Things are different here.
While national Republicans are taking a well-earned victory lap and President Donald Trump is declaring victory for the “MAGA movement” and the GOP is taking control of the Senate (and likely maintaining control in the House), the party is becoming even less relevant in Washington.
Democrats have swept nine statewide partisan elections — for U.S. senator, governor and seven other executive positions. And the margins of victory are enormous: an average of 14.48 percentage points as of Thursday’s ballot count.
But that’s not all. U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez improved on her 2022 margin of victory in a rematch with Joe Kent; Democrats have retained eight of the state’s 10 seats in the U.S. House; and the conservative fever dream of using ballot initiatives to repeal progressive legislation has been mostly rejected by wide margins.
All of which poses a conundrum for the Washington State Republican Party and its satellites at the county level. All of which highlights the need for a reconfigured party in this state, even as Republicans celebrate across the nation.
The conservative movement that was birthed some 15 years ago as the tea party and morphed into Trumpism has routinely been rejected by voters in Washington, even as it has grown nationally. That disconnect has been evident throughout this election season, when party leaders tended to endorse the most MAGA of candidates rather than the ones who could be elected.
Before the August primary, the Washington State Republican Party endorsed 15 candidates for statewide office or Congress; it appears that none of them is going to win. That includes Jerrod Sessler in the 4th Congressional District, a contest that provides some insight.
In the most conservative region of the state, two Republicans advanced to the general election. One of them was incumbent Dan Newhouse, who violated Republican orthodoxy in 2021 by voting in favor of Trump’s second impeachment. The state GOP and Trump endorsed Sessler, who appears headed to defeat, although the ballot counting continues.
If Newhouse is reelected, the temptation will be to say that Democratic voters carried him to victory because of his impeachment vote. But through Thursday’s count, that race had fewer than 200,000 votes, while every R vs. D congressional race in the state had more than 300,000. The conclusion: A lot of Democrats are sitting out the race, and a lot of Republicans are turned off by Sessler’s MAGA credentials.
The Clark County Republican Party, meanwhile, endorsed 17 candidates for statewide or local elections; one has a slim lead, two are facing slim deficits and the rest have been defeated.
Yes, things are different here.
Nationally, Democrats have a disconnect from the populace. They lost the presidency, the Senate and perhaps seats in the House, and the reasons will be hashed and rehashed for years. Republican rhetoric about a porous border and stifling inflation resonated enough to swing not only the presidential race but down-ballot contests.
But in Washington, it is Republicans who are searching for answers. This leaves party leaders and party supporters in the state with two options: They can continue to embrace Trumpism and remain in line with the national party, or they can embrace moderate Washington Republicans who have been purged from the national movement.
The risks of demagoguery in this state are evident. In 2022, Republican voters punished Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler for voting to impeach Trump and embraced Kent in the primary. While they metaphorically burned a heretic at the stake, the end result was the loss of a congressional seat.
Similar results have been seen in legislative races, increasingly leaving the state to unhealthy one-party rule by Democrats. What is working at the national level is not working in Washington.
Because, you know, things are different here.
