Washington State Republican Party
Chairperson	Jim Walsh
Vice Chair	Michelle Belkot
Senate Leader	John Braun
House Leader	Drew Stokesbary
Founded	1890
Headquarters	Bellevue,Washington
Ideology	Conservatism
National affiliation	Republican Party
U.S. Senate delegation	0 / 2
U.S. House delegation	2 / 10
Statewide offices	0 / 9
Washington Senate	19 / 49
Washington House	39 / 98
Election symbol
Website
www.wagop.org
Politics of Washington Elections Politics of the United States Political parties Elections

TheWashington State Republican Party (WSRP) is thestate affiliate of the nationalUnited States Republican Party, headquartered inBellevue.^[1]

Washington is considered ablue state, with the WSRP holding no statewide offices, 2 out of the state's 10 U.S. house seats, and minorities of both houses of the state legislature as of 2024. No state has gone longer without a Republican governor thanWashington. Democrats have controlled the governorship for40 years; the last Republican governor wasJohn Spellman, who left office in 1985. Washington has not voted for a Republican senator, governor, or presidential candidate since 1994, tying with Delaware for the longest streak in the country.^[2]

Since 2016, the WRSP and its voter base have undergone a hard right-wing shift in their political and social views. This has led to a further loss of electoral power for the party.^[3]

Washington voters tend to support Democratic Party candidates, withThe New York Times referring to the state as "Democratopolis."^[4] The last Republican governor in Washington wasJohn Spellman, who held office from 1981 to 1985. Republicans came closest to recapturing the state's chief executive office in 2004 when DemocratChristine Gregoire secured election by just 133 votes out of 2.8 million cast. The last time Washington gave its electoral votes to a Republican candidate for U.S. president was in1984, when a majority in the state voted forRonald Reagan.

The early history of the state saw firm electoral dominance by the Republican Party. In 1889, Republicans prevailed in the first election for governor and scored majorities in both chambers of the inaugural state legislature.William Owen Bush, Washington's first African-American legislator, is credited with introducing the legislation that led to the establishment ofWashington State University. Elected as a Republican fromThurston County, Bush was known as a tireless promoter of Washingtonagriculture.^[5] Republican policies in the early period of statehood were advanced by the party-connectedSeattle Post-Intelligencer and, later, byThe Seattle Republican. Founded by ex-slaveHorace Cayton,The Seattle Republican would grow to become the second-largest newspaper inSeattle before it folded in 1917. "The success of the Republican Party is one of its highest ambitions," Cayton said of his publication.^[6]

In 1922 RepublicanReba Hurn ofSpokane became the first woman elected to theWashington State Senate, serving from 1923 to 1930. Hurn advocated for conservative fiscal policies and was a supporter ofprohibition, but otherwise espoused a generally liberal social agenda, helping to pass the state's first child labor laws.^[7]Charles M. Stokes became the first African-American elected to the state legislature from King County in 1950. He led the Republican Party delegation to the1952 Republican National Convention where he spoke in support ofDwight Eisenhower's presidential nomination and later introduced the legislation that createdWashington's Lottery.^[8]

After a period of declining fortunes, in 1964 RepublicanDan Evans was elected governor at the age of 39, becoming the youngest person to hold the state's chief executive office. The architect of Evans' victory,C. Montgomery Johnson., became the party's first full-time chairman. Johnson, a former forest ranger, publicist forWeyerhauser, earlypro-choice advocate and champion of limited government, led a purge ofJohn Birch Society members from the Washington Republican party, declaring afterward that "we had to make the term 'conservative' respectable again. The only way to do it was to get the far right off the backs of conservatives. The Republican Party is not the far-right."^[9]

In 1971 Johnson quit the party chairmanship to form a political consulting firm. With the warning that future tolerance of the John Birch Society would be "the instrument of Republican defeat - statewide, regionally, and locally," party leaders elected Johnson's political ally, Earl Davenport, to replace him as party head.^[10] The election, the same year, of Republican Michael Ross from Seattle's 37th legislative district foreshadowed eventual changes in Washington state law. The former treasurer of the Seattle chapter of theCongress of Racial Equality, Ross grabbed headlines when he introduced a bill to legalizemarijuana. (While the measure failed, Washington would eventually become the first state to legalize the manufacture and sale of marijuana in 2012.) During a period of racial tensions atRainier Beach High School, Ross commandeered a state vehicle and drove a contingent of armedBlack Panthers to the school to protect African-American students. In 1973 Ross attempted an unsuccessful bid forSeattle City Council. One of his campaign volunteers in that contest was the Republican party's 2004 and 2008 gubernatorial nomineeDino Rossi.^[11]

TheRepublican Revolution of 1994 helped party candidates score an unprecedented seven of the state's nine seats in theU.S. House of Representatives. InWashington's 5th congressional district RepublicanGeorge Nethercutt unseatedTom Foley, the incumbentSpeaker of the United States House of Representatives. Foley's defeat marked the first time a sitting Speaker had been defeated in a reelection in 132 years. Another Republican elevated to national office as a result of the 1994 elections wasJack Metcalf. Described byThe Seattle Times as "the vestige of a certain place the Northwest used to be," Metcalf typified the unconventional characteristics for which Washington Republicans had previously been known. One of the few Republicans in the late 1990s endorsed byorganized labor, Metcalf blended fiscal conservatism with environmental advocacy, working with the anti-whaling groupSea Shepherd Conservation Society and sponsoring an abortive effort to require labeling of genetically modified foods.^[12]

The Washington state Republican party has, in recent years, struggled with internal divisions between its historic core ofsocial liberals and a strengthening contingent ofreligious conservatives. The party's 1996 gubernatorial candidate,paleoconservativeEllen Craswell, won the Republican nomination by only a slim margin before being soundly defeated in the general election by DemocratGary Locke. Craswell would ultimately quit the party to help form the American Heritage Party. Concerns about increasing social conservatism in the party led state legislatorsFred Jarrett andRodney Tom to drop their Republican affiliation in the late 2000s and join the Democratic Party.^[13]

Eastern Washington is considered a stronghold of the party. Republican candidates have also performed well in theeastern half of King County and in Seattle's affluentMadison Park neighborhood in the past.^[14] Among the largest recent financial backers of the party's activities are theNational Electrical Contractors Association,Kemper Holdings,Microsoft, real estate developer Clyde Holland, and investor Richard Alvord (Alvord's parents, meanwhile, are Democratic Party benefactors).^[15][16]

Since 2016, the state GOP and its voter base have undergone a hard rightward shift in their political views and positions along with the embrace ofTrumpism. This includes the party being completely taken over bysocial conservatives includinggun rights andanti-abortion activists.^[17] This has led to many people on theEastside and elsewhere in the state abandoning the party.^[3] After the2020 Washington gubernatorial election, despiteJay Inslee's large margin of victory, Republican candidate Loren Culp refused to concede his loss and gave no concession speech, while making unsubstantiated claims of voting fraud.^[18]

After Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in the2020 presidential election, state Republicans were divided over Trump's false claims of election fraud, with some rejecting or embracing the claims.^[19] In the aftermath, some Republicans and county chapters have spreadmisinformation and conspiracy theories over the 2020 election.^[20][21][22] There has been efforts by a few Republican legislators to abolish the mail by voting system that's been used in the state for years, often claiming there was widespread election fraud.^[23] It was also reported that a Republican lawmaker proclaimed on social media to "prepare for war" and advocated for others to join following the 2020 election.^[24] In 2023, the state GOP selectedJim Walsh as their new chairman, signaling a hardline conservative shift for the party.^[25] In April 2024, the state GOP passed a resolution that claimed that America is not a democracy but a republic, stating "every time the word ‘democracy’ is used favorably it serves to promote the principles of the Democratic Party."^[26][27] Other resolutions called for terminatingmail-in voting and repealing the17th amendment, which enabled the direct election of U.S. Senators.^[26]

The Washington chapter of theNational Federation of Republican Women was established in 1945 and currently consists of more than 30 local Republican women's clubs.^[28] The Washington College Republican Federation hasCollege Republicans chapters at 10 of the state's colleges and universities. Past members of theUniversity of Washington chapter of the group have included former gubernatorial candidateJohn Carlson, and former state party chairmenKirby Wilbur andLuke Esser.^[29]

An independent pressure group founded in 1990,Mainstream Republicans of Washington, advances efforts to moderate Republican policies and recruit centrist candidates. The group's members include former state legislatorsGary Alexander,Steve Litzow, andHans Zeiger. In 2005 an organization of Republican attorneys and former elected officials, theConstitutional Law PAC, was formed to advocate in state judicial elections. The current head of that organization is former U.S. SenatorSlade Gorton. A Washington chapter of theRepublican Liberty Caucus was organized in 2012 to push alibertarian agenda.^[30] Former state legislatorsMatt Shea andJason Overstreet have been involved with the group.

Though officially non-partisan, theOlympia-based think tankEvergreen Freedom Foundation has been connected with Republican candidates and causes.^[31] When former state AuditorBrian Sonntag, a Democrat, joined the foundation as an adviser in 2013,Washington State Democratic Party chair Dwight Pelz declared Sonntag was no longer a Democrat and called on him to "pay your dues to the Republican party."^[32] Washington state has a chapter of theLog Cabin Republicans and the former executive-director of the national group, Patrick Sammon, is a native of Seattle.^[33]

The Washington State Republican Party controls none of the nine constitutional offices and holds a minority two of the state's 10 seats in theU.S. House of Representatives. Republicans are the minority in theWashington Senate andWashington House of Representatives.

• None

District	Member	Photo
4th	Dan Newhouse
5th	Michael Baumgartner

• None

• Senate Minority Leader:John Braun
• House Minority Leader:Drew Stokesbary

Washington Republican Party senatorial election results

Election	Senatorial candidate	Votes	Vote %	Result
1914	Wesley Livsey Jones	130,479	37.79%	WonY
1916	Miles Poindexter	202,287	55.39%	WonY
1920	Wesley Livsey Jones	217,069	56.40%	WonY
1922	Miles Poindexter	126,410	42.93%	LostN
1926	Wesley Livsey Jones	164,130	51.31%	WonY
1928	Kenneth Macintosh	227,415	46.45%	LostN
1932	Wesley Livsey Jones	197,450	32.70%	LostN
1934	Reno Odlin	168,994	34.02%	LostN
1938	Ewing D. Colvin	220,204	37.12%	LostN
1940	Stephen F. Chadwick	342,589	45.84%	LostN
1944	Harry P. Cain	364,356	44.44%	LostN
1946	Harry P. Cain	358,847	54.34%	WonY
1950	Walter Williams	342,464	45.98%	LostN
1952	Harry P. Cain	460,884	43.53%	LostN
1956	Arthur B. Langlie	436,652	38.91%	LostN
1958	William B. Bantz	278,271	31.38%	LostN
1962	Richard G. Christensen	446,204	47.31%	LostN
1964	Lloyd J. Andrews	337,138	27.79%	LostN
1968	Jack Metcalf	435,894	35.26%	LostN
1970	Charles W. Elicker	170,790	16.01%	LostN
1974	Jack Metcalf	363,626	36.08%	LostN
1976	George M. Brown	361,546	24.25%	LostN
1980	Slade Gorton	936,317	54.17%	WonY
1982	Douglas Jewett	332,273	24.28%	LostN
1983 (special)	Daniel J. Evans	672,326	55.41%	WonY
1986	Slade Gorton	650,931	48.67%	LostN
1988	Slade Gorton	944,359	51.09%	WonY
1992	Rod Chandler	1,020,829	46.01%	LostN
1994	Slade Gorton	947,821	55.75%	WonY
1998	Linda Smith	785,377	41.59%	LostN
2000	Slade Gorton	1,197,208	48.64%	LostN
2004	George Nethercutt	1,204,584	43.74%	LostN
2006	Mike McGavick	832,106	39.91%	LostN
2010	Dino Rossi	1,196,164	47.64%	LostN
2012	Michael Baumgartner	1,213,924	39.55%	LostN
2016	Chris Vance	1,329,338	40.99%	LostN
2018	Susan Hutchison	1,282,804	41.57%	LostN
2022	Tiffany Smiley	1,299,322	42.63%	LostN
2024	Raul Garcia	1,549,187	40.64%	LostN

Washington Republican Party gubernatorial election results

Election	Gubernatorial candidate	Votes	Vote %	Result
1889	Elisha P. Ferry	33,711	57.68%	WonY
1892	John McGraw	33,281	37.01%	WonY
1896	Potter C. "Charley" Sullivan	38,154	41.68%	LostN
1900	John M. Frink	49,860	46.81%	LostN
1904	Albert E. Mead	74,278	51.34%	WonY
1908	Samuel G. Cosgrove	110,190	62.56%	WonY
1912	Marion E. Hay	96,629	30.35%	LostN
1916	Henry McBride	167,809	44.44%	LostN
1920	Louis F. Hart	210,662	52.25%	WonY
1924	Roland H. Hartley	220,162	56.41%	WonY
1928	Roland H. Hartley	281,991	56.22%	WonY
1932	John Arthur Gellatly	207,497	33.75%	LostN
1936	Roland H. Hartley	189,141	28.12%	LostN
1940	Arthur B. Langlie	392,522	50.24%	WonY
1944	Arthur B. Langlie	400,604	48.12%	LostN
1948	Arthur B. Langlie	445,958	50.50%	WonY
1952	Arthur B. Langlie	567,822	52.65%	WonY
1956	Emmett T. Anderson	508,041	45.00%	LostN
1960	Lloyd J. Andrews	594,122	48.87%	LostN
1964	Daniel J. Evans	697,256	55.77%	WonY
1968	Daniel J. Evans	692,378	54.72%	WonY
1972	Daniel J. Evans	747,825	50.78%	WonY
1976	John Spellman	687,039	44.43%	LostN
1980	John Spellman	981,083	56.68%	WonY
1984	John Spellman	881,994	46.69%	LostN
1988	Bob Williams	708,481	37.79%	LostN
1992	Ken Eikenberry	1,086,216	47.84%	LostN
1996	Ellen Craswell	940,538	42.04%	LostN
2000	John Carlson	980,060	39.68%	LostN
2004	Dino Rossi	1,373,228	48.87%	LostN
2008	Dino Rossi	1,404,124	46.76%	LostN
2012	Rob McKenna	1,488,245	48.46%	LostN
2016	Bill Bryant	1,476,346	45.49%	LostN
2020	Loren Culp	1,749,066	43.12%	LostN
2024	Dave Reichert	1,709,818	44.28%	LostN

• Mainstream Republicans of Washington
• Washington State Democratic Party

• Washington State Republican Party

• Republican Party (United States) by state
• Political parties in Washington (state)

• Webarchive template wayback links
• Articles with short description
• Short description matches Wikidata
• Articles with hCards