SENATOR DREW HANSEN is a trial lawyer and legislator responsible for some of Washington State’s most significant progressive policies, including:

• Washington’s new tuition-free college and apprenticeship law, which will make college more affordable for over 100,000 Washington residents and which national experts called “the most progressive state higher ed funding bill . . . in years.”
• The Public Broadband Act, which allows all local governments in Washington State to offer broadband service directly to the public. Ars Technica called this a “victory for municipal broadband.”
• A major gun safety law to crack down on illegal gun purchases, which the New York Times highlighted as a national model, writing: “This is how it should work everywhere.”
• The New Hope Act, a groundbreaking criminal justice reform bill to help people clear criminal records when they turn their lives around, which NPR reported had “near-universal support from prosecutors, criminal justice reform advocates, and lawmakers across the political spectrum.”
• The DREAM Act 2.0, protecting financial aid for undocumented students, which The Stand called “another win for the progressive labor movement.”
• The Shield Law, which protects people in Washington State from anti-abortion laws in Texas and elsewhere.
• A major bipartisan law to strengthen and centralize firearms background checks at the Washington State Patrol, which the Seattle Times praised as a “common-sense . . . public safety-improvement.”
• Washington’s first-in-the-nation law to protect net neutrality, which led Fast Company to profile Sen. Hansen under the headline: “The Net Neutrality Defender Fighting Trump from the Other Washington.”

As a trial lawyer, Sen. Hansen frequently represents pension funds, small businesses, and others injured by financial fraud and other wrongdoing. Sen. Hansen’s significant cases include:

• Volunteering pro bono to prevent a Texas power plant from opening that would have violated environmental law and contributed significantly to climate change (Application of Las Brisas Energy Center, LLC).
• Representing the American Association of Justice, the national trial lawyers’ association, in the largest commercial litigation in its history: a case against Wachovia Bank alleging misconduct in the financial crisis (American Association of Justice v. Wachovia Bank).
• Serving as one of several court-appointed co-lead counsels in a class action lawsuit claiming that some of the world’s largest banks colluded to fix a key interest rate during the financial crisis, diverting hundreds of millions of dollars from union pension funds, cities, nonprofits, and others into the banks’ own pockets (In re LIBOR-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litigation).

Sen. Hansen taught civil rights law and history at the University of Washington Law School, and he is the author of: The Dream: Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Speech that Inspired A Nation (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2003), which U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) called “a great contribution to the history of the movement.”

Sen. Hansen graduated from Harvard College and Yale Law School, and he studied Theology at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar. He lives on Bainbridge Island with his wife Julie, their two young children, and their dog. He has coached soccer as a volunteer with the Bainbridge Island Football Club and he attends Bethany Lutheran Church with his family.