who sometimes think the rules don’t apply to them, such as Amazon.

Previously, I taught economics at Washington State University and worked as a researcher at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. My research on the everyday consequences of political polarization has been published in Science and other leading journals, earning international media coverage. I own a data consulting small business with clients including The New York Times, FiveThirtyEight, AARP, and many others.

My parents came to Washington thirty years ago to work in the timber industry, along with an uncle who works for Boeing and a grandfather who practiced medicine at Joint Base Lewis-McCord. My dad, an avid baseball fan, named me after Hall of Fame Chicago Cubs second baseman Ryne Sandberg and passed his love of the game on to me. After the timber industry crash of the early 1990s, my parents divorced and became accountants. I grew up splitting time between Lake Stevens and Stanwood, graduating from Stanwood High School.

I worked my way through Everett Community College with part-time jobs in retail and student services and by carrying fifty-pound swing stage counterweights to the top of Everett high-rises and Seattle skyscrapers. At Everett Community College, I chaired a committee which established basic services for non-traditional students and met my future wife, who grew up in the Silver Lake area. I transferred to Eastern Washington University and, through the hard work of one very dedicated professor, fell in love with economics and research, and I went on to earn my PhD in economics from Washington State University.

My wife Hally is a social worker by trade. She previously worked at the VA Hospital in Walla Walla, in hospices, and for Catholic Community Services here in Snohomish County. We are active, long-time members of St. Mary Magdalen Parish in Everett, and our faith deeply compels us to serve those overlooked or disregarded by society while holding the elite and powerful accountable. I am a member of the Knights of Columbus and have volunteered at COVID vaccine clinics and in homeless shelters, coordinated meal and supply deliveries for the homebound.

I am a Republican because core conservative values such as competition, community, conservation, forgiveness, family, and freedom are badly needed in our increasingly isolated, inflamed, and intolerant culture. Democracy needs at least two functioning, competent parties to hold each other in check and spur innovation, and right now Washington barely has one.

I am running for the underdog. If you’re looking for a Republican who cuts taxes for the rich, who gives handouts to big corporations shipping jobs out of state or overseas, or who schmoozes at the country club, look somewhere else– they’re a dime a dozen.

I’m running for the middle class and all those who have chased down their dreams only to watch them washed away in a rising tide of prices and crime. I’m running for the young student told to fear themselves, their classmates, and an ever-darkening future. I’m running for the college graduate who gets more student debt notices than job interviews. I’m running for the senior no one visits and the veteran no one understands.

I’m running for the working class and all those who by the work of their hands make everyone else’s lives a bit brighter. I’m running for the worker who fears for their job if they speak their mind. I’m running for the homeless addict stuck in a cycle of punishment and enabling. I’m running for the young family who doesn’t know how they’ll afford their child and for the unborn child they don’t know if they’ll keep.

I am running for my mom, who spent the better part of a decade homeless here in Snohomish County. I am running for my sister, who took her own life amid COVID-induced isolation.

Our challenges are great. I can’t do this alone, and neither can you. But just maybe we can.

Join me. Together, let’s work better.

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