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This week Barry O weighed in on 260 Congressional races, including three in Washington state! "I’m proud to endorse even more Democratic candidates who aren’t just running against something, but for something," he said yesterday in a Tweet. He appears to have only ever endorsed in three statehouse races here, so it's kinda nice of him and his support staff to think of this corner of the country for a little bit.

The former President is backing Democrats in Washington's surprisingly competitive 3rd, 5th, and 8th District contests, but he conveniently skipped the Dem v. Dem battle playing out between Adam Smith and Sarah Smith south of town. Obviously Obama has nothing to gain by picking a winner in the 9th District, but the flyover seems slightly odd given that he endorsed Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who shares a platform with the Sarah of the two Smiths. And Obama beat Mitt Romney by 10 points in the 9th, so it's not like his endorsement wouldn't help at all here.

Sarah Smith's campaign manager says the team doesn't anticipate an endorsement from Obama, and he thinks it's "a good thing" that the President hasn't endorsed in any blue on blue races. "There were some notable absences though," the spokesman said. "Linsey Fagan in TX-26 is a strong progressive candidate that we often work with who was overlooked, but who won her primary and is challenging a GOP candidate."

Meanwhile, Kim Schrier (8th District), Carolyn Long (3rd District), and Lisa Brown (5th District) are spinning Obama's endorsement to suit their own narratives, which is a smart thing to do.

Schrier is running to be the first Democrat ever to represent Washington's 8th, so in a statement she thanks the former President for his endorsement and aligns herself with Obama's "power to create change and make progress."


If you don't know anything about Schrier, then read our profile of her. Then read our profile of Rossi, the anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-immigrant Republican she's running against. Then take a bus out to Enumclaw and start knocking on every door you find.

Obama beat Mitt Romney by 10 points down in southwest Washington, where Long hopes her bipartisan bonafides and message of radical transparency will work to unseat four-term Republican Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler.

Here's Long emphasizing Obama's attempts to reach across the aisle in her statement about the endorsement: “I’ve long been an admirer of his collaborative approach to politics and how he consistently worked to reverse the disturbing trend of growing polarization in our national political debate," Long said in a press release. "His tireless efforts to include Congressional Republicans in the drafting of the ACA, including the Blair House summit with Speaker Boehner, typifies the kind of leadership we need going forward and I will be proud to defend his legacy of expanding access to healthcare for more than 20 million Americans once I get to Congress."

Read up on Long's surprisingly good showing in the primary, and on her continued momentum.

Out east, where Mitt Romney beat Obama by 10 points, Lisa Brown points to her decade-long support of Obama. In her statement on his endorsement, she also includes a genuine "Thanks, Obama."


Brown is running against Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, the fourth most powerful Republican in the House. McMorris Rodgers lives to repeal Obamacare and to massively overstate the "benefits" of Trump's tax cuts. She also only leads the race by four points in a district Trump won by 13 points. Just sayin.