John Duresky

Duresky describes himself as a veteran and former federal civil servant with experience navigating VA and federal employment systems.[7] He is a retired Air Force major; his campaign website says he served three combat deployments and describes 37 years of service overall. MyNorthwest reported that this included 24 years in the Air Force and 13 years in federal civilian service.[8][3][9] In civil service he worked for several years as a project control officer at the Hanford nuclear cleanup site.[1][2]

In 2025 Duresky took the Department of Government Efficiency's early-resignation offer, ending his 37 years of government service; he first passed on the offer and later chose early retirement.[1][2] He lives in West Richland and had attended Benton County Democratic Party meetings before running. According to the Yakima Herald, this was his first campaign for office in decades.[1] Duresky signed the Take BAC Congress pledge (term limits, a lobbying moratorium, a ban on congressional stock trading, overturning Citizens United, and Supreme Court ethics rules), and the Yakima County Democrats endorsed him.[1] He campaigned on affordability, rural health care, and government accountability.[1][2][3] He received 45.9% of the vote to Amanda McKinney's 53.9%, according to unofficial results reported by NBC News.[4]