Mainstream Republicans of Washington unveil endorsements in four 2024 statewide races

The Main­stream Repub­li­cans of Wash­ing­ton are seek­ing to restore stream­flow after many years parched of influ­ence, watch­ing Democ­rats hold onto pow­er while the far right has tak­en what used to be the par­ty of Lin­coln on a los­ing streak.

To that end, the Main­stream­ers have endorsed a statewide tick­et months ahead of the August Top Two elec­tion. Its can­di­dates will, how­ev­er, need to swim upstream, for Don­ald Trump is like­ly to lose Wash­ing­ton – bigtime.

Atop the tick­et is for­mer sev­en-term Con­gress­man Dave Reichert, who is run­ning for Gov­er­nor after toy­ing with a can­di­da­cy for mul­ti­ple cycles. 

Dr. Raul Gar­cia, an emer­gency room physi­cian from Yaki­ma, is tak­ing on Demo­c­ra­t­ic Unit­ed States Sen­a­tor Maria Cantwell, in office for 24 years and heav­i­ly favored for reelection. 

Oust­ed by ultra MAGA extrem­ist Joe Kent in the 2022 Top Two elec­tion, for­mer U.S. Rep. Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler is seek­ing a come­back run­ning for Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands. She was one of ten House Repub­li­cans who vot­ed to impeach Pres­i­dent Trump after the Jan­u­ary 6th, 2021, insur­rec­tion at the Unit­ed States Capi­tol. Round­ing out the tick­et is for­mer State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Chad Magen­danz for Office of Super­in­ten­dent of Pub­lic Instruc­tion. Magen­danz is an out­spo­ken advo­cate of char­ter schools. 

“This is prob­a­bly the strongest line­up of exec­u­tive Repub­li­can can­di­dates in Wash­ing­ton state in at least a decade: Each of these can­di­dates can build a coali­tion of Repub­li­cans, inde­pen­dents, and Democ­rats who want to see pos­i­tive change in the state”, said Dean­na Mar­tinez, who heads Main­stream Republicans. 

Mar­tinez cast the four can­di­dates as “prag­mat­ic prob­lem solvers” as opposed to Demo­c­ra­t­ic “ide­o­logues”. She described state Repub­li­cans as a “big tent coali­tion,” a wish­ful and out­dat­ed definition.

The “Main­stream­ers” will be shar­ing the tick­et with Trump, who lost King Coun­ty by a half-mil­lion votes in 2020, and 3rd Dis­trict con­gres­sion­al can­di­date Joe Kent, who wants to put Dr. Antho­ny Fau­ci on tri­al for mur­der. And the Main­stream Repub­li­cans have them­selves embraced far-right Repub­li­can State Chair­man State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jim Walsh, a blus­ter­ing pres­ence in the Wash­ing­ton Legislature.

The Repub­li­cans last held the gov­er­nor’s office in 1984, when John Spell­man was vot­ed out of office by vot­ers who want­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Booth Gard­ner. Gard­ner has been fol­lowed by four more Demo­c­ra­t­ic governors.

The state has been rep­re­sent­ed in Con­gress by two Democ­rats, Sen­a­tors Pat­ty Mur­ray and Maria Cantwell, since 2000. Mur­ray won her sixth term in a land­slide two years ago, once more under­es­ti­mat­ed by the Republicans.

Still, Repub­li­cans have come close to win­ning the gov­er­nor­ship in 2004 and 2012. But Reichert will like­ly face off against Demo­c­ra­t­ic Attor­ney Gen­er­al Bob Fer­gu­son, a chess cham­pi­on who has a record of out­work­ing and out­think­ing his competition. 

The Repub­li­cans field­ed what they thought was a strong leg­isla­tive tick­et two years ago. Eight high­ly recruit­ed, well financed can­di­dates sought to flip Demo­c­rat-held seats in the Leg­is­la­ture. All of them lost.