State Representative Jacquelin Maycumber launches campaign for Congress in WA-05

The con­test to suc­ceed retir­ing U.S. Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers in Wash­ing­ton’s 5th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict is on.

Today, Repub­li­can State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jacquelin May­cum­ber announced that she will leave the state­house to seek elec­tion to Con­gress this year, declar­ing: “My jour­ney as a moth­er, farmer and for­mer law enforce­ment offi­cer has equipped me with a unique blend of expe­ri­ences that I have lever­aged to enhance the qual­i­ty of life for the res­i­dents of East­ern Washington.”

“As a Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­tor cur­rent­ly serv­ing the largest dis­trict in the state, I know the impor­tance of lis­ten­ing to every voice. I am com­mit­ted to engag­ing with com­mu­ni­ties from Repub­lic to Pomeroy, Cusick to Spokane Val­ley, Wal­la Wal­la to Ritzville, and every­where in between. As a farmer, I will con­tin­ue to fight for the voice of rur­al Wash­ing­ton,” May­cum­ber added.

May­cum­ber, forty-four, has rep­re­sent­ed the 7th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict since 2017. Pri­or to becom­ing a law­mak­er, she worked as a leg­isla­tive aide to for­mer Rep­re­sen­ta­tive and now Sen­a­tor Shelly Short, who took over for Bri­an Dansel after his res­ig­na­tion to take a job with the Trump regime. May­cum­ber was cho­sen from a list of three names sup­plied by the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty by coun­ty com­mis­sion­ers in the five leg­isla­tive dis­tricts that are in the 7th District.

A fourth gen­er­a­tion landown­er, May­cum­ber lives in the Repub­lic area with her hus­band Mar­ty and three chil­dren. She has a bachelor’s degree in bio­chem­istry and has a back­ground in bio­med­ical research and law enforce­ment. She also has expe­ri­ence in the K‑12 edu­ca­tion are­na as a school board member.

May­cum­ber is part of House Repub­li­can lead­er­ship — she serves as Minor­i­ty Floor Leader, work­ing with State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mon­i­ca Stonier (D‑49th Dis­trict: Clark Coun­ty) to man­age floor action. (The major­i­ty par­ty con­trols what hap­pens on the floor, but does so in con­sul­ta­tion with the minor­i­ty party.)

May­cum­ber says her pri­ma­ry focus “will be on ensur­ing our nation’s safe­ty by secur­ing our bor­ders, there­by pro­tect­ing our econ­o­my and com­mu­ni­ties from the threats of human traf­fick­ing and the influx of nar­cotics like Fentanyl.”

She is also opposed to breach­ing the Snake Riv­er dams that block fish pas­sage. “Secur­ing the Snake Riv­er dams is cru­cial for ener­gy pro­duc­tion, agri­cul­ture and trans­porta­tion,” her cam­paign announce­ment con­tends. “These dams play a sig­nif­i­cant role in pro­vid­ing hydro­elec­tric pow­er, irri­ga­tion and facil­i­tat­ing nav­i­ga­tion for trans­porta­tion. There­fore, ensur­ing the secu­ri­ty and sta­bil­i­ty of these dams is vital for the over­all well-being and devel­op­ment of the region they serve and I promise to con­tin­ue fight­ing to pro­tect them.”

May­cum­ber says she is endorsed by the fol­low­ing peo­ple and groups at the out­set of her cam­paign for Congress:

• Spokane Coun­ty Pro­fes­sion­al Fire­fight­ers, IAFF Local 2916
• Coun­ty Sher­iffs Fer­ry Coun­ty Ray­mond May­cum­ber, Stevens Coun­ty Brad Manke, and Pend Oreille Coun­ty Glenn Blakeslee
• Stevens Coun­ty Pro­fes­sion­al Fire­fight­ers, IAFF Local 4333
• 7th Dis­trict State Sen­a­tor Shelly Short
• 7th Dis­trict Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Joel Kretz
• 8th Dis­trict State Sen­a­tor Matt Boehnke
• 8th Dis­trict State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive April Connors
• 16th State Dis­trict Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mark Klick­er and Skyler Rude
• Spokane Coun­ty Com­mis­sion­er Chair Mary Kuney
• Spokane Coun­ty Clerk Tim Fitzgerald
• Spokane Val­ley City Coun­cil Al Markel
• Curt Holmes Kalispel Tribe vice-chair
• The Kalispel Tribe
• Doreen and Alice Moran Pend Oreille County
• Bri­an Whitely
• Andrew and Danielle Holstine
• Pend Oreille Coun­ty Com­mis­sion­er John Gentle
• Grant and Lin­da Peter­son, for­mer Asso­ciate FEMA Direc­tor con­firmed under two pres­i­dents, for­mer Spokane Coun­ty Commissioner
• May­or of Chewe­lah Gre­go­ry McCunn
• Deer Park City Coun­cil Bil­ly Costello
• Pend Oreille Coun­ty Audi­tor Mar­i­anne Nichols
• Bob Gumm, Vet­er­ans Ser­vice Officer
• Nick Richard­son, Vet­er­ans Advisor
• Ray Liv­ingston, wildlife con­trol oper­a­tor, TV personality

The 5th Dis­trict is wide­ly con­sid­ered to be “Safe Repub­li­can” turf. It is Wash­ing­ton’s east­ern­most con­gres­sion­al dis­trict, which rarely votes for Democ­rats or pro­gres­sive caus­es. The last Demo­c­rat to rep­re­sent the 5th was the ven­er­a­ble Speak­er Tom Foley, the only Speak­er in Unit­ed States his­to­ry to be from the State of Wash­ing­ton. Foley lost his reelec­tion bid in 1994 to Repub­li­can George Nether­cutt. Nether­cutt chal­lenged Pat­ty Mur­ray ten years lat­er and lost, end­ing his time in Con­gress. He was replaced by McMor­ris Rodgers, who in 2001 had become the House Minor­i­ty Leader in the Wash­ing­ton State House.

McMor­ris Rodgers earned 60% of the vote in her first con­gres­sion­al cam­paign, trounc­ing Demo­c­ra­t­ic rival Don Bar­bi­eri. In sub­se­quent cycles, she usu­al­ly matched or exceed­ed that, though in 2018, she only man­aged to get 55% of the vote against Lisa Brown, who is now serv­ing as May­or of Spokane after she defeat­ed McMor­ris Rodgers ally Nadine Wood­ward in a hard fought election.

Three oth­er can­di­dates have filed with the Fed­er­al Elec­tions Com­mis­sion to run for Con­gress in WA-05 this cycle: Repub­li­can John Guen­ther, Demo­c­rat Carmela Con­roy, and Demo­c­rat Ann Marie Dan­imus. Guen­ther has only raised $5,872.24 so far. Con­roy has raised $72,270.49 and Dan­imus has raised $103,575.80.

If no oth­er cred­i­ble Repub­li­can files, May­cum­ber would be favored to win the seat. But it’s been two decades since WA-05 was an open seat, and it would­n’t be sur­pris­ing if one or two more cred­i­ble Repub­li­can can­di­dates were to jump in.