Darya Farivar
Darya Farivar (Democratic Party) is a member of the Washington House of Representatives, representing District 46-Position 2. She assumed office on January 9, 2023.
Farivar (Democratic Party) ran for re-election to the Washington House of Representatives to represent District 46-Position 2. She won in the general election on November 5, 2024.
Biography
Darya Farivar was born in Seattle, Washington. She earned a high school diploma from Roosevelt High School and a bachelor's degree from the University of Redlands in 2016. Her career experience includes working as a policy director.
Farivar has served with the following organizations:[1]
- Washington Coalition for Police Accountability, founding board member
- Peyvand Non-Profit, board member
- Seattle Women’s Commission, former co-chair
- Roosevelt High School Women’s Water Polo, coach
- Washington State Special Education Advisory Council, policy chair
- PFLAG, volunteer
- Lake City Collective, volunteer
Sponsored legislation
The following table lists bills this person sponsored as a legislator, according to BillTrack50 and sorted by action history. Bills are sorted by the date of their last action. The following list may not be comprehensive. To see all bills this legislator sponsored, click on the legislator's name in the title of the table.
Committee assignments
2023-2024
Farivar was assigned to the following committees:
- Capital Budget Committee
- Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee, Vice Chair
- Community Safety, Justice, & Reentry Committee, Vice Chair
Elections
2024
See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2024
General election
General election for Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2
Incumbent Darya Farivar defeated Simone Barron in the general election for Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Darya Farivar (D) | 87.5 | 49,720 | |
 | Simone Barron (R) | 12.2 | 6,906 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.3 | 183 | ||
| Total votes: 56,809 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2
Incumbent Darya Farivar and Simone Barron advanced from the primary for Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2 on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Darya Farivar (D) | 88.5 | 38,269 | |
| ✔ | | Simone Barron (R) | 11.3 | 4,870 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 88 | ||
| Total votes: 43,227 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Campaign finance
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Farivar in this election.
2022
See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2
Darya Farivar defeated Lelach Rave in the general election for Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Darya Farivar (D) | 59.2 | 38,602 | |
| Lelach Rave (D) | 40.1 | 26,139 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.7 | 464 | ||
| Total votes: 65,205 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2
Darya Farivar and Lelach Rave defeated Melissa Taylor, Nancy Connolly, and Nina Martinez in the primary for Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2 on August 2, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | Darya Farivar (D) | 31.6 | 13,162 | |
| ✔ | | Lelach Rave (D) | 28.0 | 11,667 |
| Melissa Taylor (D) | 19.0 | 7,909 | ||
| Nancy Connolly (D) | 15.8 | 6,572 | |
| Nina Martinez (D) | 4.5 | 1,863 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.0 | 424 | ||
| Total votes: 41,597 | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Endorsements
To view Farivar's endorsements in the 2022 election, please click here.
Campaign themes
2024
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Darya Farivar did not complete Ballotpedia's 2024 Candidate Connection survey.
2022
Darya Farivar completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Farivar's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
The 46th District is my home, I've lived here my entire life. In fact, when my parents fled Iran because of the revolution they met at my high school and put down roots in Lake City.
While much of the 46th is quite affluent, there are few places you can go in Lake City without being directly confronted by the housing and behavioral health crisis and seeing neighbors cycle through the criminal legal system. These issues have been core to my role as Public Policy Director at Disability Rights Washington. We need a system that provides help the moment it's needed, not after individuals have fallen through every crack in our systems.
I'm also running because representation matters. As a first-generation Iranian American young woman, I understand the importance of representation and leadership by those most impacted. If I’m elected, I would proudly serve as the youngest to ever serve the district and the first Middle Eastern woman in the Washington State Legislature. We need a representative who has a proven track record of successfully tackling hard issues in Olympia and one who knows what it means to lift every voice.
- These systems were not built for underrepresented communities. To achieve equity we must lift every voice. Participation in public policy and government must be accessible to those directly impacted. This is how we create policy that will truly address constituent needs.
- Our systems wait for individuals to fall through every crack in our social services system before providing help. We need to provide help as soon as its needed. We cannot wait for individuals to experience homelessness or meet the criteria for involuntary treatment before providing meaningful behavioral health and housing supports. We need a full continuum of care.
- We need to elect individuals who can hit the ground running, know how to succeed in Olympia, and understand how these policies work on the ground. Our legislators are up against some of the biggest challenges of our lifetime, we need to elect individuals who are equipped to take on these challenges and wont waste time.
My priority is the intersection of behavioral health, housing and homelessness, and the criminal legal system because these are the issues directly impacting my neighbors and constituents. I live in the Lake City neighborhood, a lower-income community of color, where you can’t go anywhere without being directly confronted by the behavioral health and housing crisis. Over 40% of people experiencing homelessness have a disability, many a behavioral health disability. In Washington State, our lack of a behavioral health system drives people with serious psychiatric disabilities into the revolving door of homelessness, crisis, incarceration, and institutionalization.
Our current system misses the mark because it focuses on providing care only when someone meets criteria for involuntary treatment. This is a fine line to walk, and many tip over this line into the criminal legal system during crisis. Involuntary commitment was designed to be a last resort, not the cornerstone of our behavioral health system yet our current system is centered around it. This is the work I know best as Public Policy Director at Disability Rights Washington and as part of the Trueblood Court Monitor’s Diversion Team. I’ve also overseen 12 different diversion programs across the state which do just this, provide help as soon as help is needed. These programs are doing well enough that they just recently received funding from the state legislature to keep them running. We need more of this.
Yes, absolutely. The legislative process is complex and it takes time to learn it. We need to elect individuals who can hit the ground running to tackle some of the biggest human and civil rights challenges of our lives. They must understand deeply and navigate with agility the power dynamics of the Legislature. There are many unwritten rules of the legislature that legislators and some lobbyists are familiar with, these practices often result in unfair decisions regarding bills and funding. Legislators must be committed to principles and ideas, while staying open to facts and arguments that challenge their beliefs. A legislator must be practical, and be able to get things done. That said, a representative must be tuned to the interests of their district, not just their political party, or the Legislative power structure.
I’d like to leave a legacy of access and leadership by those most impacted. If I’m elected I’d be the first Middle Eastern woman ever elected to the state legislature, I don’t want to be the last. I want to have left the legislature a more equitable and representative place for all underrepresented communities.
The first historical event that happened in my lifetime, that I remember, was 9/11, and I was in first grade. I went to a predominantly white school where I stood out among my peers. This was an unforgettable event for a first-generation Iranian-American girl who was already being bullied. In school I was bullied tremendously for being different, for being brown, for speaking Farsi before English, for bringing different food to school, for having full eyebrows that connect in the middle, and more. We need elected officials who understand this experience, who understand what equity and inclusion look like because they were excluded. We need to elect politicians who have our best interest in mind because our best interest is also their best interest. We need to elect people who are from our underrepresented communities.
The United States’ greatest challenges as a nation over the next decade will be based on the cases recently overturned by the Supreme Court and what they will overturn next. The highest court in the United States just set a dangerous precedent that their rulings can, and will, be overturned. These cases were not decided in one night, these were decades-long battles to earn human rights. We will not go back and we are ready to act locally to preserve these rights.
I can't tell dad jokes, that would be a faux pas!
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
Scorecards
A scorecard evaluates a legislator’s voting record. Its purpose is to inform voters about the legislator’s political positions. Because scorecards have varying purposes and methodologies, each report should be considered on its own merits. For example, an advocacy group’s scorecard may assess a legislator’s voting record on one issue while a state newspaper’s scorecard may evaluate the voting record in its entirety.
Ballotpedia is in the process of developing an encyclopedic list of published scorecards. Some states have a limited number of available scorecards or scorecards produced only by select groups. It is Ballotpedia’s goal to incorporate all available scorecards regardless of ideology or number.
Click here for an overview of legislative scorecards in all 50 states. To contribute to the list of Washington scorecards, email suggestions to editor@ballotpedia.org.
2023
| To view all the scorecards we found for this legislator in 2023, click [show]. |
|---|
|
In 2023, the Washington State Legislature was in session from January 9 to April 23.
|
See also
2024 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2 |
Officeholder Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 7, 2022
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Javier Valdez (D) |
Washington House of Representatives District 46-Position 2 2023-Present |
Succeeded by - |
