A promi­nent right wing Repub­li­can state sen­a­tor who co-chaired Don­ald Trump’s 2016 cam­paign in Wash­ing­ton State and was an ardent boost­er of Tim Eyman’s destruc­tive ini­tia­tives has per­ished after con­tract­ing the nov­el coro­n­avirus (SARS-CoV­‑2) while abroad in El Sal­vador, his fam­i­ly dis­closed today through a bul­letin pub­lished by Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate’s Repub­li­can caucus.

The cause of death is unknown at this time.

Erick­sen, fifty-two, rep­re­sent­ed the 42nd Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, which cur­rent­ly encom­pass­es much of What­com Coun­ty, includ­ing por­tions of the City of Belling­ham. The 42nd is a swing dis­trict that has vot­ed for both Repub­li­can and Demo­c­ra­t­ic rep­re­sen­ta­tion in recent elec­tion cycles.

“We are heart­bro­ken to share that our hus­band and father passed away on Fri­day, Decem­ber 17th. Please keep our fam­i­ly in your prayers and thank you for con­tin­u­ing to respect our pri­va­cy in this extreme­ly dif­fi­cult time,” read a short mes­sage dis­sem­i­nat­ed by the cau­cus from Tasha, Elsa, and Addi Ericksen.

The Sen­ate Repub­li­can cau­cus stat­ed in an adden­dum to that mes­sage that it will “release addi­tion­al infor­ma­tion as it receives it.”

Top Sen­ate Repub­li­can John Braun was asked last Wednes­day at Re-Wire 2021 by the Wash­ing­ton State Wire’s DJ Wil­son what Erick­sen’s con­di­tion was. Braun for the most part demurred, say­ing he want­ed to respect Erick­sen’s privacy.

“I am deeply sad­dened by the news that Doug passed away yes­ter­day,” said Braun in a state­ment pub­lished by the cau­cus. My prayers and thoughts are with his wife, Tasha, and his daugh­ters. Doug could be larg­er than life and our cau­cus will miss him great­ly. He was pas­sion­ate about his duties as a mem­ber of the Leg­is­la­ture and ded­i­cat­ed to his constituents.”

We do not know if Erick­sen was vac­ci­nat­ed against COVID-19 or not, but we do know that he issued a plea for help after get­ting sick in El Sal­vador last month. In an email sent to his col­leagues, Erick­sen explained his predicament:

I took a trip to El Sal­vador and test­ed pos­i­tive for COVID [SARS-CoV­‑2] short­ly after I arrived. […] I can­not get back home, and it’s to the point that I feel it would be ben­e­fi­cial for me to receive an iv of mon­o­clon­al anti­bod­ies (Regen­eron). I have a doc­tor here who can admin­is­ter the iv, but the prod­uct is not avail­able here.

[…] Do any of you have any ideas on how I could get the mon­o­clon­al anti­bod­ies sent to me here. Ide­al­ly, I would like to get it on a flight tonight so it would be here by tomorrow.

Erick­sen was sub­se­quent­ly mede­vaced out of El Sal­vador to Flori­da, and was described as in sta­ble con­di­tion fol­low­ing his arrival in the Sun­shine State.

Since then, there have been no updates on his con­di­tion. Recent attempts by jour­nal­ists (includ­ing at the Belling­ham Her­ald) and polit­i­cal observers to inquire about his health and wel­fare have been unsuccessful.

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee released a brief state­ment to the press after hear­ing the news, which read: “Tru­di and I send our deep con­do­lences to Doug’s fam­i­ly, friends and col­leagues. Our hearts are with them.”

Erick­sen had been a harsh crit­ic of Gov­er­nor Inslee’s efforts to com­bat the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic, denounc­ing vac­cine man­dates and dis­sem­i­nat­ing anti-sci­ence talk­ing points. Pho­tographs from social media show Erick­sen at events where no one appears to be wear­ing a mask, him­self includ­ed. Vac­cines, masks, and phys­i­cal dis­tanc­ing are the most effec­tive tools for avoid­ing COVID-19.

In accor­dance with the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion, a new state sen­a­tor for the 42nd will need to be appoint­ed soon to fill the vacan­cy left by Erick­sen’s death. The new sen­a­tor will be a Repub­li­can, like Erick­sen, as required by the Con­sti­tu­tion. The Repub­li­can Par­ty will be tasked with draw­ing up a list of three nom­i­nees to suc­ceed Erick­sen. Then, the What­com Coun­ty Coun­cil will have to select one of those three nom­i­nees as Erick­sen’s successor.

Who­ev­er is appoint­ed will serve out the remain­der of Erick­sen’s term. The posi­tion was already due to be reg­u­lar­ly con­test­ed in next year’s midterms.

Erick­sen’s Demo­c­ra­t­ic col­league Sharon Shew­make, who has twice been elect­ed to the House from the 42nd, announced pri­or to the onset of the annu­al leg­isla­tive ses­sion fundrais­ing freeze that she would be run­ning for the seat Erick­sen has held in 2022. It seems like­ly that Shew­make will face whichev­er Repub­li­can is appoint­ed to take over for Erick­sen in the com­ing weeks, assum­ing that the What­com Coun­ty Coun­cil does not appoint a caretaker.

We at the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute are sad­dened to hear of Sen­a­tor Erick­sen’s death. We did­n’t agree on much, but we were hop­ing Sen­a­tor Erick­sen would beat COVID-19 and return to Wash­ing­ton State. Sad­ly, he has passed on. We extend our con­do­lences and sym­pa­thies to his fam­i­ly and friends.