Here’s who’s running for statewide executive office so far in Washington next year

It might be hard to believe, but 2023 is already half over. With 2024 fast approach­ing, In Wash­ing­ton State, next year will be much more than a pres­i­den­tial elec­tion year. In addi­tion to con­gres­sion­al and state leg­isla­tive offices, many of which are con­test­ed every two years, Ever­green State vot­ers will have the respon­si­bil­i­ty of decid­ing who sits in the state’s nine-mem­ber exec­u­tive depart­ment, which con­sists of the fol­low­ing posi­tions, all elect­ed statewide for four-year terms:

1. Gov­er­nor
2. Lieu­tenant Governor
3. Sec­re­tary of State
4. Attor­ney General
5. Trea­sur­er
6. Audi­tor
7. Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands
8. Insur­ance Commissioner
9. Super­in­ten­dent of Pub­lic Instruction

Let’s take a look at who’s cur­rent­ly run­ning for each of these positions.

Governor

Twen­ty-two peo­ple have filed paper­work to run for Gov­er­nor of Wash­ing­ton State in 2024. Incum­bent Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee is one of them, but he’s not actu­al­ly run­ning; he announced in May that he was ready to pass the torch to a suc­ces­sor when his cur­rent term ends in Jan­u­ary 2025. Of the con­tenders for the seat Inslee is vacat­ing, there are five can­di­dates who have raised seri­ous mon­ey or have pre­vi­ous­ly raised seri­ous mon­ey in a state or fed­er­al lev­el campaign:

• Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son (D)
• For­mer Con­gress­man Dave Reichert (R)
• Rich­land school board mem­ber Semi Bird (R)
• Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands Hilary Franz (D)
• State Sen­a­tor Mark Mul­let (D)

NPI asked like­ly vot­ers about this field of guber­na­to­r­i­al can­di­dates last month, minus Reichert and with physi­cian Raul Gar­cia in the mix (Gar­cia is now run­ning against Maria Cantwell). We found that 25% pre­ferred Fer­gu­son, 17% pre­ferred Gar­cia, 10% pre­ferred Bird, 9% pre­ferred Franz, and 7% pre­ferred Mullet.

Read our poll find­ing here. At this point, the field looks pret­ty well formed, and it seems unlike­ly we’ll see oth­er cred­i­ble can­di­dates get in.

More on the candidates:

• Dave Reichert is back in the elec­toral are­na. His guber­na­to­r­i­al bid could be a tough slog.
• Wash­ing­ton State Sen­a­tor Mark Mul­let launch­es 2024 guber­na­to­r­i­al campaign
• Lands Com­mis­sion­er Hilary Franz announces can­di­da­cy for Gov­er­nor of Wash­ing­ton State
• Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son announces can­di­da­cy for Gov­er­nor of Wash­ing­ton State

Lieutenant Governor

The role: The Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor serves as the Pres­i­dent of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, fills in for the Gov­er­nor when they are away, and serves as a vital link between state gov­ern­ment and the for­eign min­istries of oth­er coun­tries, many of which have con­sulates in Wash­ing­ton State or on the West Coast.

Incum­bent Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Den­ny Heck, who pre­vailed over fel­low Demo­c­rat Marko Liias in 2020, recent­ly announced that he has decid­ed to seek a new term.

“As much time as I have spent in the pri­vate sec­tor, pub­lic ser­vice is just in my blood. I love the oppor­tu­ni­ty to serve my state and to make a dif­fer­ence. It is a real priv­i­lege,” said Heck in a state­ment announc­ing his can­di­da­cy on May 24th.

Espe­cial­ly giv­en the oth­er open­ings in the exec­u­tive depart­ment, Heck will prob­a­bly not face much com­pe­ti­tion in his bid for a sec­ond term.

Inde­pen­dent Fredrick E Pow­ell has also filed for the posi­tion and has yet to report rais­ing any mon­ey or mak­ing any expenditures.

Attorney General

The role: The Attor­ney Gen­er­al is the state’s chief legal offi­cer and heads up what has been called “the largest law firm in the state.” The office has a long list of respon­si­bil­i­ties; they include bring­ing actions in the name of the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton and defend­ing the state when it is sued.

Incum­bent Bob Fer­gu­son is run­ning for gov­er­nor, so the con­test for AG in 2024 is wide open. Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra, a North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion board­mem­ber, has declared her can­di­da­cy. The for­mer U.S. Attor­ney for West­ern Wash­ing­ton, Nick Brown, is said to be think­ing about jump­ing into the race as a Demo­c­rat, but has­n’t com­ment­ed on his plans pub­licly. Brown rejoined Paci­fi­ca Law Group last month after leav­ing the Depart­ment of Justice.

No can­di­dates have emerged yet on the Repub­li­can side.

“Wash­ing­ton has nev­er had an Attor­ney Gen­er­al of Wash­ing­ton with deep expe­ri­ence in crim­i­nal pros­e­cu­tion,” said Dhin­gra in a statement.

“I began my legal career in the State Attor­ney General’s Office assist­ing with Sex­u­al­ly Vio­lent Preda­tor cas­es, and went on to a two decade career as a King Coun­ty Deputy Pros­e­cu­tor. I’ve put domes­tic abusers and child preda­tors behind bars, pros­e­cut­ed gun crimes, and con­front­ed the blind spots in our jus­tice sys­tem to improve account­abil­i­ty and reduce crime… I brought this expe­ri­ence to the State Sen­ate to find bipar­ti­san com­mon ground to improve behav­ioral health inter­ven­tions, pro­tect seniors and kids from online preda­tors, and pro­tect sur­vivors of gen­der based violence.”

Secretary of State

The role: The Sec­re­tary of State is the cus­to­di­an of the state’s records and chief elec­tions offi­cer. In addi­tion to elec­tions, the office’s port­fo­lio of respon­si­bil­i­ties includes the state library, archives, apos­tilles pro­gram, and over­sight of cor­po­ra­tions and char­i­ties based with­in Wash­ing­ton State. 

Incum­bent Steve Hobbs was retained by the vot­ers in a spe­cial elec­tion last year after being appoint­ed to fill the vacan­cy left by Kim Wyman when she resigned to join the Biden admin­is­tra­tion. Hobbs defeat­ed Pierce Coun­ty Audi­tor Julie Ander­son to keep the job. He’s run­ning again in 2024 for a full term.

Hobbs does not yet have any opponents.

“We ran a cam­paign that focused on pri­or­i­ties rel­e­vant to all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans: enhanc­ing our cyber­se­cu­ri­ty, fight­ing dan­ger­ous elec­tion mis­in­for­ma­tion, and enfran­chis­ing under­served eli­gi­ble vot­ers. I’m proud of our issues-focused and pos­i­tive cam­paign,” Hobbs said after last year’s vic­to­ry.

“Thanks to your sup­port, I’ll remain hard at work keep­ing our elec­tions secure and acces­si­ble, pre­serv­ing our state’s rich her­itage, fos­ter­ing civic engage­ment, pre­serv­ing and shar­ing Washington’s sto­ries, and pro­vid­ing essen­tial busi­ness and char­i­ta­ble infor­ma­tion to the public.”

Treasurer

The role: The Trea­sur­er man­ages the state’s mon­ey. This includes the state’s cash flow — which the office says was more than $350 bil­lion in Fis­cal Year 2021 — and the state’s debt, which it also issues. The Trea­sur­er addi­tion­al­ly chairs the State Finance Com­mit­tee and the Pub­lic Deposit Pro­tec­tion Commission. 

Incum­bent Mike Pel­lic­ciot­ti was the only Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger to defeat a statewide Repub­li­can office­hold­er in 2020. Since oust­ing Duane David­son, Pel­lic­ciot­ti has active­ly worked with leg­is­la­tors on inno­v­a­tive ways to improve Wash­ing­ton’s finan­cial posi­tion and help the state’s res­i­dents invest in the future. He’s run­ning for anoth­er term and is unlike­ly to face much opposition.

Pel­lic­ciot­ti is also unop­posed at this juncture.

“We are doing big things in the office,” Pel­lic­ciot­ti said in an April 29th email update. That mes­sage not­ed he is cur­rent­ly work­ing on agency request leg­is­la­tion to cre­ate “baby bonds,” also known as the Wash­ing­ton Future Fund.

“This year it is becom­ing the nation­al mod­el to ensure that all chil­dren being born today have the cap­i­tal need­ed to achieve their dreams,” he said.

“With your sup­port, we are show­ing how we can take on the big issues fac­ing our state today. We’re just get­ting started!”

Auditor

The role: The Audi­tor is the watch­dog of Wash­ing­ton State gov­ern­ment. The agency works to ensure the peo­ple’s mon­ey is being effec­tive­ly invest­ed in the essen­tial pub­lic ser­vices that keep Wash­ing­ton’s com­mu­ni­ties and busi­ness­es strong, con­duct­ing both fis­cal audits and per­for­mance audits. 

Incum­bent Pat McCarthy has filed for reelec­tion, but has not raised much mon­ey, which will undoubt­ed­ly fuel spec­u­la­tion that she plans to retire.

McCarthy, a Demo­c­rat, was elect­ed in 2016 and suc­ceed­ed the scan­dal-plagued Troy Kel­ley, who was con­vict­ed short­ly after leav­ing office of mul­ti­ple counts of pos­ses­sion of stolen prop­er­ty, mak­ing false dec­la­ra­tions in a court pro­ceed­ing, and tax fraud. Kel­ley served a one year prison sen­tence begin­ning in late 2021.

For­tu­nate­ly for Wash­ing­ton, McCarthy’s tenure has been rel­a­tive­ly smooth, with­out the neg­a­tive pub­lic­i­ty the office had to endure dur­ing the Kel­ley years. McCarthy was for­mer­ly the exec­u­tive of Pierce Coun­ty and its audi­tor before that.

McCarthy does not yet have any opponents.

Commissioner of Public Lands

The role: The Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands is respon­si­ble for the stew­ard­ship of the forests, aquat­ic lands, and oth­er nat­ur­al resources owned by the peo­ple of Wash­ing­ton. The Com­mis­sion­er heads the Depart­ment of Nat­ur­al Resources, which man­ages parks and tim­ber har­vests, fights wild­fires, and con­ducts geo­log­ic haz­ards research, to name a few of its key functions. 

Incum­bent Com­mis­sion­er Hilary Franz has decid­ed to run for gov­er­nor in 2024, leav­ing an open seat. A large num­ber of can­di­dates have stepped for­ward to run or are explor­ing the idea, includ­ing five Democ­rats and one Repub­li­can. They are:

• King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Kei­th Scully
• State Sen­a­tor Kevin Van De Wege of the 24th Leg­isla­tive District
• For­mer State Sen­a­tor Mona Das of the 47th Leg­isla­tive District
• Shore­line City Coun­cilmem­ber Kei­th Scully
• Repub­li­can activist Sue Kuehl Ped­er­sen, Franz’s 2016 opponent

None of them have yet report­ed rais­ing any sig­nif­i­cant amounts of money.

Scul­ly has yet to file a C1. The oth­ers have, but not all have pub­lished announce­ments say­ing they’re run­ning for the office.

Van De Wege and Das have put up websites.

Insurance Commissioner

The role: The Insur­ance Com­mis­sion­er enforces state reg­u­la­tions on the insur­ance indus­try and sets rules to gov­ern their busi­ness prac­tices. They’re the indus­try ref­er­ee. “We make sure insur­ance com­pa­nies fol­low the rules and peo­ple get the cov­er­age they’ve paid for,” the office says. As part of this work, they inves­ti­gate thou­sands of com­plaints lodged against insur­ance com­pa­nies every year. This is the only statewide office that is not pro­vid­ed for in the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion; it was cre­at­ed by statute first enact­ed in 1947. 

Incum­bent Mike Krei­dler is retir­ing after more than two decades in the job. His last few years have been rocky, with alle­ga­tions of improp­er behav­ior lev­eled against him. Leg­isla­tive lead­ers and oth­er mem­bers of the exec­u­tive depart­ment called on him to resign, but he refused. How­ev­er, he’s not run­ning again, so the office is set to begin a new era under dif­fer­ent lead­er­ship in a year and a half.

Wash­ing­ton State Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Kud­er­er (D‑48th Dis­trict), who rep­re­sents NPI’s home­town of Red­mond along with fel­low statewide hope­ful Man­ka Dhin­gra, is present­ly the only declared can­di­date for the office. She already has lots of endorse­ments for her cam­paign and may not face much competition.

“The issue of insur­ance is deeply per­son­al for Pat­ty Kud­er­er,” her web­site explains. “When her daugh­ter was born and crit­i­cal­ly ill at 1lb 13 oz in the NICU, her insur­ance com­pa­ny tried to deny her daughter’s care by claim­ing the treat­ment her doc­tor was attempt­ing to imple­ment was experimental.”

“After rais­ing hell, the insur­ance com­pa­ny final­ly paid for the life sav­ing care. Then when her daugh­ter was five months old, the insur­ance com­pa­ny tried to say she had already reached her life­time cap. Pat­ty was thank­ful­ly able to advo­cate for her daughter’s care, but the expe­ri­ence left a last­ing impact on Patty’s life and has shaped much of the work she has done as a legislator.”

Superintendent of Public Instruction

The role: The Super­in­ten­dent is the admin­is­tra­tor of Wash­ing­ton’s K‑12 pub­lic school sys­tem. “Work­ing with the state’s 295 pub­lic school dis­tricts and 6 state-trib­al edu­ca­tion com­pact schools, OSPI allo­cates fund­ing and pro­vides tools, resources, and tech­ni­cal assis­tance so every stu­dent in Wash­ing­ton is pro­vid­ed a high-qual­i­ty pub­lic edu­ca­tion,” the agency says. The posi­tion is the only one with­in the exec­u­tive depart­ment that has a non­par­ti­san des­ig­na­tion, mean­ing vot­ers don’t see any par­ty labels next to the can­di­dates’ names on the ballot.

Incum­bent Chris Reyk­dal, first elect­ed in 2016, is run­ning for a third term.

“As I have reflect­ed on the last six years, I am struck by how much progress we have made, despite fac­ing a glob­al pan­dem­ic and a ridicu­lous cul­ture war tar­get­ing pub­lic edu­ca­tion,” Reyk­dal said in a June 12th announcement.

“Our enroll­ments are grow­ing, assess­ment scores are ris­ing, and our grad­u­a­tion rate remains near a record high. I put a very aggres­sive bud­get request in front of the Leg­is­la­ture this year, and they expand­ed sup­ports for stu­dents with dis­abil­i­ties, free school meals for 90,000 addi­tion­al stu­dents, and $400 mil­lion more in direct stu­dent sup­ports and men­tal health over the next two years.”

“Unlike Flori­da, Texas, Okla­homa, and else­where, in Wash­ing­ton State, we pro­tect the civ­il rights of our stu­dents, we don’t ban books, and we don’t vil­i­fy teach­ers to ush­er in reli­gious pri­vate school vouch­ers,” Reyk­dal observed.

“In fact, we just secured $1.3 bil­lion in addi­tion­al fund­ing to ensure all of our edu­ca­tors retain com­pet­i­tive salaries and ben­e­fits. From class­rooms to play­grounds, from cafe­te­rias to school bus­es, every staff mem­ber plays a role in the health, safe­ty, and learn­ing of our stu­dents, and they deserve every ounce of respect that comes with com­pen­sa­tion dig­ni­ty. It might feel that the nation is com­ing apart, but in Wash­ing­ton State, we just stay focused on stu­dent success.”

Reyk­dal’s only declared oppo­nent so far, for­mer state Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Brad Klip­pert, is an ultra MAGA Repub­li­can who favors school pri­va­ti­za­tion and would bring DeSan­tis-style attacks on pub­lic schools to Wash­ing­ton if he were elected.

Klip­pert left the Leg­is­la­ture to chal­lenge Dan New­house for Con­gress last year, charg­ing he was insuf­fi­cient­ly loy­al to Don­ald Trump and the ultra MAGA agen­da. But he failed to get through the Top Two elec­tion. After that, he ran for Sec­re­tary of State as a write-in can­di­date. He did­n’t come close to win­ning, but he did play a piv­otal role in thwart­ing Julie Ander­son­’s hopes of unseat­ing Steve Hobbs.

And there you have it!

That’s who’s run­ning so far for statewide office in Wash­ing­ton in 2024.

We may repeat this fea­ture here on The Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate on a sea­son­al basis since the fields of can­di­dates are bound to change.