Trent Maier is an engineer by training. He worked at Schweitzer Engineering in Pullman, then made a career change and went to culinary school in Seattle. Eventually he came back to Pullman to open a cider company with a friend. They moved their company to Liberty Lake, which is where he lives now. He's involved with the Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce.
This interview is lightly edited for clarity and length.
Trent Maier: I've gotten used to having really big conversations about our community and I think I've learned that that's where a passion of mine is. It's similar to having a desire not just to earn a living that I can kind of predict as an engineer and see very clearly what that would look like, shifting gears to try something different, create new opportunities. This is a transition for me into politics, although I don't really consider myself a lifelong politician by any stretch.
DN: So then what are you trying to accomplish in becoming a state legislator?
TM: I really think that what I bring to the table as a legislator is a leadership ability and a leadership in conversation is something I consider myself good at. I have a skill that's limited in our society at having hard conversations respectfully and with my philosophy, specifically around finances.
I think that the next two years in our state are going to be a huge inflection point for how we get along and how we constructively solve what is an ongoing budget issue.
Without even getting into the politics of it, I just think we need to think differently about how we are spending money. The reason I feel that way is my perspective as a business owner, from the very bottom-up view at how our tax system works.
Everybody moves here because we have no income tax, right? But we're starting to talk about changing that and I really feel like over the course of two years, we should have comprehensive conversations about that.
One of my early goals is to just sort of stick my nose in, maybe to try to support the idea of more comprehensive conversation.
DN: Do you think it's possible to have that conversation in Washington?
TM: Yeah, I know. That's what everybody says, right? Somebody said to me, Trent, this is what I love about campaigning, you can dream, and when you get there, you're faced with a reality. When people ask me if that would be the hardest thing I would ever have done, I don't know if it would have been, if it would be. So that tells me it's possible.
I think a lot of our legislators don't necessarily have great connective tissue to real businesses and boots on the ground elements. I think that they're often told a lot of things, they're told a lot of stories, but I don't think they've, a lot of these folks that we talk about, the theoretical Dems, they're going to be my colleagues. What I tell my employees and what I would tell myself, is that it's nobody else's responsibility to get along with your colleagues at work. It's your responsibility and so I expect myself to be able to figure out how to do that, especially when you disagree on things and so I do think it's possible and I get that sounds a little aspirational.
I think the politics of this state is changing and I think that there are people frustrated on both sides of the aisle. I cannot express enough how much I think it's important to represent the middle 60, 80%, right? Start with the middle 20%, then move your way outward. That's kind of a strategy I've had in my life, not just with politics.
When I see a project I'm working on as an engineer, I had a tendency of getting handed projects that were underwater, either financially or oftentimes it's a team of people not getting along or a customer experience that's not going well and these are problems that everyday business people and anybody who's working solves. I think it's our job as humans to do that and I don't think that's too elevated for anybody to ignore and I do think that it's with that spirit that I go into this with.
DN: You're running as a Republican and it sounds like a very practical sort of Republican. How well do you reconcile with the folks who are a little more ideological and a little less practical? How do you work with them?
TM: Yeah, well, I've had conversations like that even in the last few weeks. I think the first thing I tell people is I think we're probably closer together in thought than we realize and most of us don't take time to talk to other people that are super ideologically different.
Our family, my wife's and my own, are famous for good debates.
DN: With each other?
TM: Oh, yeah. My wife and I have healthy debates all the time. Sometimes people will just play the devil's advocate, right? And I like doing that sometimes. Often, in committee meetings, I sit down on community decisions about tax funding and things that are put in front of the business community. I always challenge those and say, look, I may vote for this, but I think you need to answer the hard questions.
That is a vetting process that more of us should be doing in the public sector especially and I think that the business community can be. I get that that is even very polarizing for people. They think certain things when they hear those words.
But I do want to help break those stereotypes as well, where you get a lot of people who are used to making constructive decisions. There's a lot of successful businesses out there, too. There are places people love going to work. I happen to be one of those places.
I didn't even ask my team's politics when I said I was running, and they all said, we want you in there. I think it should be representative more about leadership. There's 98 representatives in this whole state. They have to be considered leaders. I know that it's hard to be an expert on everything, but I guess if I were saying one thing, you shouldn't have difficulty being an expert on things that have enormous impacts on our economy. And that, I think, is the part that we're not having as constructive a conversation. I think we need subject matter experts to get in the room, people who are used to large-scale crisis.
DN: Are there other issues that are popular in Olympia right now that you're interested in, too?
TM: One of the things I think I'm very fearful of for our whole state is the idea of these super majorities occurring.
I entered this to learn about politics and learn about campaigns and where money is used and what it's used for. When I see the dollars that are generated on the other side of the state for some of these elections, it's no longer what I'm experiencing. If elections can start to be purchased in some of these ways, I think that doesn't really serve this state that well.
It's almost become to a point where I think we owe it to ourselves to consider more balanced approaches. Some of the conversations I've had with voters is, look, I'm really concerned about that and I think it's important to send as like-minded people as possible to yourself, to the legislature, but also people who can make a positive difference and I think that's sort of where I lean into those discussions and try to present myself as a serious person who takes all of their considerations.
If you look at polling in our region, two things really stick out. Public safety, big time. The recent Pulse polling continues to show that, although we're seeing improvements. I think that's great.
But also now popping into that radar, especially in the most recent one, are tax and affordability issues and I don't think these things are that unlinked at the state level. And so that's what I pay attention to, too.
If I were to answer that Pulse, it's like I as a business owner see it exactly like a lot of the voters and that's not shocking because I'm in customer service. I hear what people are concerned with and this job is a little bit like that.