Darcy Gibbons Burner (born November 12, 1970) is an American businesswoman and politician and a member of the Democratic Party from Carnation, Washington. Early life, education, and family Burner was adopted at birth in Alaska and grew up in a Republican household in Nebraska farm country. Her father, Ralph Gibbons, spent 20 years in the Air Force, settling after his military retirement with his wife and five kids in Fremont, Nebraska. Burner was the Civil Air Patrol National Cadet of the Year in 1989. In high school, Burner was a National Merit Scholar. She worked multiple jobs, both part-time and full-time, to earn her way through Harvard University, graduating in 1996 with a B.A. in computer science with a special field of economics. Following graduation, she became co-founder, keyboardist and co-songwriter of Ossian's Ride, the world's first (and last) Heavy Celtic Space Punk band. She also briefly attended law school at the University of Washington in 2004. Her jobs included working for Lotus Development, Asymetrix, and, starting in 2000, as a lead product manager for Microsoft .NET. Burner married in 1993. She and her former husband Michael have a son, Henry, born in 2003. After a 2015 divorce, she married Jonathan S. Shapiro. Career Burner worked for twelve years in high technology, including five years at Microsoft as a Marketing Manager, working on .NET. Burner left Microsoft to attend law school at the University of Washington in 2004. She left her law studies in 2005 to enter her first political race against Reichert. She served on the boards of a number of local and national organizations, including ActBlue, NARAL Pro-Choice America, the Netroots Foundation, the Center for International Policy, the Progressive Ideas Network, and Council for a Livable World's PeacePAC. From 2009 to 2011 she was the president and executive director of ProgressiveCongress.org and the Progressive Congress Action Fund, non-profits associated with the Congressional Progressive Caucus. She was also a principal in the Afghanistan Study Group, whose report on ending the war in Afghanistan was endorsed by both Republicans and Democrats. Electoral history Burner was the Democratic nominee for in 2006 and 2008, losing to Republican incumbent Dave Reichert in both elections. She was then a candidate in the open primary for the newly redrawn in 2012 finishing third behind Republican John Koster and Democrat Suzan DelBene. On February 22, 2016, she launched a campaign for the Washington state legislature