State Rep. Matt Marshall welcomes differing opinions; they’re easy to come by when you’re a first-year Republican representative in a Democrat-led state Legislature.
“I am not somebody looking to surround myself with people that just agree with me,” Marshall, 40, told the Nisqually Valley News during a phone conversation Tuesday, April 8.
He’s heading toward the end of his first legislative session in a seat long held by former state Rep. and House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox, who retired last year. He beat out former Sheriff John Snaza to earn the position.
“The way I learned, the way that I help refine my perspective on politics and the world and life in general, is by having opposing opinions and really internalizing that, digesting that and modifying my own world viewpoint, ” he said.
In his first session, at least, Marshall’s core politics remain conservative.
As one of two Republican representatives serving the largely rural Washington Legislative District 2 — with the other being Rep. Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia — Marshall is outspoken against new taxes. He believes soft-on-crime policies, not lawful gun ownership, are the primary reasons for gun violence. And he laments the state Democratic Party’s “stripping away” of provisions related to Initiative 2081, known as the Parents’ Bill of Rights, which granted parents and guardians the right to review school materials and records and opt out of activities like sexual-health education.
Marshall said the Democrats’ decision to approve the initiative “untouched” last year allowed their representatives to introduce House Bill 1296 in 2025, which created a “student bill of rights” that is “driving a wedge” between parents and students and eliminating true parental oversight.
“And that’s completely against the spirit of the initiative,” Marshall said. “So it’s a really frustrating spot for really everybody because clearly we all want students to be in an environment where they can learn, they can focus on reading, writing and arithmetic, growing up, going through this very difficult phase of their life as they enter adulthood, but also ensure that parents have access to the information that students are being taught and parents can really be, not just involved, but the one guiding how their child is raised.”
Had the Democratic Party not taken action last year, Marshall said, the initiative would’ve gone to a vote of the people.
“And if the people would have passed it, then the Legislature is not allowed to touch it for a period of years, I think it’s two or three years that nothing in that initiative can be amended or changed by the Legislature,” he said.
Proponents of HB 1296 argued the changes were necessary to align the initiative with state and federal law, while establishing protections against retaliation for school district employees who support students’ legal rights. Sponsor Rep. Monica Stonier, D-Vancouver, said the bill was about making sure “all students have a safe and supportive learning environment so they can thrive.”
HB 1296 passed in the House with a vote of 56-37 on March 12. Engrossed Substitute House Bill 1296 passed in the Senate with a vote of 30-19 on April 11.
As reported by Jeanie Lindsay of KUOW Puget Sound Public Radio, the Senate-approved bill creates a new list of rights and anti-discrimination protections for students, including those who identify as LGBTQ+. Now amended, the bill must be resubmitted back to the House.
Along with many state Republicans, Marshall has also been critical of recent firearms legislation, like HB 1163, which he says puts yet another target on the lawful gun owner. HB 1163 mandates a stricter permitting process that includes certified firearms safety training, fingerprint submission and a background check by the Washington State Patrol.
“Right now, we have some pretty restrictive gun laws already in the state of Washington,” Marshall, an Army veteran and gun owner, said. “Nobody can legally purchase a firearm in the state without a pretty extensive background check. If it’s a semiautomatic or if it’s a pistol, there’s also a large wait time. We have some very restrictive regulations that already, in my opinion, go well beyond the scope of Article 1, Section 24 of the Washington Constitution, as well as the Second Amendment in the U.S. Constitution. However, with all of these restrictions on lawful gun owners, violence and assaults and murders and everything else with guns is continuing to rise in the state of Washington.”
Drawing from FBI data, the Washington State House Republicans reported that violent crime increased “by nearly 20% in just five years” from 2018 to 2022, putting it just below the national average of 380.7 crimes reported to law enforcement agencies per 100,000 people. As Axios Seattle noted, however, the state average is still well below its peak in the early 90s.
The main reason for the recent uptick, says Marshall? Gang violence and organized crime from unlawfully obtained firearms.
Marshall has a plan to address the problem by instituting what he calls a “bounty on unlawful firearms.” The cosponsored bill would allow a person who has knowledge of a felon with a gun — or someone who does not have a legal right to own a firearm due to other criminal activity — to report them. Once the gun is recovered, Marshall said, the person would receive a reward.
“And if that firearm had been used in crimes, the bounty, essentially, on the illegal firearm would increase. And it’s a way to actually address the gang violence and the gun crime by getting these unlawful guns off the street and leaving the law-abiding citizen alone,” he said.
Annual data from Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC) showed that violent crime decreased 5.5 percent in 2023 compared to 2022. Murders were also down — but still significantly higher compared to 2019.
The bill did not receive a hearing this session.
Despite these obstacles, Marshall has enjoyed early, largely bipartisan, success.
His first bill, House Bill 1190, was signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson on Monday, April 7. According to Marshall, HB 1190 was the first House Republican bill signed by Ferguson — ever.
The bill gives psychological and mental health counselor associates access to the Health Evidence Resource for Washington State (HEAL-WA) at the University of Washington Health Sciences Library. Marshall said he was honored to have it signed.
“The HEAL Washington Library provides up-to-date research, continuing medical education credits — it’s really just this vast resource that these professionals would otherwise have to pay for each individual article or piece of information they accessed,” Marshall said.
“We already have this library available to physicians, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, psychologists, but some of the psychological associates didn’t have access, so this bill gives them access, mainly because they’re already paying for it as part of their license fees, and it’s only going to help the residents of Washington by making sure that all our mental health professionals have as much information as they desire,” he said.
Marshall’s professional career is varied, and rooted in medicine. His first job out of high school was as a firefighter EMT in Oregon. He fell in love with medicine but couldn’t afford the pre-med schooling.
“My parents did not have the ability to support my college,” Marshall said.
So he joined the Army as a combat medic, specialized as a lab tech, and later attended physician assistant school through the military. Marshall received his master’s degree in physician assistant studies from the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
Marshall said his experiences have allowed him to understand the “push and pulls” for medical providers and ancillary support staff, along with the struggles of patients.
“I’m trying to make this more cost effective for the state of Washington for the people here so they can get high quality care and not have it completely bankrupt them,” Marshall said. “And there is a frustration because there are a lot of outside influences, you know, just basic medical supplies cost a ton of money now because of shipping costs and potentially now tariffs, lots of people in the middle that all have their hand out taking a little piece of that supply that moves along the chain. Everything is marked up on the supply side, plus we have rising costs for personnel — just an employee is now costing a ton. Unfortunately, because we’re in budget crises, the reimbursement rates to providers is decreasing.”
According to Marshall, this combination of forces has pushed older and more experienced providers out of medicine, a trend that was most pronounced during COVID.
