SEQUIM, Washington—Voters in Washington State swam against the current, Nov. 5, mailing in their ballots 58% for Kamala Harris vs. 38.9% for Donald Trump. The election was a resounding victory for all the grassroots movements opposed to Trump and his MAGA minions.
Clallam County lost its “bellwether” status as the only jurisdiction in the nation that votes invariably for the winning candidate since voters here marked their mail ballots 52.37% for Harris vs. 44.6% for Trump.
The Trump-MAGA forces were defeated by a united front that combined the power of organized labor, the environmental movement, the women’s equality movement, the Gaza peace alliance, senior citizens led by Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action (PSARA), Indivisible, and left-progressive Democrats such as Rep. Pramila Jayapal, co-chair of the House Progressive Caucus who won reelection with 84% of the vote. She is the author of Medicare for All and also a measure calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell was reelected handily together with eight Democratic members of the House. Republicans held on to two House seats in eastern Washington. Incumbent Republican Rep.
Dan Newhouse was reelected defeating MAGA-Republican Jerrod Sessler in the 4th CD 53% to 47%. Sessler, a rabid MAGA endorsed by Trump, denounced Newhouse for voting to impeach Donald Trump. The 4th CD encompasses Wenatchee, Yakima, and the Tri-Cities, Richland, Kennewick, and Pasco on the banks of the Columbia River.
A drop in turnout
Yet even in Washington State, voter turnout was a highly negative factor: 74.84% of the state’s five million registered voters versus 84% in 2020—a near-ten percent drop.
The Washington State Labor Council launched its “Labor Neighbor” COPE conference, on May 18, which packed Machinists District 751 in south Seattle with over 300 delegates. Present were scores of members of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists, Coalition of Labor Union Women, and Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.
Leaders of the Native American tribes in Washington State were also present as candidates for office or as labor movement leaders.
Boeing Firefighters were on strike and during the lunch break, the delegates boarded buses and joined the strikers.
A few months later, on Sept. 13, 33,000 IAM District 751 machinists walked out on strike against Boeing, voting 94% to reject the takeaway contract and 96% to strike. On October 23, they rejected a second takeaway. This two-month strike by workers enraged against Boeing CEO’s greed and criminal negligence helped fuel the same mood of anger and fightback by Washington State voters.
That mood was on display in King County Councilman, Dave Upthegrove’s, campaign for Washington State Public Lands Commissioner to replace Hilary Franz, a favorite of the timber interests who decided to run for the open seat in the U.S. Congress being vacated by Rep. Derek Kilmer. Franz lost badly in the Aug. 6 primary to Emily Randall, a progressive grassroots activist currently a state senator from Kitsap County.
The top two primary vote-getters, regardless of their party, run against each other in Washington State’s general election. It turned into a horse race between Democrat Upthegrove and Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson that Upthegrove ultimately won by 51 votes.
If Pederson had won, it would have meant two Republicans—Pederson and Herrera Beutler, running against each other assuring the GOP of a statewide elected official.
A slim margin
The razor-thin 51-vote margin in the August 6 primary between Upthegrove and Pederson triggered an automatic recount. The Upthegrove campaign recruited 273 volunteers who telephoned about 13,000 voters whose mail ballots had been rejected for errors in their signatures, wrong addresses, or other technicalities, mistakes that could be corrected. These volunteers worked tirelessly and ultimately “cured” nearly 2,600 ballots.
Upthegrove won second place in the recount by 49 votes. His vote in the general election was 52.9 % or 1.86 million vs. 47.07% or 1.657 million for former Republican Congressmember, Jaime Herrera Beutler. Upthegrove vowed during the campaign that his first act on taking office would be to halt the logging of state-owned legacy forests
Attorney General Bob Ferguson won the race for Washington State Governor, defeating decisively the Trump follower Republican, Rep. Dave Reichert 56% to 44%. Ferguson convened a ZOOM of his supporters, exulting that his campaign cut deeply into districts that had been Republican strongholds. Ferguson pointed out that in the last gubernatorial election, Gov. Jay Inslee lost Clallam County by six percentage points. But Ferguson carried Clallam County by three percentage points—a nine percent shift.
Three of the four Republican ballot initiatives, bankrolled by hedge-fund hustler, Brian Heywood were rejected overwhelmingly. Heywood spent $7 million of his own fortune, hiring signature gatherers to qualify these initiatives for the ballot.
I-2109 would have repealed the Capital Gains tax on profits from the sale of stocks and bonds in excess of $265,000. The Capital Gains tax collected only on millionaires and billionaires, brought in $900 million earmarked for public schools and early childhood care in its first year after passage.
It is estimated that this “tax the billionaires” measure will bring in about $5 billion in the next five years. The Republican measure to repeal this “tax the rich” law was defeated by over 62% of voters statewide even shot down by voters in “Red” eastern Washington.
I-2117 would have repealed Washington State’s Climate Commitment Act to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2055. It includes a gasoline tax to incentivize the reduction of gasoline consumption that has brought in $2 billion to promote mass transit, electrify the Puget Sound ferry system, and other carbon-reducing measures. The GOP scheme to repeal this effort to reverse climate change was defeated by a 62% majority.
Washington State’s first-in-the-nation Long Term Care Act was targeted by I-2424. It would have made worker contributions to the employee-employer Trust Fund voluntary. It would have wrecked this urgently needed benefit. Voters shot down I-2424 by a 55% to 44.6% margin. PSARA members and their allies barnstormed the state passing out a small palm card calling for a “No” vote on all four of these measures bankrolled by a “weird billionaire.”
Only I-2066 which would repeal a state law banning installation of natural gas in new construction was on track to be approved.
Another movement that played a role in Washington’s stand-and-fight victory was the movement in solidarity with the Palestinian people—a grassroots effort both inside and outside the Democratic Party. State Democratic Chair, Shasti Conrad, kept the 1,000 delegates in their seats at the convention center in Bellevue for a full hour to hear Palestinian and Jewish delegates argue for passage of these resolutions calling for an immediate ceasefire, immediate delivery of humanitarian aid, and termination of U.S. delivery of bombs and munitions used in the war that has killed over 44,000 Palestinians. The resolutions were passed by overwhelming votes.
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