KENNEWICK — Central Washington voters now have two Trump-endorsed candidates to vote for in the 4th Congressional District race.
With 72 hours before primary ballot deadline, former President Donald Trump gave a resounding co-endorsement to challengers Tiffany Smiley and Jerrod Sessler in a pair of Saturday posts on Truth Social.
The 11th-hour blessings come as Trump-aligned Republicans make a second attempt at ousting Congressman Dan Newhouse over his vote to impeach the former president for fomenting the Jan. 6 riots at the U.S. Capitol building. Nine people — including five police officers — died in connection to the event.
Trump previously endorsed Sessler in April, about a month before Smiley formally entered the race as a candidate. This time he spelled his name wrong on the first post, but got it right on the second mention.
“Newhouse has to go,” the former president wrote on his social media website, “and Republicans need to unite behind a winner to ensure we have a tremendous victory in November. Therefore, I give my complete and total endorsement to both Tiffany Smiley and Jerrod Kessler (sic) — either of which will do a tremendous job, and never let you down!”
Central Washington isn’t the only race where Trump has endorsed two candidates. The former president in recent days has made split endorsements in at least four other races, reported the New York Times.
The 4th District move buttresses the MAGA bona fides of Smiley, who in recent weeks has tried painting herself as a political threat to Newhouse.
“I am honored to have received the endorsement of President Trump,” Smiley’s campaign wrote on Sunday. “Under President Trump, our southern border was secure, there was peace in the Middle East, economic stability and energy independence.”
He said Smiley — the veterans advocate from Pasco, who challenged U.S. Sen. Patty Murray unsuccessfully in 2022 — would be an “incredible fighter in Congress.”
“Likewise, Jerrod Sessler, who I have endorsed in the past, would be fantastic, fighting for the same things that Tiffany and I want for our country,” Trump wrote.
The former president went on to call Newhouse a “weak and pathetic RINO,” or Republican in name only, who “stupidly voted to impeach me for absolutely no reason, and he now strongly wishes he didn’t make that decision.”
Newhouse has defended the vote at campaign stops in recent days, telling a room full of Republicans in Grant County it was “the right choice for upholding the Constitution.”
At that same meeting, the five-term incumbent also pushed back at the idea that his relationship with Trump is tarnished, and explained that the former president at a meeting earlier this year provided a message of party unity, according to the Spokesman-Review.
Tuesday’s primary
Newhouse faces one of the toughest political battles of his career on the Aug. 6 ballot. The Sunnyside farmer will face seven challengers attempting to oust him in the top-two primary. The two candidates with the most votes will move on to the Nov. 5 general election.
The last time he ran for reelection, in 2022, six Republican challengers split up the conservative vote ensuring Newhouse an effortless swing to reelection in the general. Smiley and Sessler, a former regional circuit NASCAR driver and Prosser businessman, are the only two Republican challengers running this time.
Newhouse and Rep. David Valadao of California are the last remaining pro-impeachment Republicans serving in the U.S. House. Eight other Republicans have since either retired or lost their reelection bids. The 10 Republicans voted with Democrats in favor of the articles of impeachment, but they failed to get enough “guilty” votes in the U.S. Senate.
Washington’s Fourth Congressional District stretches from the U.S.-Canada border down to the Columbia River, and includes the Tri-Cities, Omak, East Wenatchee, Moses Lake, Yakima and the Yakama Indian Reservation.
The Cook Partisan Voting Index rated Washington’s Fourth Congressional District R+11 in 2023, meaning it’s strong Republican-leaning district.
