About an hour before the filing deadline on Friday afternoon, former Washington State GOP Chair and news anchor Susan Hutchison jumped into the U.S. Senate race against four-term Democratic incumbent Maria Cantwell.
If you don't count Patriot Prayer founder and completely fucking insane person, Joey Gibson, which you shouldn't, Hutchison presents the most serious challenge to Cantwell in a race she should win unless something terrible happens. Twenty-eight other people have filed to run, including perennial favorites GoodSpaceGuy and Alex Tsimerman
Hutchison stepped down as chair of the Washington State GOP party earlier this year. To commemorate the event, my colleague Katie Herzog wrote up a good list of Hutchison's dumbest statements. In the list she mentions that time Hutchison said Trump's "pussy-grabbing" comments didn't matter because he was a Democrat, that time Hutchison excoriated Ted Cruz for not liking Trump enough, and that time she encouraged the rich to engage in "civil disobedience" after Seattle passed an income tax on rich people.
In 2012, Cantwell beat Republican challenger Michael Baumgartner by 20 points. This year her campaign has raised $8.4 million and boasts about $4.7 in the bank.
What does it all mean? Well, for one, it means that Hutchison didn't didn't get that ambassadorship to Hungary she was looking for. But Cantwell drawing a challenger kinda sucks because she'll probably have to spend more of her substantial funds campaigning in-state rather than helping out more vulnerable Democrats out of state. On the other hand, having to compete in a big statewide contest means the Senator will have to spend more time at speaking events, which may help down-ballot races.
