Controversial ex-lawmaker attempts comeback for GOP-held seat
Published 10:45 am Monday, April 27, 2026
Former state representative Robert Sutherland, a conservative Republican whose brashness and spread of election conspiracies marked his four years in office, is mounting a comeback weeks after revealing plans to move from Washington.
Sutherland said Friday he is “currently in the race” to succeed retiring Rep. Carolyn Eslick, R-Sultan, in the 39th Legislative District, encompassing parts of Snohomish and Skagit counties.
He joins Republican Steve Ewing and Democrats Ida Keeley and David Garrett in seeking to fill the opening created with Eslick’s March announcement that she would not seek re-election.
Sutherland declared his candidacy April 18 at a meeting of Snohomish County Republican Party leaders, less than a month after announcing on Facebook that he and his wife had bought a retirement home in Idaho and “our days here in WA are numbered, I am sad to say.”
Sutherland, who has said the sale of his Granite Falls home will close next week, listed a Lake Stevens address on the campaign committee registration form he filed Friday with the state Public Disclosure Commission.
He represented the 39th district for two terms but didn’t get a third, losing reelection in 2022 to Republican Sam Low of Lake Stevens, a Snohomish County Council member. Low won re-election by decisively beating Sutherland in a rematch in 2024 for the Position 1 seat.
Sutherland, a devotee of President Donald Trump, was a purveyor of stolen election theories and falsehoods about fraud in the 2020 presidential election.
In the 2021 session, he co-sponsored bills to end voting by mail and require only paper ballots with special watermarks be counted. Neither received a hearing in the Democrat-controlled House. In 2023, Sutherland ran unsuccessfully for Snohomish County auditor.
He also fought COVID mandates imposed in the Legislature. He joined with other GOP members in a lawsuit challenging House rules requiring members be vaccinated in order to get into their offices or be on the House floor. He lost the suit.
On Monday, Sutherland edged Ewing for the endorsement of the 39th Legislative District Republican committee. Ewing said the final vote was 13-8.
The next day, on Facebook, Sutherland posted he was “honored and humbled. Is it time to elect a real Republican to represent the good folks of the 39th to fight the tyranny in Olympia? Last night they said YES.”
Ewing, who served from 2019 to 2025 on the Lake Stevens City Council, has already received endorsements of the current 39th District delegation of Eslick, Low and Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro-Woolley. He also enjoys backing from Snohomish County Councilmember Nate Nehring, Sultan Mayor Russell Wiita, Marysville Mayor Jon Nehring and Arlington Mayor Don Vanney.
Sutherland’s late entry is “just a dynamic that I am going to have to deal with,” Ewing said Friday. “If anything, it bolstered my supporters.”
Democrats Keeley and Garrett are each vying for a state elected office for the first time.
Garrett, of Marysville, works for the Boeing Co. as a structural design engineer on its 777-8 Freighter program. He’s active in and held leadership posts with the Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace, or SPEEA.
Keeley, a Lake Stevens resident, has worked in the public sector on child welfare and juvenile justice issues. She held administrative positions with the state Department of Children, Youth and Families and the Snohomish County Juvenile Court, and served as chair of the Children’s Campaign Fund Action Board.
The filing period for candidates is May 4-8 with the primary election Aug. 4. The two candidates with the most votes will advance to the general election on Nov. 3.
This story first appeared in the Washington State Standard
