Five Takeaways from This Week’s Washington State Primary

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez, D-Wash., an upset winner in 2022, came out with a strong showing in last night’s primary. MGP now heads into a rematch with MAGA-embracing Republican Joe Kent.

Gluesenkamp-Perez was taking 46.87 percent of the vote in early returns, running eight points ahead of Kent. She was flipping Cowlitz, Skamania, and Wahkaikum Counties, all rural areas carried by Kent two years ago..

“This election is about Southwest Washington coming together to stop Joe Kent and his angry, dangerous, divisive extreme politics. Tonight was the first step and in November we will finish the job,” MGP said in a statement.

While primary turnout was low, stakes for Washington’s congressional delegation were high. Of Washington’s 10 Congressional seats, there are four highly competitive races with voters sorting out top-two finalists and delivering a verdict on the political movement of ex-President Donald Trump.

Kent allied himself with white nationalists, called for the arrest of Dr. Anthony Fauci and – without evidence – hinted at conspiracy in the attempted assassination of ex-President Trump. By contrast, Gluesenkamp-Perez has been a work horse, emphasizing constituent service, bipartisan initiatives, and bringing home federal investments in a needy district.

The Washington delegation may get its first MAGA Republican – but not Joe Kent. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., is the last survivor of the 10 Republicans who voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol insurrection. Newhouse polled only 25 percent of the early primary vote.

A Trump-endorsed Republican, Jerrold Sessler, was running five points ahead of Newhouse.  Sessler was leading even in Newhouse’s home base of Yakima County. So intent is Trump on ousting Newhouse that he endorsed both Sessler and Tiffany Smiley in Washington’s 4^th District. Smiley trailed Sessler but together, the two Trump-backed candidates had twice as many votes as Newhouse. 

Two Republicans, Sessler and Newhouse, will apparently fight it out in November. Votes from Independents and Democrats will be needed if Newhouse has a chance of holding his seat.

State Sen. Emily Randall, D-Bremerton, pulled off the upset of the night in Washington’s open 6^th Congressional District.  Aided by a $1.4 million “independent” expenditure by bitcon billionaires, Randall bested early Democratic frontrunner, State Land Commissioner Hilary Franz. She will apparently face off against Republican State Sen. Drew MacEwen in the general election.

In her words, Randall is looking to “make history as the first Latino queer member of Congress and keep delivering results for regular working people.” MacEwen signaled his strategy on social media: “The working families of the 6^th District are yearning for real representation and not identity politics.” The 6^th District has not elected a Republican to Congress in 62 years.

Rep. Cathly McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., chair of the powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee, is retiring after 20 years in the House, inaugurating an 11-candidate scramble in Eastern Washington’s 5^th Congressional District. The frontrunner, in a GOP-leaning district, is Spokane County Treasurer Michael Baumgartner.  He was taking 28.6 percent of the early primary vote.

Baumgartner will likely face Democrat Carmela Conroy, who was polling at 22 percent.  Both candidates have worked for the State Department. Baumgartner was at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad prior to the Iraq War, and later came home to serve in the Washington State Senate. Conroy is a lawyer and retired diplomat. He has used diplomatic skills to bring peace to the often-fractious Spokane Democratic Party.

The Washington primary has one similarity with others around the country. The MAGA movement has largely taken over the Republican Party. Newhouse is the latest old-fashioned Republican regular to be “primaried.” Another trend, however, is – in Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez’s words – to look for candidates who “get shit done.”

Nationally, two very-outspoken members of “the Squad,” left wing Democrats in Congress, have lost their seats. Both Reps. Jamall Bowman, D-New York, and Cori Bush, D-Missouri, were targeted by millions in spending by a super-PAC associated with the American Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Both, however, were faulted for strutting on the national stage and not tending to their districts. 

Washington Sen. Maria Cantwell was an architect of the infrastructure package and the CHIPS act, legislation designed to upgrade the nation’s transportation system and put America back into development and production of computer chips. The result has been billions of dollars in federal investment. A major example is the reconstruction of a new bridge across the Columbia River between Vancouver and Portland.

Cantwell is on the way to an easy reelection, taking nearly 58 percent of the primary vote in a multi-candidate field. She was winning in 31 of the state’s 39 counties, even carrying Republican bastions in Eastern Washington.

This article also appeared in Cascadia Advocate, a blog of the Northwest Progressive Institute.