By Canadian Press

Ferguson, Reichert advance to November election in race for governorship

Aug 6, 2024 | 8:29 PM

SEATTLE (AP) — Washington state voters are picking candidates in Tuesday’s primary for governor and several key U.S. House races.

Under the state’s primary system, the top two vote-getters in each of the contests advance to the November election, regardless of party. Because Washington is a vote-by-mail state, with ballots due to be postmarked by Election Day, it often takes days to learn final results in close races.

Here’s a look at key Washington races:

4th Congressional District

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse’s bid for a sixth term has meant going up against Donald Trump-endorsed candidates Jerrod Sessler, a Navy veteran, and Tiffany Smiley, a former nurse who entered the race after losing to U.S. Sen. Patty Murray two years ago. The former president’s backing for Sessler came months ago, while his endorsement for Smiley happened three days before the primary, marking a unique, though not unprecedented, dual endorsement by the former president.

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Newhouse is one of the last remaining House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump. His opponents believe that vote is a huge liability, but political experts caution it’s difficult to say whether the endorsements will sway voters who already stuck with Newhouse two years ago.

Newhouse is endorsed by the NRA and the National Right to Life, and he has mostly steered clear of the subject of Trump. He’s instead focused on agriculture and border security in a state with millions of acres of pastures, orchards and cereal grain lands where immigrant labor is extremely important.

Governor’s race

Washington state’s longtime attorney general advanced Tuesday to the November general election in the race to become the governor of a Democratic stronghold that hasn’t had an open race for the state’s top job in more than a decade.

Bob Ferguson, a Democrat who has served as attorney general since 2013, went up against more than two dozen candidates in the primary election. He will face former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, a Republican, in November. The race has featured weeks of intense sparring between the two rivals. he second spot for the general election is too early to call.

In a state with a reputation as solid Democratic territory that hasn’t had a Republican governor in nearly 40 years, any conservative candidate faces an uphill battle. But the race is considered competitive.

Under Washington’s primary system, the top two vote-getters in each of Tuesday’s races advance to the November election, regardless of party.

3rd Congressional District

Two years ago, Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez came out of nowhere to win a congressional seat against Joe Kent, who had Trump’s backing in a district that hadn’t been in Democratic hands for over a decade. She took over a seat held by a more moderate Republican who lost the primary in part because she voted to impeach Trump after the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Now, armed once again with Trump’s endorsement, Kent is back to try to take the seat in the southwest corner of the state. But he is facing stiff competition as former King County Prosecutor Leslie Lewallen gains a groundswell of support from conservatives looking to move the seat back into more moderate Republican hands.

Gluesenkamp Perez, who was ranked by the Lugar Center and the Georgetown University McCourt School of Public Policy as having one of the most bipartisan voting records in the U.S. House, has far outraised her competitors. She is expected to make it out of the primary and face one of the tightest general elections in the country.

8th Congressional District

Democratic U.S. Rep. Kim Schrier’s bid to return to office has been shaken up by an upstart campaign started because of the response to the Israel-Hamas war.

Imraan Siddiqi, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations in Washington, has made the war in Gaza a centerpiece of his platform and has gained some traction as he derides Schrier for her approach, which often aligns with President Joe Biden’s.

The district is a mix of wealthy Seattle exurbs populated by tech workers and central Washington farmland, and until 2019 had been held by the GOP. The presence of Siddiqi, also a Democrat, could make Schrier appear more moderate, something she has historically sought by way of Republican endorsements in the purple district.

Schrier, a pediatrician, has stayed quiet about the war recently, instead showcasing the 14 bills she’s had signed into law by Trump and Biden. Experts anticipate she will go head-to-head in November with the Republican in the race, Carmen Goers, a commercial banker running to tamp down inflation and cut back on crime.

Hallie Golden, The Associated Press