Meet Desirée
With a heart on her sleeve protected by strong shoulders, Desirée was born in 'Danmark' in 1992. Her parents were both active-duty soldiers in the United States Army. While her folks came from different regions in America they both joined the military to serve their country while building the foundations for a successful life.
When Desirée was 6 years old the family moved to Olympia, a city of art, revolutionaries and a city that sometimes contradicts what it claims to stand for. With parents dedicated to showing their children the adventure of life, summer was often filled with cross-country road trips. Desirée and her sister volunteered with the McGuire Air Force Base Drug Demand Reduction booth, engaging as peers and youth leaders coaching about the harmful impacts of drugs and how to show up for health in your community. This opportunity was the start of a life of service, volunteering with organizations across the country and locally such as Puget Sound Blood Center, Students Protesting Lies About Tobacco! (SPLAT!), Together! and most recently introducing her daughter to volunteer work through programs such as Joy and Justice book drive and gift giveaway organized by Justice for Yvonne.
Desirée has been a frontline service worker in food service, insurance, with the A. Barbara Clarkson Diversity Equity and Inclusion Center at South Puget Sound Community College and a technician in mobile labs through the pandemic. She has been an advocate for her customers and clients as well as advocating for her peers and co-workers. While metrics matter, Desirée doesn’t accept that they should be used as tools to dismiss, disadvantage and prevent people from achieving their goals.
While always willing to speak up, Desirée like many others has felt the impact of being excluded from the realm of politics, unrepresented and lied to in order for those with power to avoid being accountable to resolve the issues that plague Americans the most.
In 2022, Desirée and her 7 year old child lost their housing and slept in a car during the weather event known as the Seattle Freeze. They were denied hotel accommodations by local service providers for two weeks because their meager resources disqualified them from the hardship standards required for shelter programs: they had a car to sleep in, she had 2 associates degrees, she was not in an abusive relationship, she was not using drugs or performing in-person sex work, and she had purchased a room for one night. Seeing first hand that these programs do not work the way people believe, she stood up to run for Mayor of Olympia in 2023 while still a resident at Pear Blossom Shelter. The challenges of her experience provides an opportunity to shine a light on the bottlenecks people face in these impossible systems.
Desirée chose to attend college because as a single parent, she wanted to show her daughter she can do more than exist and with hard work, dedication and community she can find happiness. Now she is running for Congress to create those pathways so we can uplift our country as a whole.