State Senator Marko Liias

Marko Liias is a Democratic state senator representing Washington's 21st Legislative District. They have prime-sponsored 460 bills, of which 146 died without a public hearing.

  • Democratic
  • Senate
  • Legislative District 21
  • 2 sessions on record
email
marko.liias@leg.wa.gov
phone
(360) 786-7640

Source Washington State Legislature web services: member roster, roll calls, sponsorship and committee records · as of 2026-09-16

01

Says vs does

What this member said while seeking the office, set against how they voted once they held it. We state only whether the two records differ — never why.

No stated positions have been collected for this member yet. This comparison needs a quote with a citation — a candidate guide, a town hall transcript, a floor video — found and recorded by a person. There is no feed of things politicians said, so an empty section here means nobody has done that reading, not that the member has never contradicted themselves and not that they have.

Last checked 2026-09-16

02

Voting record

Recorded floor votes across every session we hold. Committee votes are not included — those are recorded per committee, not per member.

13,017

recorded votes

11,541

yea

1,020

nay

456

absent or excused

Recorded floor votes, most recent first
Date Bill Subject Motion This member Roll call
2026-03-12 ESHB 1295 Reading and writing literacy 3rd Reading & Final Passage as Amended by the Senate YEA 48–1
2026-03-12 ESHB 1408 Community authority funding Final Passage without Senate Amendments YEA 49–0
2026-03-12 E2SHB 2215 Fuels/climate commitment act 3rd Reading & Final Passage as Amended by the Senate YEA 49–0
2026-03-12 ESSB 6005 Transportation budget, supp. Final Passage as Recommended by Conference Committee YEA 49–0
2026-03-12 SSB 6003 Capital budget, supplemental Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 49–0
2026-03-12 ESSB 5998 Operating budget, supp. Final Passage as Recommended by Conference Committee YEA 28–21
2026-03-12 SSB 6225 Transportation funding bonds Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 49–0
2026-03-12 ESB 6228 Prescription drugs/taxes Final Passage as Amended by the House NAY against party majority 26–23
2026-03-12 ESSB 6260 Public education funding Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 26–23
2026-03-12 ESB 6347 Estate tax rates Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 39–10
2026-03-12 SSB 6355 Electric transmission system Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 32–17
2026-03-12 ESSB 6354 Electric vehicles Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 47–2
2026-03-12 SGA 9070 ROBERT H. MALTE The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 48–0
2026-03-12 SGA 9075 ROBERT DECOTEAU The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 48–0
2026-03-12 SGA 9091 STEPHANIE J. BARDIN The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 48–0
2026-03-12 SGA 9094 HUEY YU The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 48–0
2026-03-12 SGA 9171 ELISA K. GRACEFFO The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 48–0
2026-03-11 SHB 2089 Taxes on loan interest 3rd Reading & Final Passage NAY against party majority 27–21
2026-03-11 EHB 2487 Insurer taxes 3rd Reading & Final Passage NAY against party majority 27–22
2026-03-11 EHB 2681 Cannabis license fees 3rd Reading & Final Passage YEA 29–20
2026-03-11 SHB 2689 Working connect. child care 3rd Reading & Final Passage as Amended by the Senate YEA 33–16
2026-03-11 ESHB 2711 Transportation resources 3rd Reading & Final Passage as Amended by the Senate YEA 33–15
2026-03-11 ESSB 6346 Tax on millionaires Concur in House amendment(s) YEA 27–21
2026-03-11 ESSB 6346 Tax on millionaires Final Passage As Amended by the House YEA 27–21
2026-03-11 SGA 9050 ROBERT A. ZAPPONE The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 46–0
2026-03-11 SGA 9066 MEGAN MATTHEWS The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 45–2
2026-03-11 SGA 9172 DENISE E. GIDEON The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 48–0
2026-03-11 SGA 9180 ADRIA BUCHANAN The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 48–0
2026-03-11 SGA 9204 MICHELLE R. SMITH The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 48–0
2026-03-11 SGA 9227 EDISON A. VALERIO The Appointment be Confirmed YEA 48–0
2026-03-10 E2SHB 2325 Tourism assessment Final Passage as Amended by the Senate YEA 43–5
2026-03-10 E2SSB 5847 Workers' comp. medical care Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 30–19
2026-03-10 SSB 5982 Consumer-owned utilities Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 30–19
2026-03-10 ESSB 6002 Driver privacy Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 39–10
2026-03-10 E2SSB 6026 Residential dev./zones Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 35–14
2026-03-10 E2SSB 6027 Affordable housing funding Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 30–19
2026-03-10 2SSB 6035 Voting services Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 29–19
2026-03-10 SSB 6034 Office of Indian affairs Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 49–0
2026-03-10 SSB 6054 Wildfire home hardening/CICs Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 47–0
2026-03-10 ESB 6058 Wage enforcement discretion Final Passage as Amended by the House YEA 46–1

Showing the 40 most recent of 13,017 recorded votes. Each tally links to the roll call itself, which names every member.

The tally is what the chamber recorded, not a verdict. Final passage needs a majority of the members elected, an amendment a majority of those voting, and some motions two-thirds; which rule governed a given motion is not in the record we hold.

Votes against their own party’s majority

600

of 13,017 recorded votes went against the majority of Democratic colleagues

Counted only where their party had a clear majority on that roll call. A tied party is not a position to diverge from.

Votes against the member’s own party majority
Date Bill Motion They voted Their party
2026-03-12 ESB 6228 Final Passage as Amended by the House Nay Yea (26-4 yea-nay)
2026-03-11 SHB 2089 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (27-3 yea-nay)
2026-03-11 EHB 2487 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (27-3 yea-nay)
2026-03-10 SB 6137 Final Passage as Amended by the House Nay Yea (27-3 yea-nay)
2026-03-06 2ESHB 1210 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (20-10 yea-nay)
2026-03-03 ESHB 2476 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (22-7 yea-nay)
2026-02-28 ESB 6228 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (25-4 yea-nay)
2026-02-28 ESSB 6231 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (26-4 yea-nay)
2026-02-27 ESSB 5998 777 Gildon Pg 89 Ln 2 Yea Nay (3-27 yea-nay)
2026-02-26 SHB 2355 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (28-1 yea-nay)
2026-02-17 2ESSB 5360 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (27-3 yea-nay)
2026-02-16 SB 6114 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (27-2 yea-nay)
2026-02-11 SB 5995 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (25-5 yea-nay)
2026-02-11 SB 6137 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (27-3 yea-nay)
2025-04-27 ESB 5797 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (26-3 yea-nay)
2025-04-26 ESHB 2081 486 Braun Pg 41 Ln 32 Yea Nay (2-27 yea-nay)
2025-04-22 ESSB 5041 Do Not Concur in House Amendment(s) Nay Yea (25-4 yea-nay)
2025-04-22 SB 5463 Final Passage as Amended by the House Nay Yea (27-2 yea-nay)
2025-04-18 ESB 5206 Final Passage as Amended by the House Nay Yea (22-7 yea-nay)
2025-04-16 2SHB 1515 3rd Reading & Final Passage as Amended by the Senate Nay Yea (25-5 yea-nay)
2025-04-10 EHB 1217 345 Shewmake Pg 1 Ln 13 Yea Nay (6-24 yea-nay)
2025-04-10 EHB 1217 312 Liias Pg 4 Ln 6 Yea Nay (6-24 yea-nay)
2025-04-10 EHB 1217 353 Cleveland Pg 21 Ln 8 Yea Nay (4-26 yea-nay)
2025-04-10 HB 1636 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (23-7 yea-nay)
2025-04-09 SHB 1821 3rd Reading & Final Passage Nay Yea (28-2 yea-nay)

Showing the 25 most recent of 600. The full list is in the roll call records linked below.

Source WA Legislature roll-call archive · as of 2026-09-16 · rows 13,017 votes across every session held · key committee votes are not in the archive and are not counted here

03

Bills sponsored — and where they stopped

Bills where this member was the prime sponsor. Co-sponsorship is not included; the record we hold names only the prime sponsor.

460

bills prime-sponsored

87

became law

146

died without a public hearing

Introduced, referred, and the session ended without testimony taken. Ordinary rather than exceptional — 44% of all bills that die in Washington die this way.

Bills prime-sponsored by this member
Session Bill Subject Outcome Heard

Source WA Legislature bill status + committee agendas · as of 2026-09-16 · n 0 prime-sponsored bills across every session held · What died in committee

04

Committee seats

2025-26

  • Senate Committee on Agriculture & Natural Resources
  • Senate Committee on Environment, Energy & Technology
  • Senate Committee on Higher Education & Workforce Development
  • Senate Committee on Transportation

We cannot say which of these they chair. A committee chair decides what gets a hearing, which makes the role the single most consequential fact in this section — and the roster export records membership without it. Every seat above is shown as an equal membership because that is all the record supports.

Last checked 2026-09-16

Source WA Legislature committee membership records · as of 2026-09-16 · seats 4

05

Who funds this seat

Campaign finance reported to the Public Disclosure Commission. The record and the PDC share no identifier, so this is a join — on surname, given name, chamber and district for a legislator, and on the office won and the county it was won in for everyone else. Only where one person fits.

$382K

raised, 2026 cycle

$278K

spent

$777

average contribution

Total divided by 492 reported contributors.

$1.1M

raised across 4 campaigns

Every cycle we hold for this filer, not a career total — earlier campaigns may predate our coverage.

By campaign

Reported campaign finance by cycle
Cycle Raised Spent Contributors
2026 $382,482 $277,981 492
2022 $270,037 $273,516 436
2018 $259,805 $257,676 473
2014 $210,799 $203,044 637

Largest reported contributors

Largest reported contributors
Contributor City Amount
AGC of WA BUILD PAC Seattle $2,400
Airbnb, Inc San Francisco $2,400
Amazon.com Services LLC Seattle $2,400
Anheuser Busch Companies LLC Van Nuys $2,400
BNSF Railway Co Fort Worth $2,400
Call Sheri Olympia $2,400
CREDIT UNION LEGISLATIVE ACTION FUND NW CREDIT UNION Seatac $2,400
Electrical Workers 46 PAC Kent $2,400
Eli Lilly & Co Indianapolis $2,400
Highline Grain Growers, Inc Waterville $2,400

Individual contributors, by stated employer

Private individuals are not named here unless their own public conduct already makes them a public figure; their giving appears aggregated by the employer they stated. The full itemised record is public at the PDC.

Individual contributors, grouped by stated employer
Employer stated by contributors Contributors Amount
Microsoft 1 $2,400
ESP Consulting 1 $2,400
No employer stated 3 $7,450

Colleagues who gave on the same day

Three or more people sharing an employer, giving to one of this member’s campaigns on a single date. Money arriving together is the pattern; a shared employer on its own is not. Across every campaign we hold, not just the most recent.

Same-day contributions from colleagues at one employer
Date Cycle Employer Donors Total
2018-10-20 2018 SOUND TRANSIT 6 $500
2014-08-28 2014 SOUND TRANSIT 4 $575

This shows money arriving together, not who arranged it. An office collection, a fundraiser one colleague hosted, a firm’s partners each writing a cheque on the day they were asked — all three look identical in the filings, and all three are legal. Nothing here says the employer knew, still less that it directed anyone. The record gives the date and the shared workplace; the reason is not in it.

Last checked 2026-09-16

Employers behind more than one donor

Across the whole cycle rather than a single day. Weaker than the table above, and included because a slow accumulation from one workplace is still worth being able to see.

Employers with more than one contributor this cycle
Employer Donors Total
Microsoft 2 $4,100
EE Overton 2 $2,400
Lodestar Partners 2 $2,000
Puget Sound Energy 3 $1,856
Alex Alston Consulting 2 $1,800
Seattle Kraken 2 $1,200

Only 14.6% of named donors stated an employer. The field is filled in by the donor and left blank more often than not, so both tables show what we can see rather than everything that exists. Treat the counts as a floor. Occupations reported in the employer box — “retired”, “self-employed”, “homemaker” — are excluded, because they are not a shared workplace.

Last checked 2026-09-16

This filing was matched, not looked up. The Legislature and the PDC share no identifier. We matched Marko Liias to PDC filer LIIAM 204 because the surname, the given name, the office (State Senator) and the district (21) all agree, and because only one person fits. If that is the wrong person, tell us at corrections@washingtonindependents.org and we will unpublish this section while we check — see Corrections.

Last checked 2026-09-16

Spent independently, for and against · not their money

Money spent about this member by committees that are barred by law from coordinating with them. It is not their money, they cannot return it, and it is not in the total above. Spending for someone is not money from them, and the two sides are never subtracted from each other.

  1. Spent supporting

    stance filed as “for”

    $343
  2. Spent opposing

    stance filed as “against” · not subtracted from the row above

    $129,245
  • WA Wins Sponsored by The Leadership Council against · $90,189 · 2022
  • CONCERNED TAXPAYERS OF WASHINGTON STATE against · $39,056 · 2022
  • Fuse Votes for · $291 · 2026, 2022
  • WA HOUSING ALLIANCE ACTION FUND PAC for · $52 · 2022

Sources WA PDC C-3 contribution reports · C-6 independent expenditure and electioneering communication reports · as of 2026-09-16 · filer LIIAM 204 · key surname + given name + chamber + district — refused where more than one person fits · n 13 independent-expenditure filings name this candidate id · note independent expenditures are joined on the PDC candidate id, not on a name; they are a separate ledger, never netted against each other and never added to the committee’s own total

The original filing at the PDC

06

How the seat was won

Every certified general election this member won, from the Secretary of State canvass. The canvass names winners by printed name and the Legislature issues member ids, so each row is a stated join of the two records — never a guess.

Sources Secretary of State certified results + PDC candidate filings · as of 2026-09-16 · key joined on surname + given name + chamber + district; refused where more than one member fits · note — = value absent from source export

07

Member response

This page is built from public records, and the member it describes gets space to respond to it.

No response process exists yet. When one does, anything this member sends about this page will be published here verbatim — dated, unedited, and clearly theirs. Nothing has been solicited yet, so the absence of a response here says nothing about the member.

Last checked 2026-09-16

08 · component 08

Connected records

Everything below is a link some document draws for us. Nothing here is our inference. Grouped by how well the record supports it, always in this order, never sorted by interest.

On the record · 64

One document states the relation in its own words.

Showing 8 of 64. Every edge for this record, as JSON

Joined by us, on a stated key · 3

Two documents joined on a key, and the key is named on every row.

Nothing on file

Votes are in the graph but render as vote-history tables above, not as rows here. Testimony and committee referrals are not in the graph yet — no sign-in sheet or chamber journal has been read into an edge for this member, which is not the same as none existing.

Checked 2026-09-16

Source one query on the edge table, grouped by tier · as of 2026-09-16 · edges 64 filed, 3 composite, 0 adjacency · how edges are built

09 · component 09

How to run for this office

This is an office, not a possession. Every seat here is filled by whoever files for it and wins, and the requirements are the same for everyone.

Filing requirements and next election by seat
Seat Term Next election Filing opens
State Senator, District 21 4 years 2030 May 2030

1 form

declaration of candidacy

Filed with the Secretary of State, online or on paper. It states your name as it will appear on the ballot, the office, and that you are qualified.

1 week

the filing window, every May

Monday to Friday, closing at 4:00pm. There is no late filing: miss it and the seat is decided without you.

0

signatures, endorsements, prior offices

You must be a registered voter living in the district on the day you file. That is the entire qualification, and no party is asked about you.

C-1

only once money moves

A campaign committee and PDC reporting are required within two weeks of raising or spending anything. Raise nothing and you file nothing.

What the job is. The Legislature sits for 105 days in odd-numbered years and 60 days in even ones, and the work does not stop when the session does — committee days, constituent casework and district meetings run through the interim. Someone deciding whether to file needs that more than they need anyone’s opinion of the incumbent.

Reporting follows money, not candidacy. Registering with the Public Disclosure Commission and filing contribution reports is triggered by raising and spending, not by putting your name in. A campaign that stays under the mini-reporting threshold files a short form and nothing more.

We cannot yet tell you what filing costs. The fee is one percent of the office’s annual salary (RCW 29A.24.091 — one percent of the annual salary of the office), which makes it a specific dollar amount rather than a rule — and a page that makes you compute your own filing fee has not told you the filing fee. Legislative salaries are set by the Citizens’ Commission on Salaries for Elected Officials and we do not hold that schedule, so the figure is missing rather than estimated. A candidate who cannot pay it may file a petition of signatures instead.

This section appears on every office page on this site, contested or not, filled or vacant. Its presence is not a comment on whoever holds the seat, and we do not say whether a seat is winnable — that would be a prediction, and this page carries records.

Source Election cycle derived from past regular elections in PDC candidate filings; requirements from RCW 29A.24 — candidate filing · as of 2026-09-16

10

What this page will not compute

Each of these is a number a reader might reasonably expect. None of them follow from the records we hold, so we do not publish them.

What the money bought
Where a filing is matched we show what was raised and from whom. Connecting that to how the member voted would be a causal claim from two records that were never linked, and campaign money is not the only thing that moves a vote.
A complete funding career
Cycles are shown back to 2009. A member who served before that has earlier campaigns we do not hold, so the career total is a floor rather than a lifetime figure.
Employers we cannot see
The employer field is filled in by the donor and left blank more often than not, so the bundling table shows employers we can see rather than every one that exists.
Whether a difference was a broken promise
Where a stated position and a vote differ we show both records and say only that they differ. Why is not in either one — an amendment, a procedural vote, or a bill that changed under the member all produce the same pair.
A complete set of statements
Positions are found and cited one at a time by a person. An empty or short list means nobody has done that reading, not that a member has said little.
Advertising
Meta’s ad library and PDC independent expenditures targeting this member are both public and neither is loaded.
What a divergent vote means
We can say a member voted against their party’s majority on a given roll call. Whether that was principle, a local interest, a drafting objection or a trade is not in the record, and the count is not a measure of independence.
Committee influence
Chair and ranking-member roles decide which bills get heard. The roster gives membership without role, so every seat here looks alike.
A member’s response
The design reserves space for one. We have no process yet for soliciting or publishing it, so the section is absent rather than empty.

11

Common questions

Which Legislative District does Marko Liias represent?
Marko Liias is a Democratic state senator representing Washington’s 21st Legislative District.
How often does Marko Liias break with their party?
Across 13,017 recorded floor votes we hold, Marko Liias voted against the majority of their own party 600 times. That count is a description of the record, not a measure of independence — the record does not say why any single vote diverged.
How many bills has Marko Liias sponsored?
Marko Liias has prime-sponsored 460 bills, of which 87 became law. Co-sponsorship is not in the record we hold. 146 of them died without ever getting a public hearing.
How long has Marko Liias served in the Legislature?
Marko Liias appears in the member roster for 2 biennia, most recently 2025-26. This counts biennia on record, not continuous years.
How many state legislators represent each Washington district?
Three — one state senator and two state representatives, elected to Position 1 and Position 2. All three represent the same geography; the positions are not sub-areas.
When are Washington legislative elections held?
In even-numbered years. All 98 House seats are up every two years; Senate seats run on staggered four-year terms.

Answers are generated from the same fields as the sections above and emitted as FAQPage structured data, so a machine reader gets the identical text a person sees.

Cite this page

This is public-records reporting. Use it, and say where it came from.

“State Senator Marko Liias,” WashingtonIndependents.org, data as of 2026-09-16, accessed 2026-09-17. https://washingtonindependents.org/official/marko-liias/

JSON endpointReport a correction

Our tables, figures and notes on this page are released under CC BY 4.0 — reuse them, including commercially, with attribution. The underlying records are public records of the State of Washington and were never ours to license.

12

Where this page comes from

Every figure above is read from a primary source and rebuilt on a schedule. Nothing here is modelled or inferred; where a source is silent the page says so rather than filling the gap.

WA Legislature member roster
Name, party, district, chamber and contact details, per session served.
WA Legislature roll call service
Every recorded floor vote. Committee votes are recorded per committee rather than per member and are not included.
Party divergence
Derived, not published by the Legislature. For each roll call we take the majority position of the member’s own party and flag votes against it, counting only roll calls where that party had a clear majority.
WA Legislature legislation records
Prime sponsorship, and each bill’s outcome and hearing status. Co-sponsorship is not in the record we hold.
Public Disclosure Commission candidate filings
Contributions, expenditures, the largest reported contributors and their stated employers, for every cycle back to 2007. Matched on surname and given name plus chamber and district for a legislator, or the office won and the county it was won in for everyone else — never on name alone — and only published where one person fits. Across the record that resolves 1,938 of 13,879 officials over 3,548 cycles, with 45 refused as ambiguous; the rest say why they did not match.
Not loaded
Public statements, advertising, committee roles, and committee votes by member.