U.S. Congressional Elections

Maria Cantwell has served as a U.S. Senator representing Washington for over 20 years, after beating former Republican Sen. Slade Gorton in 2000. Cantwell comes from a working-class family and was the first in her family to graduate from college before pursuing a career as a businesswoman in the tech industry, according to her website. Since being elected to the Senate, Cantwell says she has overcome partisan divides to achieve results for students, seniors, veterans, women and working families of Washington, helping to pass the Inflation Reduction Act, fighting for reproductive rights, protecting education funding, and boosting renewable energy in Washington. If reelected, Cantwell says she will continue advocating for policies that boost the economy, protect the environment, create clean energy jobs, improve education opportunities, and make housing, health care and retirement affordable. 

Maria Cantwell FEC link
Maria Cantwell campaign website
Maria Cantwell State Voter Guide

Related reading:
Raul Garcia drops WA governor bid after Dave Reichert announces run (Cascade PBS)
Poll: Almost half of WA voters are undecided on governor’s race (Cascade PBS)

An emergency room doctor for over 25 years, Garcia, a Republican, says his experience as a Cuban immigrant who fought to achieve the American Dream gave him an appreciation for public service and a fresh perspective to revitalize Washington. Garcia unsuccessfully ran for governor in 2020, when he lost in the primary. He initially planned to run for governor again this year until Dave Reichert announced his candidacy. In addition to working as an emergency medicine doctor, Garcia has owned a medical practice and served as the founding dean of two medical schools and the medical director of two hospitals. In 2020, he founded Partnership for Our Food Security, a coalition to promote COVID-19 education and protection, particularly among the Latino community. Garcia describes himself as a moderate conservative, and says he sees past party politics and takes a “common sense” approach to policy issues. If elected, Garcia says he will address the fentanyl crisis, rising inflation, and funding women’s health care. 

Raul Garcia FEC link
Raul Garcia campaign website
Raul Garcia State Voter Guide

Related reading:
Raul Garcia drops WA governor bid after Dave Reichert announces run (Cascade PBS)
Poll: Almost half of WA voters are undecided on governor’s race (Cascade PBS)

Jeb Brewer is a project executive at Sevan Multi-Site Solutions, a construction project management company. He ran for election unsuccessfully as a state representative in 2020 and as a state senator in 2022. A Republican, Brewer’s priorities include strengthening American manufacturing, expanding education and job opportunities and creating safer communities, among others on his campaign website.

Jeb Brewer FEC link
Jeb Brewer campaign website 
Jeb Brewer State Voter Guide

Suzan DelBene was first elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2012. She currently serves on the House Ways and Means Committee, which works to reform the federal tax code, and is chair emeritus of the New Democrat Coalition, a center-left caucus within the House. DelBene spent over two decades in the tech sector as a business leader and entrepreneur. While serving as director of the Washington State Department of Revenue, the state’s primary tax agency, before her election to Congress, DelBene proposed reforms to support small businesses. Her priorities include supporting job creation, affordable health care, budget and fiscal responsibility, immigration reform, protecting the environment, reproductive rights, and supporting working families, among other legislative priorities on her Congressional website.  

Suzan DelBene FEC link
Suzan DelBene campaign website
Suzan DelBene State Voter Guide

Related reading:
Rep. Suzan DelBene talks Capitol attack and legislative priorities (Cascade PBS) 

Cody Hart, who filed to run as a MAGA Republican, is a civil engineer with his own firm in Skagit County. Hart says his priorities include stopping the “criminal invasion at our southern border,” ensuring election integrity and cutting government spending, which he says is the cause of inflation. He also says that he is an “absolute supporter of the right of unborn children to live” and also supports parental rights in education.

Cody Hart campaign website
Cody Hart State Voter Guide

Rick Larsen has served 12 terms as the representative for Washington’s 2nd Congressional District. He currently serves as the lead Democrat on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee, and helped draft and pass the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which invested over $5 billion in Washington’s transit systems. Larsen’s environmental record includes supporting the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law in 2022, to invest in clean energy. Additional priorities include supporting local jobs and small businesses, expanding access to affordable health care, protecting abortion rights and strengthening gun control, according to his campaign website.

Rick Larsen FEC link
Rick Larsen campaign website
Rick Larsen State Voter Guide

Related reading:
2020 election could affect major WA bridge, road projects (Cascade PBS)

Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is a former small-business owner of an auto repair and machine shop and lives in rural Skamania County. Gluesenkamp Perez says her background from a working-class family and experience with small-business ownership and regulations has influenced her priorities as a member of Congress to support better pay for workers and a reduction in the red tape for small businesses to succeed. She defeated Trump-backed Joe Kent in 2022 by 2,500 votes, in a campaign virtually ignored by the national Democratic Party until the last few weeks before the election. She currently serves on the Agriculture Committee and the Small Business Committee. Gluesenkamp Perez also is one of the chairs of the Blue Dog Coalition, a group of fiscally moderate Democrats who push centrist policies. According to her campaign website, Gluesenkamp Perez’s other priorities include opposing big donations to political campaigns, protecting women’s right to abortions, reviving American manufacturing and protecting and sustaining America’s trade workers and laborers. 

Marie Gluesenkamp Perez FEC link
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez campaign website
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez State Voter Guide

Related reading:
Democratic Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington suggests Biden step aside, doubts ‘fitness’ for office (The Columbian)
Kent, Gluesenkamp Perez race could determine the future of Congress (Cascade PBS) 
Kent, Perez brawl over two different Americas in WA congressional race (Cascade PBS)  

After losing to Gluesenkamp Perez in 2022, Joe Kent, a Republican, quickly prepared for a rematch this election cycle, releasing a campaign statement that attributed his loss to internal divisions within the Republican Party. The two candidates had edged out longtime incumbent U.S. Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, a Republican who was shut out of the 2022 primary. Kent is a veteran who served in the U.S. Army Special Forces for 20 years. His first wife Shannon Kent, an officer in the Navy, also worked for Special Forces and was killed by a suicide bomber while deployed in Syria in 2019. Kent has expressed opposition to U.S. military intervention in other countries in past interviews. He is an outspoken Trump supporter who has said that the 2020 election of President Biden was rigged. Kent earned Trump’s endorsement in 2022. He also has been linked to far-right groups, including the Proud Boys and Patriot Prayers. He is running on a campaign that includes limiting immigration, fiscally responsible government spending, giving parents greater control over their children's education, and separating men and women in sports by biological sex, according to his campaign website. He received an early endorsement from the Washington State Republican Party. 

Joe Kent FEC link
Joe Kent campaign website
Joe Kent State Voter Guide

Related reading:
Kent, Gluesenkamp Perez race could determine the future of Congress (Cascade PBS) 
Kent, Perez brawl over two different Americas in WA congressional race (Cascade PBS) 

During his five terms as a U.S. representative, Republican Dan Newhouse has shown support for Washington’s rural and agricultural communities, for example by introducing the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which eased the path to legal status for migrant farm workers, and by launching the Central Washington Fentanyl Taskforce to tackle the fentanyl crisis in the region. A farmer in the Yakima Valley, he chairs the Congressional Western Caucus, a group that advocates for the interests of rural Americans and is composed almost entirely of Republicans. Newhouse serves on the Appropriations Committee, which guides federal spending. Formerly he served in the state legislature, then was director of Washington’s Department of Agriculture from 2009 to 2013. He was one of two Washington state Republicans – and 10 Congressional Republicans nationwide – to vote for President Donald Trump’s impeachment in 2020, along with U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler. Describing himself as a “conservative Republican,” Newhouse’s campaign priorities include tackling cleanup for the Hanford nuclear site, supporting agriculture, keeping dams in place, stopping illegal immigration, defending gun rights and defending the unborn, according to his campaign website. 

Dan Newhouse FEC link
Dan Newhouse campaign website
Dan Newhouse State Voter Guide

Related reading:
U.S. Rep. Newhouse has a race on his hands in Central WA (Cascade PBS) 
U.S. Rep. Newhouse faces fallout from voting to impeach Trump (Cascade PBS) 
What’s next for the two WA Republicans who voted to impeach Trump? (Cascade PBS) 

Republican Jerrod Sessler is a Navy veteran and a conservative Christian. Endorsed by former President Trump, Sessler is campaigning on a platform of defending an “America that stands for faith, family, and common sense,” which he says is based on his Judeo-Christian beliefs. According to his campaign website, his priorities include resisting government overreach, upholding the Constitution, securing the border from illegal immigrants, and opposing the teaching of Critical Race Theory and gender/sexual education in schools. Sessler also has expressed the belief that the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol was a “setup”, and criticized Newhouse for voting to impeach President Trump. If elected, Sessler also promised to produce weekly videos explaining his votes in Congress and the current situation in Congress. 

Jerrod Sessler FEC link
Jerrod Sessler campaign website
Jerrod Sessler State Voter Guide

For eight years, Republican Michael Baumgartner served as a state senator for Legislative District 6, and is currently working as the Spokane County Treasurer. If elected, Baumgartner promises to “protect the American dream” by securing the southern border, defending the “civilized” against “tent cities, homelessness and crime,” and slashing funding for government agencies. His endorsements include a number of the region’s prominent Republicans, including former Spokane mayor David Condon; Brian Heywood, founder of Let’s Go Washington; and former Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna. 

Michael Baumgartner FEC link
Michael Baumgartner campaign website
Michael Baumgartner State Voter Guide

Carmela Conroy is running as a Democrat. She has formerly worked as a diplomat, deputy prosecutor for Spokane County and chair of the Spokane County Democratic party. Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown and the Washington Education Association have endorsed Conroy. The Spokane County Democrats endorsed both Conroy and fellow Democrat Bernadine Bank, and other Democrats in the region have endorsed multiple candidates for this open seat in the primary. She plans on fighting for “agricultural support, affordable healthcare and economic opportunities for working families” if elected.

Carmela Conroy FEC link
Carmela Conroy campaign website
Carmela Conroy State Voter Guide

Republican Drew MacEwen was elected to the state Senate to represent the 35th Legislative District  in January 2023 and serves as the ranking Republican on the Environment, Energy, and Technology Committee, as well as a member of the committees on Transportation, Business and Financial Services, and Labor and Commerce. Previously, he represented his district in the state House from 2013 to 2022. MacEwen served in the U.S. Navy from 1992 to 1998 and afterward founded Falcon Financial, Inc. He currently serves as the managing partner of Mountain Lakes Capital Management LLC, and invests in local businesses including The Dock in Port Orchard and 1889 Prime Steakhouse. His campaign priorities include building a strong economy; strengthening the U.S. Navy; stopping illegal border crossings; restoring trade, aviation and maritime jobs; reforming Medicare; and fighting to balance the federal budget, according to his campaign website. MacEwen has been endorsed by state Sen. Jeff Wilson, retired state Sen. Jan Angel, state Reps. Dan Griffey and Travis Couture and others.

Drew C. MacEwen FEC link
Drew C. MacEwen campaign website
Drew C. MacEwen State Voter Guide

Related reading:
GOP state senator joins race for WA 6th Congressional District (Cascade PBS)

Emily Randall was elected in 2018 to represent the 26th Legislative District in the state Senate, where she currently serves as the deputy majority leader and on the Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee, Health & Long-Term Care Committee, and Ways & Means Committee. Her election flipped the state Senate seat blue in 2018 when she defeated Republican Marty McClendon by 104 votes after leading a grassroots campaign, and she was reelected in 2022 by a larger but still small margin. Before entering politics, Randall worked in nonprofits to expand higher-education access and affordable health care, and began working for Planned Parenthood in 2016. According to Randall’s campaign website, her priorities are fighting climate change, supporting working families and the middle class, defending the interests of voters rather than corporate special interest groups, making health care accessible and affordable, improving education access, and protecting abortion rights. Randall has been endorsed by U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), former public lands commissioner Peter Goldmark, Washington State Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund and many other elected officials, labor unions and special interest organizations.

Emily Randall FEC link
Emily Randall campaign website
Emily Randall State Voter Guide

Republican Dan Alexander’s political experience including serving as a precinct committee officer in Seattle and volunteering for a short time to support a U.S. Senator’s reelection campaign. Alexander’s statement on the state voter guide says the candidate has worked as an “Engineering Leader at a large commercial airplane company since 2001,” Alexander also cites entrepreneurial experience starting a power generation company. 

Dan Alexander campaign website
Dan Alexander State Voter Guide

Democratic U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2017 and is a member of the House Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Education and the Workforce. She is a member of several Congressional caucuses including the Democratic Caucus, of which she is the senior whip, and the Congressional Progressive Caucus, which she chairs. While in Congress, Jayapal introduced bills to expand affordable housing, make college tuition-free, raise the federal minimum wage to $15 and protect abortion rights. She was a Washington state Senator from 2015 to 2017. Jayapal founded the organization OneAmerica, initially called Hate Free Zone, after 9/11 to take action against discrimination targeting Arabs, Muslims and South Asians and advocate for immigrants and refugees. As the organization’s executive director, Jayapal led OneAmerica’s growth to become the largest immigrant advocacy organization in the state. On her campaign website, Jayapal described herself as a “bold, people-first progressive” and said her priorities include supporting universal health care, immigration, racial justice and protecting the environment. Jayapal has been endorsed by over 20 labor unions, as well as other organizations including Planned Parenthood and the King County Democrats. 

Pramila Jayapal FEC Link
Pramila Jayapal campaign website
Pramila Jayapal State Voter Guide

Related reading:
Rep. Jayapal on USPS, police protests and the 2020 election (Cascade PBS) 
Jayapal brings a Seattle idea for fighting opioid crisis to D.C. (Cascade PBS) 

Republican Carmen Goers has a background in commercial banking and was a military spouse. She is in her second term on the Auburn Human Services Committee and formerly served on the Special Events Center Public Facilities District Board, composed of members appointed by the Kent City Council. Goers received King County’s Martin Luther King Medal of Distinguished Service for District 9 in 2021 in recognition of her community service. In 2022, Goers unsuccessfully ran for the open 47th Legislative District seat vacated by State Rep. Pat Sullivan. She also ran for the Kent School Board in 2013 but was defeated in the primary. Her campaign website said that she is “running to balance our budget with fiscal restraints, support our business community, and work to expand our middle class.” Goers’ priorities are bringing down the cost of goods; implementing increased oversight and transparency in the Department of Education to ensure “parents’ rights are honored;” strengthening law enforcement and supporting the military, according to her campaign website. Goers’ endorsements include U.S. Senate candidate Raul Garcia, several state senators and representatives, other elected officials and county Republican Party organizations and the Mainstream Republicans of Washington.

Carmen Goers FEC link
Carmen Goers campaign website
Carmen Goers State Voter Guide

Democrat Kim Schrier was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018, flipping the 8th Congressional District seat blue for the first time since 1983. Before that she was a pediatrician in Issaquah for 17 years. Schrier currently serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee and previously served on the Committee on Agriculture and the Education and Labor Committee. She is part of the New Democrat Coalition, a center-left caucus in the House. Schrier has had 14 bills signed into law combined under the Trump and Biden administrations, including laws to lower the prices of prescription drugs. She has also worked to fix supply chain issues by voting for the Bipartisan Ocean Shipping Reform Act of 2022; target price-gouging by oil and gas companies; and support expanded health care for veterans exposed to toxins. The full list of Schrier’s priorities can be found on her campaign website, and include making health care affordable, leading bipartisan immigration reform, protecting abortion rights, and preventing gun violence while respecting the rights of responsible gun owners. Her endorsements include the League of Conservation Voters, the Washington State Labor Council, the Planned Parenthood Action Fund, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, Chelan County Sheriff Mike Morrison, and mayors Mary Lou Pauly of Issaquah and Mike Poirier of Wenatchee.

Kim Schrier FEC link
Kim Schrier campaign website
Kim Schrier State Voter Guide

Related reading:
Rossi concedes, Democrats flip Washington's 8th District (Cascade PBS)
U.S. Congress: Kim Schrier defeats Matt Larkin in 8th District (Cascade PBS)

Melissa Chaudhry has worked in nonprofits for 15 years, criticizes Rep. Adam Smith for stagnant leadership and his support for wars over his long career in Congress and calls out contributions to Smith from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Chaudhry, a Democrat, says that as the wife and daughter of injured U.S. veterans, she prioritizes peace and opposes genocide and criticizes Israel’s “apartheid” policies.

Melissa Chaudhry FEC link
Melissa Chaudhry campaign website
Melissa Chaudhry State Voter Guide

Adam Smith has represented Congressional District 9 since being first elected 28 years ago. Smith started his career as an attorney, and then was a prosecutor for the city of Seattle before he served in the state Legislature for five5 years. Smith, a Democrat, has served on the House Armed Services Committee since 2011 and is currently its ranking member. While he often leans progressive on issues such as housing, immigration and health care, he has been criticized from the left for not calling for an immediate ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas War and for other hawkish stances. Smith, who grew up in Sea-Tac, lives in Bellevue. Last year Smith published a memoir Lost and Broken: My Journey Back from Chronic Pain and Crippling Anxiety. Smith has a long list of endorsements, including from Gov. Jay Inslee, the Alliance for Gun Responsibility and several local lawmakers, Democratic groups and unions.

Adam Smith FEC link
Adam Smith campaign website
Adam Smith State Voter Guide

Related reading:
Three thoughts on Ukraine and China from Rep. Adam Smith (Cascade PBS)

Don Hewett, a Republican, says he believes that the government “should only provide those critical functions that cannot be performed by individuals or private organizations” and the federal government should allow as much as possible to be handled by lower-level governments. He also says he would push for securing the U.S. borders and requiring e-verify (the system for checking if an employee is authorized to work in the United States) for employment. He also supports strong military and policing. Hewett also supports U.S. energy independence and would push for more oil drilling and protect the Snake River Dams. He calls for the reduction of government spending and of home mortgage rates. Hewett also says he believes in equal rights, equal justice and equal opportunity for all, regardless of race, creed, sex, age or disability.

Don Hewett FEC link
Don Hewett campaign website
Don Hewett State Voter Guide

Marilyn Strickland, a Democrat and a former mayor of Tacoma, was first elected to Congress in 2020. Strickland was the first Black member of Congress from Washington state and also one of the first Korean American women ever elected to Congress (two other Korean American women California were elected that same night). Strickland says her priorities in Congress have included lowering drug costs, protecting Social Security and Medicare and supporting military members, veterans and their families. She says she has also secured more than $100 million in federal funding to help with roads, environment, public transit and public safety to the local area. 

Marilyn Strickland FEC link
Marilyn Strickland campaign website
Marilyn Strickland State Voter Guide