To read the rest of The Stranger’s endorsements for the August 7, 2018 primary, click here.
The stakes in this race couldn’t be higher: Democrats need to flip Washington’s 8th Congressional District from red to blue to retake the US House in November. Wanna see Trump and his goons held accountable for their crimes? Wanna see Jared Kushner and Stephen Miller perp-walked out of the White House? Wanna finally find out what’s in Trump’s tax returns? Then we gotta put Democrats in charge of the House—and this little congressional race might make the difference between two more years of unrestrained Trumpism and two years of a Democratic Congress with subpoena power.
When seven-term congressman Dave Reichert announced he’d be retiring at the end of the year, Washington Democrats jumped for joy. Reichert’s retirement meant they wouldn’t be running against a particularly resilient incumbent, which meant they might have an easier time flipping this historically red district. Then former state senator and three-time loser Dino Rossi jumped in. The commercial Realtor from Sammamish has lost three statewide races—two against Christine Gregoire for governor and one against Patty Murray for US senator—so he’s a joke, right? Wrong. Though he ultimately lost all of those races, in the 8th District he beat Gregoire and Murray handily. He’s so beloved in the district, and so well-connected financially, that he may as well be a fucking incumbent.