For the first time in its his­to­ry, the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty has decid­ed to use a pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry to allo­cate the del­e­gates it sends to the qua­dren­ni­al Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion, where the par­ty’s can­di­dates for Pres­i­dent and Vice Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States are for­mal­ly nominated.

The par­ty’s gov­ern­ing Cen­tral Com­mit­tee vot­ed over­whelm­ing­ly today at a meet­ing in Pas­co to adopt a Del­e­gate Selec­tion Plan that uti­lizes the state-run pri­ma­ry sched­uled to be held on March 10th, 2020, to be fol­lowed by cau­cus­es and con­ven­tions at four lev­els for the pur­pos­es of del­e­gate selec­tion and par­ty­build­ing, includ­ing the adop­tion of plat­form and resolutions.

(As a vet­er­an mem­ber of the WSDCC, rep­re­sent­ing the 45th Dis­trict, I par­tic­i­pat­ed in the vote, and proud­ly sup­port­ed the pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry option.)

While Wash­ing­ton has for decades had a law pro­vid­ing for a pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry to be held every four years, the Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty has nev­er used the results of that pri­ma­ry to allo­cate its nation­al delegates.

That will change in 2020.

“Democ­rats in Wash­ing­ton are ready for the big show in 2020,” said Tina Pod­lodows­ki, Chair of the Wash­ing­ton State Democ­rats. “We look for­ward to more Pres­i­den­tial can­di­date atten­tion and vis­its, increas­ing vot­er and activist engage­ment, and lift­ing up Democ­rats at all lev­els on the 2020 ballot.”

The par­ty’s his­toric vote in favor of a pri­ma­ry was made pos­si­ble thanks to the Leg­is­la­ture’s recent pas­sage of ESB 5273, prime spon­sored by Sen­a­tor Sam Hunt, which NPI enthu­si­as­ti­cal­ly worked to pass. ESB 5273 mod­i­fied Wash­ing­ton’s pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry law to make it com­plaint with DNC rules and ensure that the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty’s First Amend­ment rights of free assem­bly were respected.

ESB 5273 — which Gov­er­nor Inslee has signed — is slat­ed to take effect this July.

With the bill hav­ing become ses­sion law, the stage was set for a real debate in Pas­co among the par­ty’s one hun­dred and fifty plus mem­ber cen­tral committee.

After an exten­sive, live­ly dis­cus­sion which remained civ­il through­out, the par­ty held a roll call vote, sim­i­lar to those held in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, on the ques­tion of whether to retain precinct cau­cus­es for del­e­gate allo­ca­tion or switch to a pri­ma­ry while con­tin­u­ing to use cau­cus­es and con­ven­tions at four high­er lev­els for del­e­gate selec­tion and partybuilding.

The results were as follows:

• For a pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry: 121 (one hun­dred and twen­ty-one members)
• For precinct cau­cus­es: 40 (forty members)
• Abstain­ing: 8 (eight members)
• Not vot­ing: 10 (ten members)
• Vacant posi­tions on the WSDCC: 8 (eight positions)

Of the one hun­dred and six­ty-nine mem­bers present and vot­ing, about sev­en­ty-one per­cent select­ed the pri­ma­ry-cau­cus hybrid plan, which was pre­sent­ed as the major­i­ty report of the Rules Com­mit­tee. Less than twen­ty-four per­cent vot­ed for the cau­cus-only plan call­ing for pres­i­den­tial precinct cau­cus­es, which the par­ty has been using for decades to allo­cate nation­al con­ven­tion delegates.

Pri­or to its meet­ing in Pas­co, the par­ty put the two duel­ing plans up for a vote on a web­site, waelectioncenter.com, where any­one could leave a com­ment and voice an opin­ion on whether the par­ty should uti­lize a state-run pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry in 2020 or use pres­i­den­tial precinct cau­cus­es to allo­cate its nation­al delegates.

More than nine­ty per­cent of the more than 13,000 indi­vid­u­als who par­tic­i­pat­ed asked the par­ty to embrace a state-run pres­i­den­tial pri­ma­ry for 2020.

Today, the WSDCC demon­strat­ed it is lis­ten­ing, with near­ly three out of every four mem­bers back­ing the his­toric pro­pos­al to com­mit the par­ty to a primary.

The par­ty’s draft Del­e­gate Selec­tion and Affir­ma­tive Action Plan will soon be sent to the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Com­mit­tee for final approval. If the DNC signs off, the plan will become offi­cial. It calls for nom­i­nat­ing events on the fol­low­ing dates:

• Pres­i­den­tial Pri­ma­ry: Tues­day, March 10th (bal­lots mailed in February)
  
• Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict Cau­cus­es: Sun­day, April 26th, at 1 PM
• Coun­ty Con­ven­tions: Sun­day, May 3rd at 1 PM
• Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict Cau­cus­es: May 30th (time to be determined)
• State Con­ven­tion: June 12th-14th (Fri­day-Sun­day in Tacoma)
  

The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty of Ore­gon and the Ida­ho Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty are also plan­ning to use pres­i­den­tial pri­maries to allo­cate their 2020 nation­al con­ven­tion del­e­gates. Ore­gon has long made use of a pri­ma­ry, while Ida­ho has tra­di­tion­al­ly used cau­cus­es and will be mak­ing the switch just like Washington.