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Voting in this week's general election comes to an end Tuesday. Many issues that candidates are talking about across the country are also playing out in Washington state races. As votes are tallied in the coming days we wanted to know what to expect and what we could possibly read into the results.
So KNKX All Things Considered host Emil Moffatt spoke with Melissa Santos, a Seattle-based reporter with Axios. A former political reporter at Crosscut, Santos moderated a debate between the Secretary of State candidates in August and has been reporting on the midterm elections in Axios' Seattle email newsletter.
Listen to their conversation above, or read selected quotes below.
Key Takeaways
The Washington Secretary of State’s race features Democratic incumbent Steve Hobbs, who was appointed to the position and Pierce County auditor Julie Anderson, who’s running as a nonpartisan candidate.
“The secretary of state's office was the only office held by a Republican in Washington state as far as statewide office for a really long time,” said Santos.
“This is like getting all the chess pieces basically for Democrats if they can really nail this one down. So that's why they really want it. And a nonpartisan candidate doesn't do it for them.”
To the surprise of some, the state Democratic Party has leveled sharp attacks on Anderson’s record.
“I think she was always viewed in Pierce County as a pretty solid Democrat, even after she became an auditor and said, you know, 'I'm nonpartisan. It's really important that election administrators be nonpartisan,’” said Santos.
“So, it's just kind of weird for people in Pierce County, especially to see the state party attack someone as being some sort of Republican, who's not really that.”
Across the country, Democrats are talking about abortion and election denialism, while Republicans are honing in on inflation and crime. How are those arguments playing out in congressional races in Washington?
8th Congressional District
“Matt Larkin, the Republican in this race is all about crime, essentially as his message, his campaign slogan has been 'Make Crime Illegal Again.' So this is talking about stuff often in Seattle, which isn't even in the 8th District. We're seeing him really say D.C. and the incumbent, Kim Schrier, hasn't cracked down on crime. Whether that's exactly Congress' role is certainly up for debate. Meanwhile, Schrier is really saying this guy will really roll back abortion rights even further than the Supreme Court did.”
3rd Congressional District
“I think that abortion is a big one there where the Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is really emphasizing that Joe Kent, the Republican, is extreme on abortion and then also really sort of talking about him denying election results because he did join a lawsuit at one point,” said Santos.
“That lawsuit alleged there was flipping of votes, which was never proven and never substantiated. Those kind of extreme, sort of, national things are really playing out in that race as well.”
Should Democrats be worried about narrowing polls in the U.S. Senate race between incumbent Democratic Patty Murray and Republican challenger Tiffany Smiley?
“I think it would be a huge upset. I think that Patty Murray still has a pretty solid chance of winning that seat. But, yeah, it's not the same race it was a few months ago. And I think the Democratic Party is taking it seriously so that they don't have one of their sort of star lawmakers taken out. Right? So, it's gotten kind of heated as those polls have tightened.”
That’s led to more money being spent in the race.
“If you listen to the radio…I feel like I hear an ad against Tiffany Smiley or maybe the other way around too, often,” said Santos.
“And really, those ads are talking only about Tiffany Smiley's position on abortion. She is anti-abortion. That's been just the message from the Patty Murray campaign is ‘you don't want this person deciding your reproductive rights.”
