Dino Rossi concedes the 2018 8th Congressional District race to Dr. Kim Schrier

Repub­li­cans acknowl­edged this evening that Democ­rats had won Wash­ing­ton’s 8th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict for the first time since its cre­ation in 1981, as the par­ty’s stan­dard bear­er Dino Rossi con­ced­ed to U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive-elect Kim Schrier.

Rossi’s con­ces­sion mes­sage, sent to his sup­port­ers, is as follows:

I am so proud of this cam­paign. When I decid­ed to run for Con­gress I was con­fi­dent that we could run a com­pet­i­tive, issues-based race that would pro­vide vot­ers with a clear choice. We did just that.

Over the past year, I knocked on over 8,000 doors and talked with peo­ple about the issues that mat­ter most to their fam­i­lies. We talked about the impor­tance of pre­serv­ing the Amer­i­can Dream for future gen­er­a­tions, and the kinds of poli­cies it will take for our com­mu­ni­ties to bring about last­ing oppor­tu­ni­ty and prosperity.

And despite the record-set­ting mil­lions spent by my oppo­nent and out­side groups to mis­rep­re­sent my record and posi­tions on the issues, I hope that you also heard me talk about the impor­tance of clos­ing the divi­sions that exist between us. I told vot­ers to look back at my true leg­isla­tive record in Olympia. I talked about how I believe every­one has val­ue, and how I am will­ing to work with any­one on solu­tions that ben­e­fit our com­mu­ni­ties. I promised that, if elect­ed, I would take that much-need­ed approach to Congress.

While this race did not end in the way you or I would have liked, I urge you to stay involved in the demo­c­ra­t­ic process. We all need to stay informed, get involved, and hold pub­lic offi­cials account­able for the deci­sions they make. Remem­ber, the next elec­tion is just two short years away. Our coun­try is strongest when peo­ple get involved in their com­mu­ni­ties, whether in polit­i­cal or non-polit­i­cal ways.

I believe we ran the best race that we could have run this year and left it all on the field. I look for­ward to return­ing to my life as a hus­band, father, neigh­bor, and vol­un­teer. I can’t wait to spend some time with my wife, kids, and my new granddaughter.

But our duty to form and main­tain an active cit­i­zen­ry does not fade. Your com­mu­ni­ty needs you. This coun­try needs you. Our democ­ra­cy needs you. This race would not have been the same with­out you. Thank you.

Rossi’s defeat is his fourth con­sec­u­tive failed attempt at high­er office in Wash­ing­ton. Rossi last won an elec­tion for pub­lic office eigh­teen years ago, in 2000, when he was reelect­ed to the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate in the 5th Leg­isla­tive District.

(As of this Jan­u­ary, Rossi’s old dis­trict will no longer have any Repub­li­can rep­re­sen­ta­tion at all due to the vic­to­ries of Bill Ramos and Lisa Callan, who will join Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Mark Mul­let in the statehouse.)

Since the ear­ly 2000s, Rossi has fruit­less­ly sought high­er office.

First, he ran for Gov­er­nor against Chris Gre­goire, los­ing by the tini­est of mar­gins in a drawn-out con­test that Rossi and the Repub­li­can Par­ty tried to over­turn the result of in court (a legal chal­lenge that was mem­o­rably dis­missed with prej­u­dice by Judge John Bridges of Chelan Coun­ty, where they chose to file their suit).

Then, in 2008, Rossi chal­lenged Gre­goire again, but she defeat­ed him once more, this time by a con­vinc­ing mar­gin of 194,614 votes.

In 2010, Rossi decid­ed to take on Unit­ed States Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Mur­ray, a fix­ture in Wash­ing­ton State pol­i­tics. Rossi’s Repub­li­can friends sup­plied plen­ty of mon­ey for attack ads denounc­ing Pat­ty Mur­ray, but the ads did­n’t work. Wash­ing­to­ni­ans reelect­ed Mur­ray and made Rossi a three-time los­er for high­er office.

In 2016, fol­low­ing the death of Andy Hill, Rossi was appoint­ed to serve as the 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­tric­t’s state sen­a­tor (Rossi was redis­trict­ed into the 45th in 2012) until a spe­cial elec­tion could be held the fol­low­ing year. This was Rossi’s sec­ond stint in the Leg­is­la­ture as an unelect­ed fill-in for a depart­ed Republican.

Rossi made clear he would not be a can­di­date in the spe­cial elec­tion to pick a per­ma­nent suc­ces­sor to Hill, which was won by Demo­c­ra­t­ic ris­ing star Man­ka Dhin­gra. But he clear­ly still held a desire to seek high­er office, because when Dave Reichert announced his retire­ment from Con­gress, Rossi jumped into the race.

The Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty quick­ly coa­lesced behind Rossi, offer­ing its full sup­port. For many months, it was unclear who Rossi’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent would be, but in August, pedi­a­tri­cian Kim Schri­er emerged as the lead­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger, secur­ing a spot on the gen­er­al elec­tion bal­lot as Rossi’s oppo­nent by edg­ing out Jason Rit­tereis­er and Shan­non Hader.

Schri­er now joins the list of Demo­c­ra­t­ic women who have beat­en Rossi, which includes Kath­leen Drew as well as Chris Gre­goire and Pat­ty Mur­ray. Both Gre­goire and Mur­ray phoned Schri­er ear­li­er today to con­grat­u­late her on her victory.

“Con­gress is bro­ken, and peo­ple in the 8th Dis­trict are ready for a com­mu­ni­ty pedi­a­tri­cian to bring a dose of com­mon sense to DC,” said Schri­er in a state­ment. “We deserve a rep­re­sen­ta­tive who will take on drug com­pa­nies and insur­ers to low­er health­care costs, who will pro­tect pre-exist­ing con­di­tions, who will final­ly give the mid­dle class a pay raise, and who will get cor­po­rate mon­ey out of pol­i­tics. That’s exact­ly the rep­re­sen­ta­tive I will be in Congress.”

Schri­er has pledged to be a much more acces­si­ble mem­ber of Con­gress than Reichert ever was. She plans to hold reg­u­lar town halls so that she can hear from con­stituents. The first and only in-per­son town hall Reichert ever held was in Belle­vue in 2004 when the Bush admin­is­tra­tion was try­ing to pri­va­tize Social Secu­ri­ty; NPI report­ed on that event here on the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate.

Schri­er’s vic­to­ry leaves Repub­li­cans with three con­gres­sion­al seats in Wash­ing­ton State: the 3rd Dis­trict, where Jaime Her­rera-Beut­ler was able to with­stand a chal­lenge from Car­olyn Long; the 4th Dis­trict, which is solid­ly Repub­li­can and has returned Dan New­house to Con­gress, and the 5th Dis­trict, which retained Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers despite a spir­it­ed chal­lenge from Lisa Brown.

The 3rd, 4th, and 5th span south­west, south cen­tral, and east­ern Wash­ing­ton. The state’s oth­er con­gres­sion­al dis­tricts are to the west and north.