Kirstan Watson

About Kirstan

I was born and raised in Arundel, and aside from a few years away, this has always been home. My husband and I strengthened our roots here over more than two decades, running a small business and nurturing our farm where we raised animals and grew much of our own food. I’m the youngest of twelve children, born to a working-class family where poverty and hardship were part of life early on. It was the kindness of folks within this community that shaped who I am, teaching me empathy, resilience, courage, and the value of deep community connections that define who we are. I carried those lessons with me in my work.

For most of my adult life, that work has involved walking in other people’s shoes. That may not sound like much, but 26 years of cleaning houses and caring for the families within them taught me that being welcomed into someone’s home is a profound act of trust. Because of that trust, I’ve witnessed life in ways statistics and policy debates can’t capture—young families struggling to stay in the communities that raised them, elderly neighbors without resources to age in place with dignity, family farms hanging on for the next generation, and working-class families consumed by the stress of rising costs.

Community isn’t something you talk about in the abstract. It’s built through small acts of trust, by showing up and giving more than you take. I’m running because I believe public service is about leaving your community better than you found it. Where politics has torn us apart, we rebuild by listening with humility and reconnecting one relationship at a time. When we bring problem-solving back into our communities, where we know one another by name, we find solutions to shared problems based on what connects us, ensuring government is responsive to the people it serves. Together, let’s build a community where families can thrive.