Whidbey Island candidate: US Rep deserves ‘firing squad’

OAK HARBOR — A candidate for the 10th Legislative District 10 said U.S. Rep. Eric Swalwell “should be front of a firing squad for your treason” in a post that got her banned from Twitter in 2021.

Carrie Kennedy, who narrowly beat out fellow Republican and Arlington City Council member Yvonne Gallardo Van-Ornam in a three-way primary in August, will face Democrat Clyde Shavers in November’s general election.

In a brief call Friday afternoon, Kennedy initially denied making the posts. She then said she needed more time to respond, as she was stuck in traffic. She added, “I have no idea if my account has been hacked.” The Daily Herald reached out to Kennedy on Thursday evening.

She added: “Anything that you do post is not going to be fair, because I haven’t had a chance to even look at what you’re talking about.”

Kennedy confirmed her Twitter accounts have been banned multiple times. At the time of the Swalwell post, she was running for U.S. Congress for the seat held by Rick Larsen, D-Everett.

She ran for Larsen’s seat in both 2020 and 2022. She gathered about 9,000 votes each time, never advancing out of the primary.

The 10th Legislative District includes Arlington, Whidbey Island, Camano Island, Stanwood and parts of Mount Vernon. A very purple district, Kennedy does have a chance to win what is often a competitive race.

Shavers won the primary, gathering 26,484 votes, or about 52.3%, of the 50,616 votes cast. The two Republican candidates grabbed slightly over 23,000 votes combined, with Kennedy taking 26.4%. Shavers narrowly won election in 2023, beating incumbent Republican Greg Gilday by less than 300 votes.

Gilday endorsed Gallardo Van-Ornam in the primary.

Kennedy took issue with how Shavers portrayed his military record in the 2022 campaign, prompting her run for the state House seat.

Kennedy has a long history of problematic comments on social media.

Shavers responded to a request for comment early Saturday morning.

“The difference between our campaigns is clear: she focuses on fear and conspiracy, while I am focused on solutions that bring real, positive change,” Shavers said in a statement. “My campaign is about unity, opportunity, and moving us forward – not deepening the divides that hold us back with extremism and hate.”

Jared Leopold, a Democratic campaign strategist working with the New Direction PAC, said he’s seen similar language in other campaigns he’s worked on. He doesn’t work for the Shavers campaign, but is keeping an eye on the 10th District race.

Some of what Kennedy has posted surprised even him.

“(It’s) really fringe kind of things that you don’t often see out of someone who’s running,” Leopold said. “Especially the No. 1 house district in the state.”

‘Will NEVER be silenced!’

Kennedy has been a Whidbey Island resident for 37 years, she said in July.

In the voters’ pamphlet, she listed a variety of past jobs, including, “WA State Liquor Control clerk, English teacher in Japan, waitress, bartender, US Navy Seabee wife, mother.”

The tweet about Swalwell, a high-profile Democrat from California, came on Nov. 12, 2021.

After her Twitter account was locked, Kennedy took a screenshot of the tweet and posted it to her Facebook account and wrote “Will NEVER be silenced! EVER!” Kennedy also appears to believe those arrested as a result of Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are innocent of any crime, posting “Release ALL Jan 6th Prisoners!!” last year. She has also said the 2020 presidential election was “stolen” by Joe Biden.

Kennedy has posted she is an Oath Keeper and supports other militia groups, including the Proud Boys. The Oath Keepers are one of the largest far-right militia groups in the country and are designated as an extremist group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. (Kennedy denies being an Oath Keeper. But in a 2022 post on Facebook, she used “OathKeeper” as a way to describe herself).

More locally, Kennedy mentioned Erik Rohde, a prominent member of the Washington State Three Percenters, in a 2020 Facebook post.

The Three Percenters, an anti-government militia group, have created something of a foothold on Whidbey Island. All three of these national organizations — the Oathkeepers, Three Percenters and Proud Boys — had avowed members present at the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Kennedy has posted in support of other extremist groups, including Moms For Liberty. She also continues to promote the racist “birtherism” conspiracy theory, asserting former President Barack Obama was not eligible for office because he wasn’t born in this country.

Additionally, Kennedy has shared anti-Semitic memes on Facebook. On her active X account, she implied she asked for and had been denied Ivermectin, a snake oil cure for COVID-19 which gained fame among the far-right. Ivermectin treats parasites, like roundworms, in animals.

She has also posted about transgender issues, specifically in sports, dozens of times in the past few months.

For example, Kennedy posted and amplified posts nearly a dozen times surrounding lies about Algerian boxer Imane Khelif, who won a Gold medal at this summer’s Paris Olympics. Conservatives and other anti-LGBTQ+ voices amplified untrue assertions Khelif was transgender.

LGBTQ+ rights and public school education have been in the spotlight in the district.

A Herald investigation found churches in Arlington coordinated a pressure campaign on city officials last year in an effort to create hurdles for Arlington Pride, a nonprofit that hosts an annual LGBTQ+ event.

And, in April, a Stanwood-Camano Island School Board pushed to change anti-discrimination language in school board policy earlier this year, leading to a statement of “dismay” from the Island County Board of Health.

‘I’m going to be real honest’

Gallardo Van-Ornam had strong financial support from the Republican establishment. Her campaign received $40,000 from the House Republican Organizational Committee over the summer and raised nearly $85,000 in total.

She declined to comment on Kennedy’s comments or the election.

In a pre-primary interview, Gallardo Van-Ornam declined to share who she’d be voting for in the presidential election, while Kennedy is a Donald Trump supporter.

“I’m going to be real honest” Kennedy said in July. “I have been a supporter of President Trump because I think that we needed somebody that wasn’t a politician. And I know people might not like him as a person. And I’ve had people say the same thing to me.”

Kennedy has received around $7,000 in cash and in-kind contributions to date. She’s relied mostly on small donations. The Snohomish County Republican Party gave her $1,200, making it the only organization to fund her outside of Stanwood police supply store Esstac, which contributed $1,000 in May.

Kennedy advertises an endorsement from the 10th District Republicans.

Snohomish County Council member Nate Nehring said he supported Gallardo Van-Ornam in the primary, but plans to vote for Kennedy.

“I don’t know Carrie personally but plan to vote for her in the General Election as the Republican candidate,” Nehring said in an email Thursday. “I have not been contacted by her or her campaign regarding an endorsement.”

The lack of financial support and perceived ostracization from the mainstream Republican Party seems to frustrate Kennedy, who has taken to Facebook to vent.

“Too bad when political groups boycott a candidate, not allowing them all to speak becz they are scared or IGNORANT …preaching what a Constitutionalist one is and now allow ALL candidates to speak ….hypocrites and tyranny!!!” she wrote in July.

She continued: “And YES, I AM talking about MY OWN PARTY!!!”

This article has been updated to include comment from Clyde Shavers and comment from Carrie Kennedy about her status with the Oath Keepers.

Jordan Hansen: 425-339-3046; jordan.hansen@heraldnet.com; X: @jordyhansen.