The primary voting period in our state began July 19 and runs through Aug. 6.
Tens of thousands of voters across more than a quarter of Washington's legislative districts are being forced to cast their primary ballots in a different district than they were in just four months ago.
The change is due to a coordinated and outrageous Democratic political power play that began in 2021 and led to a controversial federal-court ruling in March.
While primary voters should choose Republican legislative candidates anyway, because our priorities are more in line with a majority of Washington residents, voters in those abruptly redrawn districts have another reason to reject Democrats on their ballots: To keep Democratic Party bosses from being rewarded for their scheme.
The boundaries of 13 legislative districts were changed eight years ahead of the constitutional schedule because Democrats who believe they are entitled to the support of Hispanic voters got tired of being shut out of the Yakima Valley's legislative positions.
That’s especially true about the 15th Legislative District, in the heart of the Yakima Valley. While our state’s bipartisan Redistricting Commission made it a majority-Hispanic district ahead of the 2012 election, 15th District voters have continued to choose Republicans as their legislators.
A poll conducted earlier this month suggests the level of Hispanic support for Democrats has nothing to do with legislative-district boundaries, which would cast serious doubt on a fundamental position taken by the federal court. I’ll get back to that.
As background, the drought for Democratic legislative candidates in the Yakima Valley goes way back. For more than 90 years the valley has been encompassed by the 14th and 15th legislative districts, yet no Democrat has been elected state senator from those districts since 1937 and 1939, respectively.
It's been almost as tough for Democrats seeking House positions in those districts. Only a handful won elections since World War II, and none have been elected in more than 30 years.
Considering how the Hispanic population in the Yakima Valley has grown over the decades, the Democrats’ continued inability to win legislative elections there must have become unbearably painful.
The state redistricting map adopted for 2022 kept it a majority-Hispanic district, but that wasn't good enough. Democratic operatives inside and outside our state mounted a full-bore effort to "gerrymander" the district to tilt it more in their direction.
After failing to get the state Supreme Court to override the work of the bipartisan Redistricting Commission, they filed suit at the federal level, claiming the 15th District boundaries violated the federal Voting Rights Act.
Specifically, they argued the Hispanic voting-age population in the Yakima Valley was “cracked” — meaning it was being split to dilute Hispanic voting power and therefore denied “equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.”
The unspoken but clear assertion was that Hispanics would choose Democrats. That was proven false, again, in the 2022 general election. In our state’s lone majority-Hispanic district, Republican Nikki Torres received twice as many votes as her female Democratic opponent.
That made her the first Hispanic and first woman to serve in the Senate from the 15th District. But rather than honor the choice made by Hispanic voters, and admit the “cracking” claim doesn’t hold up against such a large margin of victory, the Democratic machine pressed forward with its effort to gain an edge.
A Clinton-appointed federal judge in Seattle, Judge Robert Lasnik, eagerly adopted the argument. He ruled, nearly a year ago, that the 15th District boundaries needed to be redone.
Not only did Judge Lasnik’s decision assert Democratic candidates are “preferred by Latino voters,” he doubled down by concluding “the Democratic platform is apparently better aligned with the economic and social preferences of Latinos in the Yakima Valley region.”
Either way, the proper and legal response would have been to reconvene the bipartisan Redistricting Commission and let it do its constitutional duty. But this was a coordinated power play on the Democrats' part, so Jay Inslee refused to call legislators into a special session for a half-day so we could reconvene the commission.
The Legislature can call itself into session, but leaders of the Senate and House Democrats also refused to budge, so the question was thrown back to Judge Lasnik. Earlier this year he chose one of the most disruptive of the maps submitted by those who filed suit in the first place.
The changes to the 15th District rippled across 12 other districts in the heart of our state, from Clark and Klickitat counties in the south to King and Douglas counties to the north.
In all, the new map ultimately uprooted three Republican senators, including Senator Torres, and two Republican representatives. That means they no longer reside in the districts they serve and can’t seek re-election to the same position without changing addresses.
Lasnik himself admitted the district is “substantially more Democratic.”
Four months later, a Survey USA poll found — and this was before President Joe Biden was forced to drop his bid for re-election — both he and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell are losing among Hispanic voters.
A liberal Seattle columnist called that a “startling turn,” adding that former President Donald Trump’s 13-point lead “among Hispanic voters, here in a blue state, ought to be sounding warning sirens through Democratic Party headquarters.”
Cantwell’s Republican challenger, Dr. Raul Garcia, was supported by 52% of Hispanics polled, to her 44%.
While we should be cautious about placing too much meaning on one poll, the SurveyUSA results call into question whether legislative-district boundaries have any real bearing on Hispanic voting patterns.
The poll results also indicate Judge Lasnik’s foundational assumption in the redistricting case was wrong — and that the economic and social preferences of Hispanics in the Yakima Valley region are better aligned with the platform put forth by Republicans, rather than the policies and choices offered by Democrats.
By extension, it’s fair to also suggest Judge Lasnik did the Yakima Valley’s Hispanic voters, and the valley’s first Latina state senator, a disservice by acting as he did.
Numerous national polls confirm Hispanics — and this would include Hispanic voters in the Yakima Valley — don’t care about the letter behind a candidate’s name as much as they care about public safety, affordability and a better life for our children.
Those are priorities for Senator Torres and other Senate Republicans — including Sen. Curtis King of Yakima, who is on the ballot in the reconfigured 14th District this year.
Senator King also has distinguished himself as a leader on transportation, and an advocate for creating jobs for all Washingtonians, regardless of race. His challenger is a Democratic operative who has clearly been groomed by the party to run for office.
Our state can’t afford to lose Senator King’s knowledge and experience. He deserves another term.
This Democratic power play also has a Bob Ferguson angle. As attorney general he could and should have vigorously defended the district map as adopted by the state Redistricting Commission and a bipartisan vote of the Legislature.
Instead, Ferguson abdicated his duty by rolling over, allowing the scheme by his fellow Democrats to proceed. His shameful “defense” of the Redistricting Commission was to say its members violated the law but did so unintentionally. I’ll bet he would not have been so passive had Republicans been behind the challenge to the map.
While many voters are old enough to remember — and miss — the days when the primary was a single day instead of a “period” and meant going to the polls, here we are.
So vote your ballots and get them in the mail, sooner than later. Say yes to the four cost-saving initiatives and to Republicans, especially the legislative candidates in districts altered by the Democrats’ gerrymandering for more power.
•••
Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.
