The two 21st Legislative District incumbent state representatives have a total of four challengers in the Aug. 2 primary, but just one challenger is a Republican.
The Republican is Jeff Scherrer, who is making a second run against Democratic State Rep. Lillian Ortiz-Self. Joining the two on the August ballot are Libertarian Bruce Guthrie and independent Mohammed Riaz Khan. Democratic State Rep. Strom Peterson has only one challenger, Libertarian Alex Hels.
Each position will appear on the Aug. 2 primary ballot, with two candidates for each, regardless of party, advancing to the Nov. 8 general-election ballot. All partisan positions appear on the primary ballot, even when only one or two candidates file for a position.
Ortiz-Self is seeking a second full two-year term after joining the House of Representatives by appointment in early 2014. She defeated Scherrer by a 58 percent to 41 percent margin in the 2014 general election after leading Scherrer 56 percent to 34 percent in a four-person primary.
Peterson is seeking a second four-year term. He earlier had spent six years on the Edmonds City Council. In the 2014 general election, he defeated Republican Allen McPheeters by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin, after the two survived a five-way primary.
Peterson’s Libertarian challenger, Hels, is a football coach at Lynnwood High School and a barista at Starbucks. The Libertarian running against Ortiz-Self and Scherrer is Bruce Guthrie, who has run twice for the 2nd District seat in Congress and once for the U.S. Senate.
Democratic State Sen. Marko Liias, who is in the middle of a four-year term, is running for state treasurer.
The 21st Legislative District includes most of Edmonds, unincorporated areas north of Edmonds and Lynnwood and northeast of Lynnwood, all of Mukilteo and part of south Everett.
No Republican has won an election in the district since 2000.
Evan Smith can be reached at schsmith@frontier.com.
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