SEATTLE (AP) — Congressional primary races in Washington state are attracting outsized attention, including one that pits one of the last remaining U.S. House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump against two conservative candidates whose platforms are in lock-step with the GOP presidential nominee.
Another race in the state’s moderate 8th Congressional District — held by centrist Democrat Rep. Kim Schrier — has been shaken up by an upstart campaign by the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, who has made the Israel-Hamas war the centerpiece of his platform.
And in the 3rd District, Trump-endorsed Joe Kent is trying to unseat Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who defeated him two years ago. That race is expected to see one of the tightest general elections in the country.
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U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, who is seeking a sixth term, will face off against Trump-endorsed candidate Jerrod Sessler along with Tiffany Smiley, a former nurse who has made Trump a focus of her campaign, in the reddest congressional district in Washington state. But for the second election in a row, Newhouse must fight for reelection with Trump’s looming presence hanging over his shoulder in the central Washington district that runs from the Canadian border to the Columbia River.
His primary opponents have been quick to jump onto what they see as a huge liability, but political experts caution it’s difficult to say whether Trump’s endorsement will sway voters who already stuck with Newhouse two years ago.
Newhouse and U.S. Rep. David Valadao, of California, are the only Republican Congressional lawmakers left among the 10 who voted to impeach Trump in 2021. Others retired or were defeated by Trump-endorsed primary challengers.
“The Trump impeachment vote and Newhouse’s views about Trump were probably more important two years ago. And yet he survived that primary. And he won pretty handily in the general election,” said Cornell Clayton, director of Washington State University’s Thomas S. Foley Institute for Public Policy and Public Service. “I mean he’s got support in that community.”
Sessler, a Navy veteran and former NASCAR driver, has embraced Trump’s endorsement, with images of him and Trump displayed high on his website. Smiley, who entered the race after losing to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray two years ago, called Newhouse “absolutely delusional” in an AP interview for thinking he could deliver for the district after publicly splitting with Trump.
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Newhouse’s approach has been to mostly stay clear of the subject, instead focusing on agriculture and border security in a state with millions of acres of pastures, orchards and cereal grain lands where immigrant labor is extremely important.
As of July 17, Newhouse, who was endorsed by the NRA and the National Right to Life, had raised $1.6 million — more than twice as much as Smiley and far more than the $409,000 raised by Sessler.
But his path to victory will not be simple. Under Washington’s primary system, the top two vote getters in each of Tuesday’s races advance to the November election, regardless of party.
Two years ago, Democrat Gluesenkamp Perez came out of nowhere to win a congressional seat against Trump-backed candidate Kent in a district that hadn’t been in Democratic hands for over a decade. She took over a seat held by a more moderate Republican who lost the primary in part because she voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Now, armed once again with Trump’s endorsement, Kent is back to try to take the seat in the southwest corner of the state. But he is facing stiff competition as former King County Prosecutor Leslie Lewallen gains a groundswell of support from conservatives looking to move the seat back into more moderate Republican hands.
“Joe Kent went on to lose in the general election to a Democrat, which was a shocker and nobody really expected that,” said Clayton. “And given the fact that he had Trump’s endorsement, raised quite a bit of money, had quite a bit of media exposure, there is a sense that maybe he’s too extreme for that district.”
Lewallen, who has raised $820,000 — not far behind the nearly $1.4 million accumulated by Kent — is focused on reining in crime and homelessness that she attributes to Gluesenkamp Perez, while disparaging Kent for stepping back into the race.
Meanwhile, Kent, a former Green Beret who has called for the impeachment of President Joe Biden, says Gluesenkamp Perez only pretends to be a moderate.
Gluesenkamp Perez has far outraised her challengers, with $6.7 million. She supports abortion access and policies to counter climate change, but also increased border security to curb the fentanyl crisis and speaks openly about being a gun owner.
Imraan Siddiqi has made the war in Gaza the centerpiece of his platform and has gained some traction as he derides Schrier for her approach, which often aligns with Biden’s.
But the district is filled with a mix of wealthy Seattle exurbs populated by tech workers and central Washington farmland, and until 2019 had been held by the GOP. Siddiqi’s presence could make Schrier appear more moderate, Clayton said, something she has historically sought by way of Republican endorsements.
Schrier, a pediatrician, has stayed quiet about the war recently and did not respond to an emailed request for comment about Siddiqi’s remarks. Instead, she’s touted the 14 bills she’s had signed into law by Trump and Biden, while noting that she is one of two abortion-rights female doctors in Congress.
As of July 17, Siddiqi had raised $387,000 -- more than twice as much as the Republican in the race, Carmen Goers, a commercial banker running to lower prices and cut back on crime. But it’s only a fraction of the $4.7 million raised by Schrier, and experts still anticipate a Schrier, Goers matchup in November.
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