Primary Election Date: 08/07/2012
General Election Date: 11/06/2012

Who Am I?

I was born and raised in the Tri-Cities. After graduating from high school, I enlisted in the military, as every male member of my family has for generations. I served in the United States Marine Corps as a Light Armored Reconnaissance Infantryman, attaining the rank of Corporal.

Upon the completion of my active duty commitment, I used the GI Bill to attend Central Washington University, earning Bachelor’s degrees in both Pacific Asian Studies and Chinese Language. During my time as a student, I studied abroad at both Beijing University in Beijing, China and Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea, where I met my wife Erika. I then spent three years teaching English in Japan.

I volunteer for Junior Achievement, and sit on the Hanford Reach interpretive Center’s Capital Campaign Steering Committee, and was appointed by the Washington State Department of Commerce to sit on the Hanford Area Economic Investment Fund Advisory Committee, where I am the chair of the Public Loan sub-committee, and a member of the Grant sub-committee.

My wife Erika and I live in West Richland with our young daughter.

Why Am I Running?

Hi, I’m Jay Clough, and I’m running because we need to bring common sense leadership to Olympia. For too long we have let the extremes in our politics carry the conversations and define our policies, and the average American middle-class family always seems to lose ground. This must change.

We need to get back to the kind of representative government envisioned by the Founding Fathers. Our system is designed on the model of citizen-politicians, who sacrifice on behalf of their neighbors, serve, and then go back home. Over time the emphasis has completely shifted, and now the number one goal of a newly elected Representative is getting reelected, rather than doing the job they were elected to do.

We face many challenges in our district, and recently we’ve faced many of them all at once. We cannot afford to have a representative who has focused all of his attention on paying back his corporate donors, ignoring the workers of his own district, all the while hoping someone else will step up to do his job. I intend to go to Olympia to do exactly what the Founders intended; devote all of my energy representing all of the citizens of the district that I have called home my entire life, not just the extreme fringe of one party.

Thanks for coming to my website. While you’re here, I encourage you to sign up to volunteer, endorse me, or even donate your hard-earned money to a cause we can all agree is worthy: bringing real, hard-working representation back to the 8th LD.

Hold Me Accountable!

Attract green energy manufacturing in Benton county and all of Eastern Washington.

Prompt Benton County's wine industry abroad. I hope to work with delegations that make it easier for Washington State wines to be exported nationally and overseas.

Fully funding education.

My DFA values:

Championing Our Public Schools

We need to prepare our kids for the new jobs of the 21st Century. This means meeting the highest standards for math and science so our kids can compete with kids from around the world. Our public schools currently don’t graduate 25% of their students. We need to reduce our dropout rate; recruit and retrain quality teachers; and set higher standards for math and science.

It is appalling that some politicians in Olympia are considering cutting our school weeks from 5 days to 4 days, thus cutting over a month of instruction from our children’s education. This will be the first generation to truly compete in the global economy. Why would we make it harder for kids to succeed?

It is also troubling that fewer of our kids in Washington State are going to our four-year universities. We need to either keep tuition affordable or provide the financial aid to make sure that any kid who meets the academic requirements can go to college. It should still be possible in Washington State to work your way through college.

My Campaign is People-Powered!

First, and most importantly, we've attracted 15 volunteers. A huge number for a legislative race in February. Our volunteer base is motivated, making phone calls and knocking on doors in support of our campaign.

We've also empowered supporters to work with our fundraiser to hold micro fundraisers. These small events in people's homes give members of our district time to talk to their candidate face-to-face over coffee.