SNOHOMISH COUNTY—County Council President Jared Mead and County Council Vice President Nate Nehring have banded together to form a new nonprofit called the Building Bridges Project set on uniting the country despite its members’ many political perspectives.

On January 6, 2021, when Mead and Nehring had only been council members together for about six months, the two tuned in to the attack on the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. and exchanged a set of text messages agreeing that however you classified that day’s events – whether an insurrection, a riot, or otherwise – common ground could be found on one thing: the demonstration that day reflected a sad state of affairs in the political culture of the nation.

Mead, a Democrat, and Nehring, a Republican, had already shared their ideological differences most accurately demonstrated through their council voting record, but they were united that day on the grounds that the United States needed to come together as a country as opposed to being torn apart.

“It has been a blessing to have the opportunity to work in a bipartisan leadership team on the County Council. I don’t take for granted the trust my colleagues have placed in me despite my being in the minority party. I think the bipartisan collaboration we have on the County Council is healthy for any government wanting to best serve the people it represents,” said Nate Nehring. “While we don’t always agree, I’m proud to have worked with Councilmember Mead on several bipartisan policy proposals on subjects ranging from homelessness and drug policy to early childhood education to housing affordability.”

The two co-authored an op-ed piece for a local newspaper together, receiving expected heat from their respective political organizations. That was to be expected, what wasn’t to be expected was all the positive response from community members, and many community-based organizations who invited the two to speak.

For the next two years the two shared their message at approximately 40 speaking events at local high schools, colleges, local Rotaries, Kiwanis Clubs, Chambers of Commerce, and other groups throughout Snohomish County.

If Mead had to guess, he and Nehring must have talked to about 10,000 people during those two years of speaking events. The most educational part of these conversations, for them, was to learn that most of their community who engaged them shared their same views.

“It was really rewarding, for one, to know that that the message was resonating but two, it was also really insightful to see that this is a message that the vast majority people in our communities agree with. This is the viewpoint of the vast majority of our population – they’re sick of this hateful us versus them demonization, deep, deep, political polarization and hate,” said Mead. “It’s really just the loudest 5% on each side that dominate each side that makes us think we all need to hate each other but it’s not that.”

In 2023 Mead and Nehring launched a more intentional speaking tour they called the Building Bridges tour, in partnership with the YMCA, Sno-Isle Libraries, and the Boys & Girls Club, where they held round table discussions to each of the four corners of Snohomish County for city officials and the public alike. Anywhere between 75 to 100 people attended these events participating in a discussion of how to get the country back on track.

That tour culminated in a Building Bridges Summit event in December of last year featuring Washington Lieutenant Governor Denny Heck, and former Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, who’s currently running for Public Lands Commissioner, as keynote speakers as well as Mayors, tribal leaders. It was during this event when Mead and Nehring officially announced their idea for a Building Bridges Project nonprofit. That nonprofit officially launched at the beginning of 2024.

“I think both civic education and community engagement are critical for a healthy society and for combatting political polarization,” Nate Nehring told the Lynnwood Times. “Quality civic education can help us to better understand our own history, including the most trying times our great nation has faced. Many may look at the current political situation and think “there’s no way we can ever turn this around”, but the reality is that we have faced greater challenges to remaining united as a country before and have come through even stronger.”

Nehring and Mead have worked on a handful of bipartisan ordinances, now county laws, because the two were able to work through plenty of their political differences.

“Watch our voting record throughout the year. We vote opposite on plenty of things – taxes, every single budget cycle, not to mention policies, but we don’t let those differences get in the way of he and I getting to work together on the things that we do agree upon,” said Mead. “That’s our message. Our message is not we should all find a way to agree with each other all the time. [Nehring] and I are never going to agree upon abortion, we’re never going to agree upon taxes, we’re never going to agree upon plenty of things, but we still respect each other and I get why he feels the way that he feels because I’ve taken the time to dig in with him, and listen to him, and understand his perspective.”

The Building Bridges organization, Mead said, is the one thing he’s most proud of in his entire career.

Nehring and Mead also partner with local high schools for an annual Civic Engagement Day which attracts anywhere between 150 to 300 students in attendance.

“If you’re going to be advocating you want to be a good advocate for your community, if you’re an elected official or a part of government staff, it’s really complex, really difficult to wrap your head around how a policy comes to be or why a policy is the way that it is,” said Mead. “So when we do public comment, or lack of public interest, I don’t think it’s because people don’t care about what’s going on in their community, what’s going on in their government. I think it’s because the process has become so complex and so convoluted that it’s difficult for the layman to really understand and follow the process that it’s easier to be complacent.”

Whenever Mead is out in public, for example, he meets a handful of people that presume he sits on the City Council of Snohomish, not the County Council. Mead equates this to a lack of emphasis on civic education in the public school system.

Hence the origins of Mead and Nehring’s Civic Engagement Day where students can essentially take a field trip to sit in different departments, hear from the Auditor, hear from the Prosecuting Attorney, hear from the Executive, hear from the Council, bust most of all to hear what a government can do for their everyday life within their different roles.

“I strongly feel that the responsibility to build a healthier and brighter society for our children and grandchildren falls to each and every one of us,” said Nehring. “If we are waiting for a politician to come along and solve our problems by uniting everyone, we may be waiting for a very long time. But we each have the opportunity to roll up our sleeves and get started today. I think if we can each make a commitment to remaining humble, giving others the benefit of the doubt, and treating everyone with respect (especially those who are different from us) then we have a great foundation for a better future.”