Tacoma police arrested Democratic state House candidate Krista Perez on suspicion of DUI early Tuesday, just a week after she edged ahead of incumbent Representative Melanie Morgan in the primary race for Washington's 29th Legislative District. Perez was booked into Pierce County Corrections at 7:33 a.m. after a multi-vehicle crash reported shortly after midnight in Tacoma, and she was evaluated at a local hospital before posting a $1,000 bail bond.
According to Seattle Red, Perez was reported to have caused a chain-reaction collision that damaged five cars after she struck a parked vehicle. As KUOW reports, the Tacoma City Attorney's Office, which will handle the case, has not issued formal charges, and Perez is presumed innocent until trial. Perez's campaign said she was advised by her attorney not to comment further on the case, though her attorney said she remains focused on issues affecting community families.
A Razor-Thin Primary Race Gets More Complicated
Unofficial primary results from August 4 show Perez leading Morgan by just 380 votes, with roughly 48% of the vote in the race for Position 1 in the 29th District, which covers central and south Tacoma and adjacent parts of Pierce County under boundaries redrawn in March 2024 to comply with a federal Voting Rights Act order. Both candidates are expected to advance to the November general election. Perez, running as an insurgent progressive challenging a more moderate incumbent, has built her campaign around education, homelessness, transportation, affordability, and child care.
Political consultant Stephen Paolini said Perez's arrest is a really big deal because the race is close, noting that an effect on even half a percent of voters could decide the election, per the same KUOW report. Morgan, also a Democrat, has faced her own controversies in office. She voted against Washington's first income tax on high earners, known as the millionaires tax, and faced allegations of harassing staff members, per reports from the legislative ethics board — though that board ultimately dismissed the complaints against her, according to the outlet.
Why a DUI Arrest Won't Knock Perez Off the Ballot
Washington's constitution sets remarkably narrow qualifications for legislative office. Article 2, Section 7 establishes only U.S. citizenship and district voter status as requirements, and state court precedent bars statutes from expanding that list, according to FindLaw. That means a DUI arrest, or even a conviction, does not disqualify Perez from running or from taking office if elected, since Washington state law allows a person with a DUI record to hold elected office, KUOW notes. On a person's record, a DUI is counted as a misdemeanor rather than a felony.
There is recent precedent for a Washington lawmaker weathering a DUI charge without losing office. Spokane Democratic state Representative Timm Ormsby was charged with DUI in 2018 and continued winning reelection until stepping down from his seat this year, according to the same KUOW account. If Perez's seat were ever to become vacant, Section 15 of Article 2 of the state constitution lays out a succession process in which county commissioners choose a replacement from three nominees submitted by the party's central committee, per Ballotpedia. Any appointee would serve only until the next general or special election, and state representatives otherwise serve two-year terms with no term limits, earning a $61,997 annual salary plus a $206 daily per diem during session.
Washington Lawmakers Have Debated Tougher DUI Laws
Perez's arrest lands amid broader legislative wrangling over drunk driving penalties in Washington. Under Revised Code 46.61.5055, a first-offense DUI conviction with a blood alcohol concentration under 0.15 carries mandatory penalties ranging from 24 consecutive hours to 364 days in jail and fines between $350 and $5,000, according to state law posted on WA.gov. State legislators debated but did not pass a bill in 2019 that would have lowered the number of DUIs required to trigger a felony charge, and lawmakers separately failed to pass a bill in 2025 that would have cut the maximum allowable blood alcohol concentration to .05%, according to KUOW.
That fight isn't over. During the 2026 legislative session, the Washington Senate passed a bill to lower the state's legal driving limit from 0.08% to 0.05% blood alcohol concentration, though the measure stalled in the House and is expected to be reintroduced in 2027, as reported by Seattle Weekly. Utah remains the only state in the country with a 0.05% legal limit. The debate is playing out against a backdrop of improving but still troubling road-safety numbers: traffic fatalities in Washington dropped 10% in 2025 to 659 deaths, yet impaired drivers were involved in 45% of those fatal crashes, according to Washington Traffic Safety Commission data cited by Seattle Weekly. Nationally, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration recorded 11,904 alcohol-impaired driving deaths in 2024, roughly one such fatality every 44 minutes.
