Analysis: Everything You Need to Know About the Aug. 6 Primary

In 2023, the voters of Seattle's District 2 rejected then-candidate, now-Councilmember Tanya Woo. Despite losing at the ballot box, Woo went on to be appointed to the citywide Seattle City Council seat vacated by Teresa Mosqueda, who moved on to the King County Council after a victorious campaign in that body's District 8.

Now, Woo is running to hold on to the seat through the end of Mosqueda's uncompleted term, which goes to Dec. 31, 2025. Woo is hoping to prove to her doubters that she is what the people want, not just what her fellow conservatives on the council want. If Woo is, in fact, what you want, you're in luck: She's all but guaranteed to make it through to the general, based solely on the city's left—right divide.

Where the race gets interesting is in the area to her left, occupied by three progressives, all with pretty good progressive bona fides. Which one stands the best chance to beat Woo is, of course, something the city's left-leaning voters will have to sort out, but we'll try to give you the broad strokes.

Saunatina Sanchez is easily the leftmost of the three, having worked for or served on the board of just about every lefty community organization you can think of. Transit Riders Union? Check. Disability Rights Washington? Check. Seattle Renter Organizing Council? Check. SIFF? Why not? She's interested in increasing progressive revenue, investing in bicycle infrastructure, funding social housing, and a whole lot of other stuff Woo is not so interested in. As far as drawing distinctions goes, Sanchez paints a pretty clear picture when put next to Woo.

Alexis Mercedes Rinck is a former King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) policy wonk, a trade she now plies for the University of Washington. Online, she has touted her work on the KCRHA's five-year plan, a document that drew criticism from pretty much all sides of the homelessness debate for being essentially a plan to make a plan. She also lists as a qualification her experience coordinating the agency's severe weather response, something that, at least according to some homelessness services organizations, didn't really exist. That said, policy-wise, she's on pretty much the exact same page as Sanchez: progressive revenue, tenant protections, pedestrian and bike infrastructure, etc. She, too, would stand in stark contrast to Woo.

Tariq Yusuf, who is, like Sanchez, a former resident of the New Holly low-income housing development, grew up to work in tech. Now, he's got his sights set on city government. While his policy proposals are a lot lighter than Rinck's and a little lighter than Sanchez's, he's very much on the same page. He wants to stop the sweeps, increase the affordable housing stock, hold police accountable, make the bus a slightly less miserable way to get around, and all the other wonderful (but perhaps impossible) stuff progressives campaign on. He'd also be the youngest City Council member, should he win.

Will one of these three make it to the general and oust Woo, and then house the homeless and get us a real subway system and implement a better public safety solution than cops? Maybe, but a progressive winner would certainly poke a sizable hole in the mandate currently enjoyed by our current Council, many of whom rode into power on a rightward surge in the last election. Choose your fighter, Seattle.

Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat who won this seat in 2000, before many eligible voters in this election were born, is looking to hold on to it. The Washington State Republican Party is fielding a candidate: Dr. Raul Garcia, an emergency room doc and medical entrepreneur. Garcia ran for governor in 2020, coming in just behind Tim Eyman with 5.4%of the vote, but he's got a lot more weight behind him here. He's been endorsed by the party and has raised a little over $400,000. According to a Crosscut-Elway Poll conducted in May, Garcia is nipping at Cantwell's heels, with 30% of 403 surveyed voters saying they'd vote for him to her 39%.

However, when it comes to the primary, the most notable storyline will probably be Cantwell getting to beat one of her challengers from the year 2000, perennial candidate Goodspaceguy, across two different party affiliations. Once a Democrat, Goodspaceguy is running under the GOP banner this time around. That said, as appealing as Goodspaceguy's promise to beautify "Spaceship Earth" by abolishing the minimum wage might be, it's going to be Cantwell versus Garcia in the general. There are a couple of other candidates in there, including a veteran who is keen on restoring the gold standard, a Trump-loving guy who wants to make it to the Senate to find out what really happened on Jan. 6, and perennial socialist candidate Henry Dennison, but, again, it's going to be Cantwell versus Garcia in the general.

Last time around, Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal beat challenger Cliff Moon 85% to 15%. Even if semi-perennial Democratic and Green Party candidate Liz Hallock manages to peel off a few votes from what is sure to be Jayapal's ample total, the incumbent will probably cruise into the general with more votes than all of her challengers combined. We're not here to make any bold predictions about what will happen then, but we think you can guess.

While the 9th District is also one of the Democratic Party's most dependable bastions, having been held by Rep. Adam Smith since 1997, this year could bring some chaos. In recent history, Smith has shown up every two years to beat the pants off of Douglas Michael Basler, a Trump Republican with a seemingly unending appetite for a walloping. Basler began losing to Smith in 2014, typically making it to the general and getting clobbered 70% to 30%. However, in 2018, he lost in the primary to both Smith and left-wing Democrat Sarah Smith. Interestingly, she posted the best showing in the general of anyone going against our state's eternal incumbent since 2010, winning 32.1% of the vote.

This year, we have a similar situation to 2018, with both Basler and a challenger from the left — Melissa Chaudhry — coming for Smith's throne. While Smith and Basler fended off the left-wing Stephanie Gallardo in 2022 to resume their traditional general election bout, Chaudhry is running on a strong anti-war platform in a year where Smith's unflinching support for Israel's war in Gaza has come under a lot of fire.

If you are, say, a Democratic voter with some reservations about the longstanding head of the House Armed Services Committee and the various military misadventures he's used his post to fund and support, you have a chance to make that known. Basler has, over the course of a decade, proven himself to be no threat to the status quo, and the seat hasn't seen a Republican since Smith won it away from one in 1997. Over the course of time, the district's changing demographics have only skewed it more away from conservatism. Which is all to say, you're free to vote your conscience here.

As we mentioned above, there are 30 (!!!) people vying to run the Evergreen State. A veritable rogues gallery, especially considering that it includes noted antisemite and perennial Seattle City Council heckler Alex Tsimerman. Besides Tsimerman, we've got a Libertarian who is very proud of his skills on the French horn, a divorced guy who is running entirely on family-court reform, a guy who definitely needs to explain where he was on Jan. 6, and a woman who is really jazzed about jazz. Lucky for you, you don't need to do what we did and read every single candidate's Ballotpedia questionnaire to narrow it down to four.

As far as presumptive nominees go, the Democrats have got former Attorney General Bob Ferguson lining up against former King County Sheriff and Republican U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert. Trying to spoil their respective days in the sun are Democratic State Sen. Mark Mullet and MAGA Army vet Semi Bird.

Bird is, despite lacking Reichert's name recognition or political experience, the Washington GOP's choice in the race, having received the endorsement in April after a contentious State party convention that Reichert ended up pulling out of entirely. Ferguson, fiercely popular with Washingtonians from his time suing the Trump administration over, well, everything, is endorsed by pretty much everyone a Democrat can be endorsed by, including the man he is to succeed, sitting Gov. Jay Inslee. Mullet boasts the coveted endorsement of Republican Seattle City Councilmember Sara Nelson, along with a smattering of pro-police and pro-business organizations that haven't endorsed an actual Republican already.

While Republicans in Democrats' clothes have done well in recent times, and while the homonymous hairstyle has come roaring back into our culture, it does not, contrary to Mullet's campaign slogan, appear to be "Mullet time." Bird is also not flying high off his big endorsement. That aforementioned Crosscut -Elway Poll has both frontrunners very far in front, with 42% of surveyed voters saying they were likely to vote for Ferguson, 29% for Reichert, 8% for Mullet, and 7% for Bird. Polls are never perfect, but with this one landing just three months before the primary, it's hard to see a world in which it isn't Ferguson versus Reichert.

Okay, here begins the list of "people next in line for governor if something happens to the sitting one." Obviously, that starts with the only other job in the state that has the word "governor" in its name. What does the lieutenant governor actually do? A decent amount, actually, besides being backup governor. Sitting Lt. Gov. Denny Heck is the president of the State Senate and the chair of its Rules Committee. He gets to be acting governor whenever Inslee is out of town, which probably happened a lot during the Green Governor's failed presidential bid. He is also chair of the Joint Legislative Committee on Economic Development and International Relations. Okay, so, lots of kind of boring, behind-the-scenes stuff, but still, it's a noteworthy post. And one that Heck, a former U.S. Representative and the Emmy-winning founder of TVW, seems poised to retain. While lieutenant governor races have been close-ish in the past, despite always going to a Democrat in the end, there are no challengers whose name you — or even the most obnoxiously over-engaged political journalist — would know.

Election integrity is an increasingly important issue in America and, thankfully, not one we have ever really had to worry about in Washington. The race is between a totally fine incumbent, Democrat Steve Hobbs; Pierce County Election Supervisor Damon Townsend, of the No Labels Party; and Democratic challenger Marquez Tiggs. Tiggs is a young Black veteran whose main priority is making elections inclusive and expanding access to voting. That stands in stark contrast, he says, to his opponents, who he characterizes as being more focused on using technology to improve election security.

Not much to report here. Republican Duane Davidson lost out to Democrat and current Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti in 2020. Now, Pellicciotti is being challenged by Sharon Hanek, a Japanese American CPA from Pierce County. Hanek's sole endorsement is from Davidson, which is maybe something, but Pellicciotti is about as perfect of a Washington State politician as you could craft: He's a Democrat with a master's in rural development, a law degree from Gonzaga, and a passion for funneling money to places where Republicans and Independent voters live.

The State's auditor does exactly that: audit. They conduct financial, legal, and performance audits of other State agencies to make sure we're getting the best bang for our buck. Former Pierce County Executive Pat McCarthy has been doing it since 2017, and she doesn't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. In her time, she's worked to make government finances easily accessible to the public online, instituted policies to cut down on "unauditable" governments (tiny, local governments, like cemetery and diking districts, that fail to report their finances on time) by 90%, and undertaken the difficult and unenviable task of performing audits of Use of Deadly Force investigations. Her Republican opponent Matt Hawkins styles himself as more of an activist auditor, looking to go in and investigate things Republicans hate about government, like regulation, taxes, and thinking it can tell cops what to do.

Incumbent Bob Ferguson is out, for obvious reasons (running for governor). Running to replace him are former U.S. Attorney Nick Brown, State Sen. Manka Dhingra, and Mayor of Pasco Pete Serrano. The former two are Democrats, while Serrano is a Republican and founder of the Silent Majority Foundation (SMF). Brown and Dhingra are, per Cascade PBS, way ahead in fundraising, and also way behind in filing frivolous lawsuits over vaccine mandates and 2nd Amendment issues, which is the main thing Serrano's SMF does. We'll spare you a deep dive into the differences between Brown and Dhingra, because all signs point to that being what the general election will be all about.

"Are the kids alright?" is always the question for candidates in this race. According to incumbent Chris Reykdal, who has served since 2017, the answer is mostly yes. According to his two credible challengers, Reid Saaris and David Olson, the answer is mostly no. Saaris is a former teacher turned education nonprofit bigwig, while Olson is a retired Navy officer and longtime member of the Peninsula School Board. The office is nonpartisan, but Olson is endorsed by the Washington GOP plus pretty much every rural school board in the state. He also places heavy emphasis on parental control in education, which has become something of a dog whistle for outing trans kids to their parents and letting religious zealots ban anything they deem objectionable.

Former United Way CEO Joanne Harrell, wife of Mayor Bruce Harrell, sits on the board of the massive education nonprofit Saaris founded and ran for 10 years, Equal Opportunity Schools. Anyway, a lot of Saaris' positions overlap with Reykdal's, especially on rights for LGBTQ+ kids and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, but he — and Olson — have been quick to point out that Washington State's kids are in crisis under Reykdal. Olson has more clear disagreements than Saaris, but they both make the same points: A majority of our state's kids aren't proficient in reading, our middle schoolers can't do math, and a whole lot of them are depressed (some to the point of suicidal ideation). Both blame phones, which the superintendent is not empowered to ban outright, but mostly both blame the incumbent.

Reykdal remains a staunch advocate for diversity, adequate teacher pay, keeping religion out of schools, expanding free school meal programs, and protecting the privacy of trans kids. He earned the ire of conservatives across the state when he correctly pointed out that the 2023 Parents' Bill of Rights, which was an attempt to let parents find out if their kids were transitioning genders or questioning their gender identity, did not in any way supersede existing federal laws protecting the privacy of medical and mental health records. Like, you know, HIPAA.

At this point in your ballot experience, you might be thinking, "Why are so many people running for an office I didn't know existed until now?" And that's a great question. Our lazy answer is that it's a stepping stone to other, higher offices. Kind of like how Christine Gregoire spent years running the Department of Ecology before moving up to Attorney General and even further up into the Governor's mansion. And how Bob Ferguson got himself elected to King County Council before moving up to Attorney General and is now extremely likely to find himself in the Governor's mansion. Anyway, withdrawn gubernatorial candidate and current commissioner Hilary Franz is now running to replace departing 6th District U.S Rep. Derek Kilmer, leaving the Lands post open.

There are seven candidates in the running, and all of them appear to be viable (i.e., have a campaign website, have serious political or professional experience, have refrained from mentioning anything weirder than a love for fostering rescue beagles). Let's run down the list, shall we? We'll start with Sue Kuehl Pederson, a perennial candidate in that she lost a State Senate race in 2016 and lost the Commissioner of Public Lands race to Franz in 2020. She did at least get to bring her message of revitalizing (read: deregulating) the timber industry and clearing all that pesky underbrush to stop forest fires to the general. Maybe she can borrow some of Trump's rakes. Rounding out the Republican ticket in this race is Jaime Herrera Beutler, former U.S. Representative for Washington State's 3rd District. Kind of a step down for her here, but when you're a career politician and the music is slowing down and you can't find a chair, any seat will do, we suppose.

On the Democratic side of things, we've got a whole slew of candidates. Jeralee Anderson is a current member of the Redmond City Council and the CEO of a sustainable transportation nonprofit that promotes sustainability by offering a third-party certification to large projects. Something like an eco-label for fish or beef, but for highways. (She's the beagle rescuer, by the way.) Also in the "relative unknown" category is Allen Lebovitz, a firefighter and Yale-educated environmental management dude. Besides being a wildland firefighter, he works for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) as its Wildland Fire and Forest Resilience Liaison, but he has also done restoration ecology, forestry, and marine and fisheries biology work for the organization. His campaign website includes a picture of him with his "chief of staff," an incredibly cute pit-mix named Coco. Must love dogs to win this post, apparently.

Moving on, we have The Seattle Times' choice in the race: Patrick DePoe, a first-time Native politician who is deeply sympathetic to all the poor loggers on the peninsula who have lost their jobs. He is a former vice-chair of the Makah Nation and current DNR Director of Tribal Relations. Besides the all-important Times endorsement, he's gotten the nod from Franz, giving him something of a handpicked vibe here. To really muddy up the race, these three Democrats and their padded rsums on sustainability are joined by two successful, sitting politicians: King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove and State Sen. Kevin Van De Wege. Van De Wege sits on the Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks Committee and was its chair for many years. Upthegrove is just, well, an extremely dependable and tenured politician with a lot of environmental accomplishments under his belt.

So, how do you choose among all these people? We're not going to lie: They kind of all look the same even if you aren't squinting. But while each one wants to convince you only they can prevent forest fires, there's more to the office than that. While we may have somewhat flippantly characterized this post as a political waiting room, it's actually extremely important. Besides the wildfire response, the Commissioner of Public Lands is in charge of overseeing the state's timber sales, which in turn provide school funding. They also issue regulations for how companies can conduct logging or build roads in State-managed lands. Basically, it would behoove the timber industry to have someone in there who will let them do whatever they want. And they do donate toward that end!

For example, besides his many, many contributions from the state's various tribes (makes sense), DePoe has taken about $1,500 from timber companies directly and another $2,400 from a timber industry PAC. However, the highest-earning Republican in the race, Herrera Beutler, has taken in more from lumber interests than DePoe could even dream of. Van De Wege, another big fundraiser at around $240,000, has also taken a few sawbucks, so to speak. However, the highest earner in the race at around $330,000 in campaign funds, Upthegrove, hasn't gotten a cent from any obvious industry groups. Of course, any one of his many, many individual donors could be a timber executive, but he at least isn't openly taking cash from the people he's proposing to regulate. Sadly, the dashing, dog-loving firefighter-slash-conservationist in the race hasn't taken a single cent from … anyone. He's got $0 in the war chest. But while money almost always determines the outcome of elections in our country, you could vote Lebovitz here just for the thrill of it. It'll probably still be Upthegrove against Herrera Beutler in the general, but this is only the primary. Go ahead and get a little silly with it.

We get it, we really do. It's hard enough to care about politics at even the presidential level when it feels like nothing you do in the voting booth does anything to affect your daily life. So why should you care about who the insurance commissioner is? Hell, we only remember the insurance commissioner even exists when election season rolls around. But care you must. The Washington State Insurance Commissioner does a lot of important work behind the scenes. While health insurance is the big one they regulate, they monitor insurance companies in all sectors to make sure they're following state regulations and not overcharging people or delivering less coverage than promised.

Current commissioner Mike Kreidler, a Democrat, has done a decent job, by all accounts, but he's retiring. Aiming to replace him are eight people. That group is composed of two nonentities, four people from the insurance industry, and two serious candidates. The two serious ones are State Sens. Patty Kuderer and Phil Fortunato, a Democrat and a Republican, respectively. Kuderer, who has pushed for a public option in health insurance, is motivated to run by her experience giving birth to a severely premature daughter and nearly having her daughter's lifesaving care denied coverage for being "experimental." Suffice to say she's got some lived experience with trying to get people who say they will pay for health care, the point of which is to promote health, to pay for things that are key to the maintenance of health. Fortunato is running to defeat "an activist attorney seeking to fill Washington's Insurance Commissioner role." He wants to bring costs down by running the classic Republican play of "removing burdensome regulations" from the industry he would be in charge of regulating.

The good news here is that there's not much news, because, as per usual here in "vote blue no matter who" country, our Democratic State representatives have no serious challengers. Around these parts, the only contentious races are between candidates with (D) behind both of their names, and the only people lining up to challenge incumbents are Republicans, Libertarians, and who knows what else. The Democratic Party's internecine struggles of 2022 are largely over, except in one instance: Rep. Frank Chopp is retiring. With no powerful, well-funded incumbent to deter them, there are a few credible candidates vying to fill his spot. If you live in the 43rd District, here's the skinny.

Andrea Suarez (who, full disclosure, this journalist has had beers with in the course of reporting on homelessness) runs We Heart Seattle, a controversial homelessness outreach and trash-pickup organization accused of, among other things, stealing people's belongings, stealing someone's dog, and bribing homeless people to leave the state. According to Suarez, they've never taken any tents without permission, and the dog thing was all a big misunderstanding. She is rather cozy with the right and has herself spoken at Republican Party fundraisers. In her first stab at politics, she's running as a Democrat.

Against her is Shaun Scott, a Democratic Socialist. An outspoken activist who rose to prominence for his politically tinged films and commentary, his political career got off to an inauspicious start with a loss in 2019 to pro-business incumbent Alex Pedersen for Seattle City Council District 4. He also ran U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal's 2018 reelection campaign and was Washington State Field Director for Bernie Sanders' 2020 campaign. Again, we're not here to bet on any ponies, but you'll probably see Scott in the general.

Other challengers, Boeing machinist and union activist Stephanie Lloyd-Agnew and paddleboarder Daniel Carusello have no prior political experience, but, as Carusello pointed out in a recent Reddit AMA, "All of us would be first-time legislators if elected."