Bob Hasegawa is a lifelong resident of the 11th Legislative District. He grew up on Beacon Hill in Seattle and attended Cleveland High School. He has also lived in the Riverton Heights area of Tukwila and the Maplewood Heights area of Renton.
Bob is a longtime labor and social justice activist. He led many workers struggles, winning top wages and benefits for working families and retirees, and has collaborated in many social justice struggles to protect and advance civil rights, workers’ rights, democracy, the environment and our constitutional rights.
For 32 years, Bob was a member of the Teamsters Union, where he rose through the ranks to become the elected leader of the largest Teamster trucking industry and general workers local union in the Pacific Northwest (Teamsters Local 174) for three terms (nine years) and was also a leader in Teamsters for a Democratic Union (TDU), a national Teamsters pro-union democracy reform movement. He
continues to maintain his union membership in the International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE).
As a union and community organizer, Bob has long sought to build solidarity and bridges between social justice organizations, particularly those serving the labor, environmental, religious and communities of color. He was a founding member of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO and served on it’s local and national executive boards. He’s also served on the Boards of the Martin Luther, Jr. King County Central Labor Council, the Washington State Labor Council, and boards of other community-based organizations including the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL)-Seattle, which is the oldest Asian civil rights organization in the US.
Bob believes in lifelong learning. He attended the University of Washington where he studied physics, holds an AA degree in labor studies from Shoreline Community College, studied information technology at Seattle Central Community College, and is a seasoned professional commercial truck driver, certified transit operator, and journey-level operating engineer (heavy construction equipment operator). He
later graduated from Antioch University Seattle with dual areas of concentration in Labor Relations and Organizational and Social Change. Bob also holds a Master of Public Administration degree from the Dan Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington.
Since he began representing the 11th Legislative District in 2005, first in the House of Representatives through 2012 and since then in the Senate, Bob’s priorities have always centered on serving as a voice for working families, small businesses and disenfranchised communities, and fighting for economic and
social justice.
Bob is currently the Chair of the Senate Democratic Caucus (Majority Caucus). His Senate standing committee assignments are: Rules; Ways & Means; State Government and Elections; and Business, Financial Services, Gaming & Trade. He also serves as Chair of the Joint Administrative Rules Review Committee, is the senior member of the Legislative Committee on Economic Development and International Relations, and member of the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Committee.
Updated May 2024