Experienced campaigner Dani Bolyard to seek seat

COULEE CITY - After several years of supporting, even campaigning for others, well-known Grant County Republican Party activist Dani Bolyard has decided to run for an office of her own.

Bolyard will campaign for the 13th District House of Representatives seat Judy Warnick is vacating.

Bolyard has been supporting party candidates since graduating from high school. She became a party activist in 2007, attending her first precinct caucus in early 2008.

Bolyard has been the Grant County Republican Party chair and narrowly lost a bid for State Party Vice Chair in January of last year. She has done just about everything in between.

"I'm one of those who like to organize things," she said. "I'm a details person. I jumped in with both feet."

And Bolyard has been effective. During her time of service, the GCRP has grown five-fold.

In the fall of 2008, Bolyard was elected the precinct committee officer of the Greenfield Precinct in Ephrata and the state committeewoman for Grant County Republicans. She and young Kayce Chlarson founded the Teen Republicans.

Bolyard has served on the state platform committee and on the party's tech and media committee. She was a founding member of the 9/12 and Tea Party groups in Grant County, speaking at multiple Tea Party rallies.

In 2011, Bolyard was again a PCO and was also elected the chairwoman and one of two representatives for the 4th Congressional District to the State Republican Party Executive Board. She was again on the Tech and Media Committee, as well as Convention Rules Committee, and co-chaired the Credentials Committee for the 2012 Republican State Convention. She co-designed a teen page program for Washington State conventions.

After moving to Coulee City in late 2012, Bolyard handed off the leadership of the county party to a new team. But she became involved with the Republican Liberty Caucus, serving as county chair and state media coordinator.

Bolyard still serves on the technology committee for the state party and was appointed to an ad-hoc workgroup researching the future of database technology for voter outreach. In the last year, she has taught PCO trainings around eastern Washington, and she continues to lead the elections and canvassing team for the Grant County Republicans.

Bolyard, 39, graduated from Moses Lake High School. She attended WSU, graduating with honors with a Bachelor of Science in Architectural Studies and a Bachelor of Architecture (professional degree).

Bolyard moved to Ephrata in 1997 and worked for a retail outlet, until taking a proofreading job at the Columbia Basin Herald. When her daughter Danika was born, she quit full-time employment but worked as a stringer through 2009. She is now a stringer for the Columbia Basin Business Journal.

Bolyard and her husband Dan have been married 17 years. He's a vendor for Frito Lay but is a classically-trained chef and writes the food column for the Columbia Basin Herald.

Bolyard has taught in and coordinated her church's women's ministry and children's ministry and written and taught a teen apologetics course.

She has served on the worship team as a vocalist and instrumentalist, served as a Deaconness on the board and developed the website.

Bolyard has trained and served as a domestic violence victim's advocate through Abuse Recovery Ministry and Services. She has served on the steering committee for Girl's Night Out, helped found the Friends In School at Home support group here in the Basin and reported to them on legislative issues.

The Bolyards own a cattle ranch and are learning the business from their lessees. They raise chickens, ducks and geese and have horses, llamas, dogs and cats. They are gardeners and food preservationists.