PASCO — Republicans believe they can win more statewide political offices in Washington if they are able to flip Snohomish County to the GOP side.
That’s according to Susan Hutchison, chairwoman of the Washington State Republican Party. She spoke at the group’s convention in Pasco on Friday.
Hutchison contends Snohomish County can be a swing county in the 2016 elections and could throw the governor’s race to Republican Bill Bryant and control of the state House of Representatives to the Republicans.
She likened Snohomish County to the national swing state of Ohio.
“If we flip Snohomish County, we win statewide,” Hutchison told the convention Friday morning.
She noted that Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee won the county by just 2 percent of the vote in his first run for governor in 2012.
Snohomish is mostly a blue county as its voters continue to elect a Democratic majority in its state legislative delegation, congressional delegation and county government.
Still, it is viewed as a swing county by political strategists because of what’s occurred in recent gubernatorial races.
In the historic 2004 election, Republican Dino Rossi won the county with about 6,400 more votes than Chris Gregoire. Four years later, she won Snohomish County with 52.4 percent.
And in his 2012 win, Inslee beat Republican Rob McKenna in the county by roughly 8,000 votes.
Further fueling Republicans’ optimism is that neither Gregoire in 2008 nor Inslee in 2012 collected as large a percentage of votes as Barack Obama, the Democratic presidential candidate. That signals a potential willingness of independent voters to back a Democratic candidate for president and a Republican for governor.
Republicans typically win the majority of votes in statewide races in Eastern Washington as well as the southwest part of the state. However they struggle to do well in King County, home to Seattle and by far the most populous county in the state. McKenna won just 38 percent of the vote in King County.
Hutchison noted that Inslee won the governor’s race over McKenna despite carrying just seven of 32 counties in the state, all in Western Washington.
More than 2,000 Republicans from across the state are expected to attend the state convention, which ends Saturday. Among their major tasks is choosing delegates to the national convention and hammering out a platform.
The convention will pick Washington’s delegates to the national GOP convention in Cleveland in July. But those delegates will not know who they are supporting until after the results of the Washington primary election Tuesday. On the Washington ballot, Republicans can choose among Trump and his former challengers Ted Cruz, John Kasich or Ben Carson, who remain on the ballot.
Earlier Friday, U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., who represents central Washington, welcomed attendees.
“This is the most unpredictable and important election year in our nation in a long, long time,” Newhouse said.
He spoke about conservative principles like smaller government, less regulations, lower taxes and opposition to abortion.
He also took a shot at environmental groups.
“We are the real conservationists, not those people floating around on kayaks on Puget Sound,” said Newhouse, a farmer.
Secretary of State Kim Wyman, the only Republican elected to statewide office in the state, spoke of her efforts to protect the integrity of ballots in the state and asked for support for her re-election campaign.
“Isn’t it great to be a Republican in Washington state?” Wyman said.
Hutchison noted that Republicans will make their delegate apportionment based on the results of Tuesday’s primary, in contrast to Democrats who are using caucus results from earlier this year.
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