Patty Kuderer was elected in 2024 as Washington’s ninth insurance commissioner. As insurance commissioner, Kuderer is committed to protecting consumers, promoting transparency and fairness in the insurance market, and advocating for expanded access to affordable healthcare.
Kuderer’s current priorities include providing restitution to policyholders who are harmed and exploring innovative, collaborative pathways to reach universal health care. She’s also raising awareness of climate change, monitoring how it affects the insurance industry, and encouraging mitigation practices like building more resilient communities.
Kuderer was chosen by her peers to serve as the Secretary/Treasurer of the Western Zone Committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, which also gives her a seat on the NAIC’s Executive Committee.
Prior to taking office as commissioner, Kuderer served for almost a decade in the Washington State Legislature. She was appointed to the state House in 2015 and then became the 48th Legislative District’s first female state Senator in 2017. During her time in the Legislature, she championed consumer and worker protections, common sense gun legislation, increasing access to affordable housing and worked to reform Washington’s health care system.
Kuderer also has extensive legal experience as a trial attorney, including serving as a former prosecutor, city attorney and in private practice. She has handled public records, employment discrimination and serious injury cases, as well as argued before Minnesota Appellate and State Supreme Courts.
Kuderer grew up in Minnesota and is one of nine children. She earned a law degree from the William Mitchell College of Law and a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Minnesota. She has lived in King County’s Eastside for over two decades, raising her two (now grown) children.