Two of the three most prolific fundraisers among candidates for the Washington House of Representatives are not long-time incumbents, not powerful committee chairs or party leaders.

They are two first-time candidates running for a Northeast Seattle House seat that is guaranteed to go to a Democrat.

The race for the open seat in the 46th Legislative District has attracted heavy donations as five Democratic women — all first-time candidates — vie for the seat.

Lelach Rave, a pediatrician who says her first priority will be protecting reproductive rights, has raised more than any House candidate in the state, with the exception of Republican Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox.

Not far behind, and the third most prolific fundraiser in the entire state, is Melissa Taylor, co-founder of a health care consultancy, who wants a constitutional amendment to protect reproductive rights.

Nancy Connolly, a primary care doctor focused on homelessness and mental health, has also proven an elite fundraiser, raising more than all but the very top echelon of candidates statewide.

Also in the race and running competitive campaigns are Darya Farivar, the policy director of Disability Rights Washington, who wants to shift the culture in Olympia to focus on how issues of homelessness and the criminal legal system intersect; and Nina Martinez, a technology consultant, whose top priority is increasing access to youth mental health services.

Nancy Connolly: 55, primary care doctor, $159,715 raised

Darya Farivar: 27, public policy director at Disability Rights Washington, $65,608 raised

Nina Martinez: 58, technology consultant, $18,749 raised

Lelach Rave: 49, primary care pediatrician, $190,672 raised

Melissa Taylor: 45, co-founder health care consulting company, $187,236 raised

All five candidates support making the state’s tax system more progressive, and said they would have voted for the capital-gains tax that passed last year and is now the subject of legal challenges.

Taylor, Farivar and Martinez all said they support the creation of a progressive personal income tax. Rave said she was open to it but it would depend on the details. Connolly said an income tax would require a constitutional amendment and may not be the best use of time and energy.

The race is for a seat that opened after state Sen. David Frockt announced he wouldn’t run for reelection. State Rep. Javier Valdez, a member of the House since 2017, jumped at the opportunity to run for Frockt’s Senate seat, opening Valdez’s 46th District House seat.

Ballots for the primary election were mailed to registered voters two weeks ago. They must be mailed back or put in drop boxes by 8 p.m. Tuesday.

Rave has experience advocating in Olympia, serving as a board member for the Washington Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, specifically working on children’s mental health issues.

She said her top priority is passing legislation to protect people who have abortions, providers and anyone who may help people gain access to abortion from potential prosecution from other states.

“If someone has a child who goes to Oklahoma for college and comes home pregnant, is the provider legally safe? Is the parent or family member who helps that person deal with that pregnancy legally safe?” Rave said. “That is not something that we can wait and say, maybe next session or later in the session.”

Her second priority, she said, would be to increase mental health funding and create a pipeline to get more people into the mental health workforce.

Taylor is the treasurer of the King County Democrats and the co-founder of a PAC that has supported Black women running for the state Legislature.

Her top priority is beginning the process of a state constitutional amendment to protect abortion rights, so they can’t be rescinded by changes in the makeup of the Legislature and the governor’s office.

Prior to the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade, her top priority was increasing the supply of affordable housing in the state. She wants to pass “missing middle” housing legislation that would allow at least duplexes anywhere a single-family home can be built.

She cites her decade of political advocacy work: “I am a person who can get things done, who will really look at the problem, break it into pieces, listen, build coalitions, and find the path forward,” Taylor said.

Connolly is a primary care doctor with UW Medicine who works with the homeless population. “I’m tired of watching my patients die as a result of things that should be easy to fix,” she said.

Her priorities include “basic safety and security” and an increase in mental health and addiction services.

The first legislation she’d like to pass is a safe discharge bill to ensure that everyone discharged from a hospital, mental health or rehab facility has a plan for where they’ll be living or staying next.

“We have to set people up to succeed after we’ve invested services in them, and right now we’re setting people up to fail and creating a system where we end up spending money to not get ahead,” Connolly said.

Farivar, the youngest candidate in the field, bills herself as the one who can tackle the intersection of the several major crises facing the district and the state.

“We really need leadership in Olympia that not only understands the intersection of housing and homelessness and mental and behavioral health, but also really understands how the criminal legal system plays into this and further destabilizes individuals,” she said.

Among her top priorities, and one she’s worked on in her work with Disability Rights Washington, is legislation she called the “Nothing About Us Without Us Act.” As written, it would require any state-created task force, group or committee that focuses on people with disabilities to have a certain percentage of people with disabilities among the decision-makers. She’d like to broaden it beyond just people with disabilities.

“It’s a really small bill, but I think it’s a really powerful bill,” Farivar said. “To address these huge problems that we’re facing, the only way we’re going to solve them is by actually listening to people with that lived experience.”

Martinez, the chair of the Latino Civic Alliance, has served on governor-appointed task forces on hate crimes, police reform and labor rights.

She wants to make it easier for parents to access mental health services for their children by increasing outreach to help them learn what providers exist in a community.

“The Legislature has done a really good job of funding behavioral health,” she said. “It’s just a very slow process from the time to get to the Legislature, the county and to the community providers.”

She also wants to fund more youth apprenticeship programs. “There’s so much focus on college and that’s fine, but we need a workforce, a stronger workforce,” Martinez said.

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