Biography
Michaela Kelso is the Democratic candidate for the Washington House of Representatives, District 6-Position 1, in the November 3, 2026 general election, running against Republican Alan Nolan.[1][2] She is a retired U.S. Army noncommissioned officer who served from 1995 to 2018.[2][3]
Kelso was born in Bad Homburg, Germany, and graduated from the Gymnasium Oberursel.[2] In a Ballotpedia survey, she said she was born in West Germany in 1970 and immigrated to the United States in 1993 after marrying a U.S. Army soldier.[3] She served in the U.S. Army from 1995 to 2018, working as a linguist and interrogator in the Military Intelligence Corps.[2] She said she retired as a sergeant first class after deployments to Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1996, Iraq in 2007 and Afghanistan in 2008.[3] She earned an associate degree from Spokane Community College in 2024.[2]
Kelso said she has been active with the Spokane County Democrats and her legislative district Democratic organization since retiring.[3] She finished first in the August 4, 2026 nonpartisan primary, with 30.5 percent of the vote.[2] In the survey, she named healthcare, housing and education as the policy areas she cares most about, and said she supports increasing housing inventory, including by limiting how much land in urban growth areas is zoned single-family only.[3]
- 1.Washington House of Representatives elections, 2026 · Ballotpedia Reference
- 2.Michaela Kelso · Ballotpedia Reference
- 3.Michaela Kelso - Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey (2026) · Ballotpedia Candidate's own words
Researched from the cited sources on 2026-10-21. Not yet independently fact-checked.
Washington House District 6
Michaela Kelso is on the Nov 3, 2026 ballot for Washington House District 6 as D. Not researched in depth — candidate list only.