M. Semi Bird is daring to be what he calls a “walking counter-narrative” to a left-wing agenda that dominates politics in Washington state, and he’s eyeing a run for governor.
He is a Black man who grew up in a poor neighborhood in a single-parent household with seven other children and then dropped out of high school.
And yet, Mr. Bird went on to become a U.S. Marine veteran, a decorated Army Special Forces Green Beret, and the first Black man elected to the school board in Richland County, which serves the city of Richland and West Richland in central Washington about 200 miles southeast of Seattle.