The best way to know what a candidate will do on the bench is to look at what they’ve already done. Click any row below for the full story.
Judge Dave Larson brings 41 years of legal experience to this race, including nearly 18 years as a trial judge. Here is how that record compares to his opponent’s.
Dave joined the Federal Way Municipal Court in 2008 after serving as a civil trial lawyer for 23 years.
When he arrived, the institution was in crisis — both judges had faced scandal, censure, and investigations that made national news, and the city had seriously considered shutting the court down entirely. He volunteered for the assignment and fixed their broken court.
He served 18 years on the bench before retiring in December 2025. Federal Way voters re-elected him four times before he retired. His retirement lasted 30 days before he decided to run for this position out of a sense of duty to our courts and our communities.
He presided over a high-volume criminal docket with the full range of cases that define real work that directly affects our communities: domestic violence, DUI, and the crimes we hear about in the news related to addiction and mental health. He became nationally recognized for his innovative reforms of the criminal justice system and will bring those reforms to all our courts as a member of the Supreme Court.
Prior to appointment in April by Governor Ferguson, Dave's opponent Angelis had never served as a judge.
Running a court isn't the same as sitting on one. Dave served as Presiding Judge of the Federal Way Municipal Court for 16 years — responsible for the full operations of the institution: case flow management, budget, staffing, court administration, and the day-to-day decisions that determine whether a court works for the people it serves. He understands what it takes, and that experience is essential.
When he inherited the role, the court had just come through a scandal. He rebuilt it from the inside — the staffing structure, the systems, the public trust — into a functioning institution the city could rely on.
None of the current justices have ever run a trial court, yet the Supreme Court makes the rules that run trial courts. Real-life operational understanding of how courts run is exactly what's needed on the Supreme Court.
Dave's opponent Angelis has no experience managing a court.
Alongside his 23-year trial law career, Dave served as a mediator and arbitrator on civil cases across Washington from 1990 to 2008. He also owned a dispute resolution firm that had 22 contract mediators and arbitrators.
This parallel work gave him a view of how disputes are resolved outside the courtroom, how parties with real stakes find common ground, and what tools and rules help people resolve conflict rather than deepen it. For a Supreme Court justice shaping Washington's court rules on civil procedure, mediation standards, and alternative dispute resolution, that firsthand experience is needed.
Dave's opponent Angelis has no listed experience as a mediator or arbitrator.
For 17 years, Dave collaborated with legislators across the aisle in Olympia — with Democrats and Republicans — to improve Washington's courts. Laws regarding DUIs, domestic violence, probation, building a foundation for a smarter response to addiction and mental illness, therapeutic court funding, the use of peer navigators, and improving laws affecting public safety all have direct ties to Dave's efforts.
That history of bipartisan collaboration matters because the Supreme Court doesn't operate in a vacuum. Court funding, judicial compensation, and reforms to how courts function all require working relationships with the legislature. Dave already has those relationships, and he's built them without picking political sides.
Dave's opponent Angelis has no record of any legislative work.
For a decade, Dave taught at Washington's Judicial College — the training program for new judges in the state. Judges are not trusted to teach other judges unless they've earned that standing. For 10 years, Dave was that person for Washington's judges.
Dave's opponent Angelis has never taught at Judicial College.
Dave was an active member of the District and Municipal Court Judges Association (DMCJA) Council on Independent Courts, Legislative Committee, Therapeutic Courts Committee, Judicial Independence Task Force, Court Rules Committee, Education Committee, Technology Committee, and Long-Range Planning Committee. He was a member of the State Board of Judicial Administration Public Trust & Confidence Committee and was a Legislative Committee liaison to the Washington House of Representatives Impaired Driver Task Force.
His leadership on protecting judicial independence earned him the DMCJA President's Award in 2018, and his work helped inspire the formation of the DMCJA Council on Independent Courts — a statewide body dedicated to protecting the judiciary from political pressure. He was given the DMCJA President's Award again in 2026 for his 18 years of exemplar work as a judge.
Prior to appointment in April by Governor Ferguson, Dave's opponent Angelis had not served on any judicial committees.
Figures as of March 31, 2026. Source material from the full record of Judge Dave Larson.
You’ve seen the numbers. These pages are where the record behind them lives — who Dave is, what he’s done, and why it matters now.
Who Dave is, where he came from, and the full arc of a career spent in Washington’s courts and communities.
Meet Dave The Record41 years of legal work in one place — the bench, the practice, the committees, the awards, and the community service behind them all.
View the Record The CaseThe case for Dave — qualifications, judicial philosophy, and what’s at stake for Washington’s courts in this race.
See the Case