Meet the Republicans joining the Washington State Legislature on January 9th, 2023

Editor’s Note: This is the sec­ond of two install­ments intro­duc­ing the peo­ple join­ing the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture in January.

On Jan­u­ary 9th, 2023, the Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture will offi­cial­ly con­vene for its one hun­dred and five day long ses­sion with many new mem­bers and even stronger Demo­c­ra­t­ic majori­ties. Democ­rats will have a major­i­ty of twen­ty-nine in the Sen­ate and a major­i­ty of fifty-eight in the House. The par­ty ulti­mate­ly flipped one seat in the Sen­ate and one in the House in the Novem­ber midterms.

Repub­li­cans saw their num­bers shrink in what was expect­ed to be a “red wave” year. Although the Repub­li­cans will have small­er leg­isla­tive cau­cus­es in Olympia dur­ing the next two ses­sions, they are wel­com­ing sev­er­al brand new mem­bers on both sides of the Rotun­da from a num­ber of dif­fer­ent leg­isla­tive districts.

Here is a com­pendi­um of the Repub­li­cans about to join the Legislature:

4th Legislative District

Posi­tion 1: Suzanne Schmidt

Suzanne Schmidt will be tak­ing over for Bob McCaslin, who ran for Spokane Coun­ty Audi­tor this elec­tion cycle.

She went to Flaht­head Val­ley Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, where she received an Asso­ciate of Arts degree, and to Spokane Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, where she received an Asso­ciate of Applied Sci­ences degree.

She’s also a board mem­ber of both the Greater Spokane Val­ley Cham­ber of Com­merce and Com­mu­ni­ty Col­leges of Spokane Foundation.

She ran on reduc­ing reg­u­la­tions, cut­ting tax­es, and decreas­ing crime.

McCaslin chal­lenged incum­bent Demo­c­ra­t­ic Spokane Coun­ty Audi­tor Vic­ki Dal­ton and nar­row­ly lost.

Posi­tion 2: Leonard Christian

For­mer State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Leonard Chris­t­ian defeat­ed incum­bent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Rob Chase, also a Repub­li­can. He went to Air Force Com­mu­ni­ty Col­lege, where he received an Asso­ciate Degree, Embry Rid­dle Uni­ver­si­ty, where he received a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence, and to Web­ster Uni­ver­si­ty, where he received his MBA.

Chase, an acolyte of dis­graced ex-Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Matt Shea, “fol­lowed Shea’s foot­steps, spon­sor­ing sim­i­lar bills and shar­ing con­spir­a­cy the­o­ries sur­round­ing COVID-19 and elec­tion fraud on his Face­book page,” accord­ing to the Spokesman-Review.

“Chase has spo­ken about his sup­port for mov­ing the Unit­ed States back to the gold stan­dard and for split­ting Wash­ing­ton into two states,” the paper added in a Novem­ber 8th sto­ry about the Repub­li­can-on-Repub­li­can con­test. “Chris­t­ian does not sup­port either of those ideas and has crit­i­cized Chase for spend­ing his time in the Leg­is­la­ture spon­sor­ing bills that he believes are a waste of time.”

Chris­t­ian is also a real estate bro­ker and a retired mas­ter sergeant of the U.S. Air Force. One of the key planks of his plat­form is to reduce taxes.

8th Legislative District

Posi­tion 1: Stephanie Barnard

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive-elect Stephanie Barnard, a cur­rent precinct com­mit­tee offi­cer and Franklin Coun­ty Repub­li­can Par­ty Chair, went to Colum­bia Basin Col­lege and West­ern Governor’s University.

In the Tri-City Region­al Cham­ber of Com­merce, she was a for­mer direc­tor of Gov­ern­ment and Region­al Affairs, as well as a for­mer staff lead for the Tri-Cities Leg­isla­tive Council.

Accord­ing to her vot­er pam­phlet state­ment, she is “com­mit­ted to lim­it­ing gov­ern­ment, low­er­ing tax­es, sup­port­ing law enforce­ment, and pro­tect­ing our Snake Riv­er dams.”

Barnard suc­ceeds Repub­li­can Brad Klip­pert, who ran unsuc­cess­ful­ly against Dan New­house for Con­gress in the 4th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict and then unsuc­cess­ful­ly for Sec­re­tary of State as a write-in candidate.

Posi­tion 2: April Connors

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive-elect April Con­nors got her BA from Wash­ing­ton State Uni­ver­si­ty and has been a real­tor for twen­ty-two years. She is also a cur­rent board mem­ber of the Kadlec Foundation.

She wants “good schools, more local jobs, and abun­dant hous­ing,” accord­ing to her vot­er pam­phlet statement.

She also is opposed to increas­ing reg­u­la­tions on law enforcement.

Con­nors suc­ceeds cur­rent Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Matt Boehnke, who ran for the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate and won.

15th Legislative District

Posi­tion 2: Bryan Sandlin

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive-elect Bryan San­dlin earned his bachelor’s degree from Wash­ing­ton State University.

He is cur­rent­ly the High­land Fruit Grow­ers’ field­man and food safe­ty coordinator/operations manager.

He is against defund­ing the police, and wants “to help put an end to Gov­ern­ment over­reach and return fis­cal respon­si­bil­i­ty to Wash­ing­ton State,” accord­ing to his voter’s pam­phlet statement.

San­dlin suc­ceeds Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jere­mie Dufault, who was drawn out of the 15th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict dur­ing last year’s redis­trict­ing process.

17th Legislative District

Posi­tion 1: Kevin Waters

Kevin Waters served as the com­mis­sion­er for the port of Ska­ma­nia from 2010 to 2019, and is now head­ed to Olympia.

He went to East­ern Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty and is also exec­u­tive direc­tor of the Ska­ma­nia Eco­nom­ic Devel­op­ment Council.

His plat­form includes increas­ing fund­ing for law enforce­ment as well as reduc­ing tax­es and regulations.

Waters will be the suc­ces­sor to extrem­ist Repub­li­can Vic­ki Kraft, who decid­ed to leave the Leg­is­la­ture to chal­lenge Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler for Con­gress. Kraft fell well short of a top two spot in August.

18th Legislative District

Posi­tion 1: Stephanie McClintock

Stephanie McClin­tock went to Con­cor­dia Uni­ver­si­ty, where she earned a bachelor’s in Busi­ness Management.

She has been elect­ed as a Precinct Com­mit­tee Offi­cer and was for­mer­ly the chair of the Clark Coun­ty Repub­li­can Party.

She wants to reduce what she sees as “reck­less spend­ing” and wants to make sure that police get the sup­port they need.

McClin­tock will be the suc­ces­sor to Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Bran­don Vick, who did not seek reelection.

Posi­tion 2: Greg Cheney

Greg Cheney earned a Bach­e­lor of Arts in His­to­ry from Wal­la Wal­la Uni­ver­si­ty, a Mas­ter of Arts in US His­to­ry from George Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty, and his JD from the Seat­tle Uni­ver­si­ty School of Law.

He wants to tack­le the men­tal health and addic­tion crises in our state, as he sees them as the main issues result­ing in our home­less­ness cri­sis; he also wants to increase the num­ber of well-pay­ing jobs in the Clark Coun­ty region, among oth­er priorities.

Cheney will be the suc­ces­sor to Repub­li­can Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Lar­ry Hoff, who did not seek reelection.

26th Legislative District

Posi­tion 1: Spencer Hutchins

Spencer Hutchins attend­ed Gon­za­ga Uni­ver­si­ty, where he earned his BA, and the Uni­ver­si­ty of Wash­ing­ton Law School, where he earned his JD.

He also served on the Gig Har­bor City Coun­cil from 2017 to 2019.

He was los­ing on Elec­tion Night, but he came from behind to defeat Demo­c­ra­t­ic rival Adi­son Richards.

He’s stat­ed that he “will work to ensure law enforce­ment has the tools they need to keep us safe,” as well as “fight against ris­ing tax­es and pro­tect tax­pay­ers by hold­ing gov­ern­ment spend­ing accountable.”

Hutchins suc­ceeds embat­tled Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Jesse Young, who left the House to run against Emi­ly Ran­dall for Sen­ate. Ran­dall defeat­ed Young and he will not be return­ing to the Legislature.

35th Legislative District

Posi­tion 2: Travis Couture

Travis Cou­ture, a vet­er­an of the U.S. Navy, went to Brand­man Uni­ver­si­ty, where he earned a BA and MBA.

He is also a for­mer chair­man of the Mason Coun­ty Repub­li­can Party.

Now elect­ed to the state Leg­is­la­ture, he wants to “restore pub­lic safe­ty, improve our schools, boost our econ­o­my, and pro­tect your Con­sti­tu­tion­al Rights.”

Cou­ture is the suc­ces­sor to Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Drew MacEwen, who left the House to run for the Wash­ing­ton State Senate.

39th Legislative District

Posi­tion 1: Sam Low

Sam Low went to MBU, where he received a master’s degree in orga­ni­za­tion­al leadership.

He is cur­rent­ly a Sno­homish Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber, chair of the Wash­ing­ton State Trans­porta­tion Improve­ment Board, and the Wash­ing­ton State Traf­fic Safe­ty Commissioner.

He will “pri­or­i­tize pub­lic safe­ty, pro­vide tax relief, reduce traf­fic con­ges­tion, and pro­mote fam­i­ly-wage jobs.”

Low was recruit­ed by J.T. Wilcox, the Minor­i­ty Leader of the House Repub­li­cans, to run against Doug Suther­land, a fer­vent Trump admir­er, and elec­tion denier… one of the most extreme Repub­li­cans in the Legislature.

Two of these Repub­li­cans are not new to the Leg­is­la­ture, hav­ing all served in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives or in the Sen­ate before, but they were not part of the Sen­ate Demo­c­ra­t­ic cau­cus in the pre­vi­ous bien­ni­um, so they’re get­ting hon­or­able men­tions in this post along with the third, who is new to the Legislature.

8th Legislative District

State Sen­a­tor: Matt Boehnke

Sen­a­tor-elect Matt Boehnke, a retired Lieu­tenant Colonel in the US Army, for­mer Ken­newick city coun­cilmem­ber, and cur­rent State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, is mov­ing from the state House to the state Senate.

He earned a BA from East­ern Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­si­ty and a MAS from Embry-Rid­dle Aero­nau­ti­cal University.

He wants to reduce tax­es and has called for keep­ing edu­ca­tion pol­i­cy deci­sions at the local level.

Boehnke suc­ceeds State Sen­a­tor Sharon Brown, who opt­ed not to run for reelec­tion. Brown has unsuc­cess­ful­ly sought to be elect­ed to judi­cial office in recent years.

15th Legislative District

State Sen­a­tor: Nik­ki Torres

Pas­co City Coun­cilmem­ber and now Sen­a­tor-elect Nik­ki Tor­res earned a master’s degree in busi­ness admin­is­tra­tion from the Uni­ver­si­ty of Phoenix.

She has also been a part of many orga­ni­za­tions, such as the Tri-Cities His­pan­ic Cham­ber of Com­merce, the Ken­newick Police Depart­ment Foun­da­tion, Tri-Cities Com­mu­ni­ty Health, and more. Accord­ing to her vot­er pam­phlet state­ment, she plans to “vote against waste­ful spend­ing and unfair tax­es,” as well as “sup­port law enforce­ment, men­tal health ser­vices, and afford­able hous­ing measures.”

Tor­res suc­ceeds retir­ing State Sen­a­tor Jim Hon­ey­ford, who did not seek reelection.

35th Legislative District

State Sen­a­tor: Drew MacEwen

Rep­re­sen­ta­tive MacEwen went to Excel­sior Col­lege and received a Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence, and he’s also a US Naval Nuclear Pow­er Pro­gram graduate.

In addi­tion, he’s “an invest­ment man­ag­er and a part­ner in two local restaurants.”

He was just elect­ed to the state Sen­ate, so he’s leav­ing the state house. He believes that “we need to return to a bal­anced state government.”

MacEwen suc­ceeds long­time State Sen­a­tor Tim Shel­don of Potlatch.

Shel­don, a Repub­li­can, con­tin­ued to call him­self a Demo­c­rat even after defect­ing to the Sen­ate Repub­li­can cau­cus ten years ago, but was con­sid­ered a Repub­li­can by polit­i­cal observers due to his asso­ci­a­tion with the Republicans.