Uelmen's campaign kickoff draws 250 people

About 250 people showed up earlier this week to attend Elizabeth Uelmen’s campaign kickoff event. She’s challenging first-term U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Camas, this election season.

Uelmen, a Democrat, hosted the kickoff on Tuesday evening at the Fort Vancouver National Historic Site’s Artillery Barracks Building.

“The crowd was enthused by the possibility of being represented in Congress by a person like themselves rather than someone who has spent their entire working life as a politician,” one of Uelmen’s campaign volunteers, Marsha Manning, said in a news release.

Uelmen is a career educator who currently works as associate principal at Frontier Middle School in Vancouver. She has worked in the education field since 1993.

Recognizable faces in the crowd that evening included:

• State Rep. Tim Probst, D-Vancouver

• State Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver

• Clark County Treasurer Doug Lasher

• Clark County Prosecutor Tony Golik

• Former Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard

In the above photo, former state representative Val Ogden introduces Uelmen during her campaign kickoff Tuesday, while firefighters applaud in the background. Uelmen’s husband, Mark Johnston, is president of Vancouver’s firefighters’ union.

In this photo, Uelmen poses on Tuesday with Klickitat Democrats Chairwoman Lorrie DeKay, left, and Marjorie Ledell of the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington, directly to the right of Uelmen. Also pictured is Rosemary Hoyt of Lyle, Wash., on the far right.

Photos are courtesy of Manning.

Jon T. Haugen, a former Navy pilot who ran for state Senate in 2008, also is challenging Herrera Beutler for the 3rd District congressional seat. Haugen is also running as a Democrat.

Stevie Mathieu: 360-735-4523 or stevie.mathieu@columbian.com or www.facebook.com/reportermathieu or www.twitter.com/col_politics