Here’s who the Republican Party endorsed for statewide office at its 2024 convention in Spokane

Yes­ter­day, the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty wrapped up its 2024 con­ven­tion in Spokane. While it’s been wide­ly report­ed that Semi Bird received the par­ty’s endorse­ment for gov­er­nor, the full list of the par­ty’s endorse­ments for statewide office has­n’t been as wide­ly dis­sem­i­nat­ed. Here’s a run­down of who the del­e­gates endorsed and the posi­tions that they are run­ning for, accord­ing to par­ty chair Jim Walsh.

Governor

For gov­er­nor, the par­ty endorsed insur­gent Semi Bird, who is far behind fron­trun­ner Dave Reichert accord­ing to NPI’s pub­lic opin­ion research. Bird received 72% support.

My analy­sis of this endorse­ment vote is avail­able here.

United States Senate

For Sen­ate, the par­ty endorsed Raul Gar­cia, who ran for gov­er­nor for a few weeks before drop­ping out in favor of Reichert.

Gar­cia switched to run­ning for Sen­ate a few days lat­er and seems to have been accept­ed by the par­ty’s ultra MAGA base despite hav­ing the back­ing of the Main­stream Repub­li­cans of Wash­ing­ton State. Gar­cia received 73% support.

Gar­cia is like­ly to be Sen­a­tor Cantwell’s gen­er­al elec­tion oppo­nent. Our research sug­gests that he isn’t putting Wash­ing­ton into play for Repub­li­cans — Cantwell is lead­ing him by six­teen points. His fundrais­ing has also been mediocre. 

Secretary of State

For Sec­re­tary of State, the par­ty endorsed Dale Whitak­er, pass­ing on Bob Hag­glu­nd and State Sen­a­tor Phil For­tu­na­to. Whitak­er received 64% support. 

All three Repub­li­cans are chal­leng­ing incum­bent Sec­re­tary of State Steve Hobbs. Hobbs is the first Demo­c­rat to serve as Sec­re­tary of State in over a century. 

Hag­glu­nd is one of the Repub­li­cans who split the Repub­li­can vote for this office in 2022, lead­ing to Repub­li­cans being locked out of hav­ing a name on the gen­er­al elec­tion ballot. 

Attorney General

For Attor­ney Gen­er­al, the par­ty endorsed Pete Ser­ra­no, who has no Repub­li­can rival for the posi­tion. Ser­ra­no had a plu­ral­i­ty lead in our Feb­ru­ary statewide research poll, since Democ­rats have two strong can­di­dates for the posi­tion who many Demo­c­ra­t­ic vot­ers haven’t yet decid­ed between: Man­ka Dhin­gra (a North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion board­mem­ber) and Nick Brown. Ser­ra­no effec­tive­ly received 100% of the vote.

Commissioner of Public Lands

For Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands, the par­ty endorsed Sue Kuehl Ped­er­sen, who was Hilary Franz’s unsuc­cess­ful chal­lenger in 2020. 

Kuehl Ped­er­sen is now mak­ing anoth­er bid for the office, but she has strong com­pe­ti­tion this go-round in Jaime Her­rera Beut­ler, the for­mer Unit­ed States Rep­re­sen­ta­tive from Wash­ing­ton’s 3rd Con­gres­sion­al District. 

Her­rera Beut­ler has led in our polling, but is dis­liked by par­ty diehards because she coura­geous­ly vot­ed to impeach Don­ald Trump in 2021 after the Jan­u­ary 6th insurrection. 

Kuehl Ped­er­sen received 86% support.

Democ­rats have three active can­di­dates for this posi­tion: King Coun­ty Coun­cilmem­ber Dave Upthe­grove, State Sen­a­tor Kevin Van De Wege, and DNR trib­al liai­son Patrick DePoe. Incum­bent Franz is run­ning for Con­gress in the 6th Con­gres­sion­al District. 

Auditor

For Audi­tor, the par­ty endorsed Matt Hawkins, who is run­ning against Demo­c­ra­t­ic incum­bent Pat McCarthy, a for­mer Pierce Coun­ty Executive. 

Hawkins received almost 99% support. 

Hawkins has not yet filed paper­work with the Pub­lic Dis­clo­sure Com­mis­sion for his can­di­da­cy. He’ll need to rem­e­dy that quick­ly or he could soon be in vio­la­tion of Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic dis­clo­sure laws. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction

For OSPI (a non­par­ti­san race), the par­ty endorsed David Olson, who is one of the many chal­lengers that have filed against incum­bent Chris Reyk­dal. Reyk­dal was first elect­ed to the post in 2016. He was reelect­ed in 2020, defeat­ing Maia Espinoza, and is now seek­ing a third term. Olson received 57% support. 

Walsh referred to this race as hav­ing “a crowd­ed field” because Repub­li­cans Chad Magen­danz and Brad Klip­pert are also vying to chal­lenge Reyk­dal. Both are for­mer mem­bers of the Wash­ing­ton State House of Representatives. 

No endorsement for three of the nine executive offices

Although it is Wal­sh’s aspi­ra­tion to field a com­plete tick­et in this high-stakes pres­i­den­tial elec­tion year, the par­ty did not make endorse­ments for the fol­low­ing statewide offices because he has­n’t yet recruit­ed a candidate:

• Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor (Demo­c­ra­t­ic incum­bent Den­ny Heck is seek­ing reelection)
• Insur­ance Com­mis­sion­er (Open seat: Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Sen­a­tor Pat­ty Kud­er­er is run­ning; Demo­c­ra­t­ic incum­bent Mike Krei­dler is retiring)
• Trea­sur­er (Demo­c­ra­t­ic incum­bent Mike Pel­lic­ciot­ti is seek­ing reelection)

Democ­rats cur­rent­ly hold all nine posi­tions in the state’s exec­u­tive depart­ment as well as both U.S. Sen­ate seats. If Democ­rats run the table, which they well might, then this will be the first pres­i­den­tial cycle in eons that yields a shutout in statewide races.