Happy Friday, Washington Democrats!

Vote! Vote! Vote!

Tuesday is the August 5th Primary and your last chance to make your voices heard in our state before the November General Election. You have until 8PM Tuesday to get your ballot into a secure ballot box (if you wait until the last minute, putting your ballot in the mail may mean it’s not postmarked in time). You can find the nearest secure ballot box here.

There are two crucial special legislative elections happening this year in Legislative Districts 5 and 26. TOMORROW, Saturday, August 2, we are hosting special canvasses with the candidates as well as Congressmembers Kim Schrier and Emily Randall and Commissioner of Public Lands Dave Upthegrove. Come out and help us make sure voters get their ballots in.

• In LD 5 Sen. Victoria Hunt is fighting to preserve the late Bill Ramos’ Democratic legacy – going head-to-head against failed former GOP State Rep. Chad Magendanz. As Washington Republicans take to the airwaves to defend National Republicans’ horrendous budget that slashes taxes for billionaires while placing Apple Health coverage at risk for more than 300,000 Washingtonians, we need all hands on deck. Issaquah GOTV – 8/2 at 10:00am – sign up here! 

• In LD 26 Democratic incumbent Sen. Deborah Krishnadasan is expected to face off against MAGA bully and GOP State Rep. Michelle Caldier. Not only is Caldier bending over backwards to defend the Congressional Republican Budget, she votes in our own state to deny healthcare coverage to patients with pre-existing conditions. Let’s keep Kitsap County blue and re-elect Senator Krishnadasan! Bremerton GOTV – 8/2 at 3:00pm – sign up here! 

Working for Washington

This week, we welcomed our new Year Round Organizing Director, Kendall Oehler, to launch our efforts to be in every community whether or not there’s an election on the horizon. I’ll formally introduce Kendall after she’s had a chance to find her footing, but we are excited to have this position filled.

Last weekend, I had the honor of traveling to Memphis, Tennessee in my role as DNC Vice Chair. I was asked to speak at Centenary Methodist Church, the same church MLK delivered his final public remarks before his life was taken by an assassin’s bullet the next day. This was truly one of the honors of my life’s work so far. I also had the great privilege of addressing the Teamsters National Black Caucus Memphis Delta Chapter’s 30th Anniversary Gala Dinner. The rich culture and history of these communities inspired me and I am committed to ensuring that our National Party continues to invest in these communities so we can regain our party’s footing in every state.

This week, I also met with the Summer Democracy Fellows at Reps. Smith, DelBene, and Schrier’s teams. It was a great opportunity to connect with the next generation of political leaders. I walked them through the efforts Washington Democrats are taking to elect solutions-focused leaders across our state and in my additional role as DNC Vice Chair. 

Washington Democrats also spent this week building out our Get Out the Vote rallies and canvasses in Legislative Districts 5 and 26 that will occur tomorrow! Sign ups are below – I hope to see you there!

Call to Action

• Rally, Protest, and Gather
• TODAY – Freedom Friday We Love PBS in Spokane. 4PM-5PM. Sign up here.
• TOMORROW – Get Out the Vote Rally in Issaquah. 10AM-12:30PM. Join U.S. Representative Kim Schrier and Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove to canvass voters to turn in their ballots. Sign up here.
• TOMORROW – Get Out the Vote Rally in Bremerton. 3PM-5:30PM. Join U.S. Representative Emily Randall and Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove to canvass voters to turn in their ballots. Sign up here.
• Every Friday – Refuse Fascism Fridays in Everett at the Social Security Administration Office from 5 PM-6:30 PM. Sign up here.
• Every Monday – Mikey Mondays in Spokane outside the office of U.S. Representative Michael Baumgartner. Sign up here.
• Every Tuesday – Tesla Tuesday in Liberty Lake from 4:30PM-5:30PM. Sign up here.
• Every Wednesday – Musk or Us Protest in Redmond from 4PM-5PM. Sign up here.

• Send us details on rallies and protests in your communities 
• Email details to [email protected].

• Donate
• If you would like to see less Washington D.C. and more Washington state in your community, please DONATE to The Real Washington Fund – our rapid response account to counter MAGA’s chaos with real organizing, real solutions, and real results. We can’t do the work of holding Republicans accountable without your support.

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Democrats Fighting Back

“Protecting Americans from their President,” MSNBC

Attorney General Nick Brown was featured on MSNBC’s The Last Word for his work to protect SNAP recipients from having their personal information shared with the federal government. Washington recently launched its 30th lawsuit against the Trump administration’s illegal conduct. 

Cantwell’s bipartisan weather plan shows the leadership America needs, The Seattle Times

Senator Cantwell is working to restore sanity to weather prediction models that save lives and support our economy. Through modernizing weather prediction infrastructure, we can secure more time to prepare for extreme weather events like the flash floods in Texas that killed so many.

Lina Khan: A secret to Zohran Mamdani’s Success, The New York Times

What do Zohran Mamdani and Congresswoman Marie Glusenkamp Perez have in common? A deep understanding of the problems facing small and family businesses and fluency in the specifics of what these struggles look like day-to-day. 

Drop in state funding for WA’s work to prevent severe wildfires in stoking concerns, Washington State Standard

Public Lands Commissioner Dave Upthegrove and Governor Bob Ferguson hosted a press conference near the Burdoin Fire in the Columbia River Gorge to stress the importance of wildfire funding in our state budget. With the Trump administration denying emergency funding to blue states and raiding state budgets to cover gaps in Medicaid funding, our leaders are making sure we don’t lose progress on vital priorities like protecting communities in fire country.

Police funding, housing and parking requirements among new state laws in effect, Kitsap Sun 

Democratic majorities in the state legislature delivered massive progress and those laws are now coming into effect. Increased funding for public safety, new efforts to modernize urban housing requirements and transit, medical debt no longer appearing on credit reports, and official recognition of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha as state-recognized unpaid holidays are just some of the progress we’ve made. 

Democrats in the News

Opinion: New lands commissioner has a lot of ground to cover, The Yakima Herald-Republic

WA congressman riffs on national security in the Trump era, Washington State Standard

What I’m Listening To/Reading

Maxwell gets immunity… will her testimony split MAGA?, The Northwest Politicast

I was interviewed on KOMO Radio about Republican redistricting attempts in Texas and Democratic efforts to counter this abuse of power. We also discussed the DNC’s upcoming review of what went wrong at the national level in 2024 and how our success in Washington state can be a template for the rest of the country. 

If Democrats want to appeal to rural America, they need to talk like a neighbor, The Nation

Shifting just 3% of rural voters towards Democrats would be game-changing at the national level. I appreciated this piece’s efforts to push messaging that focuses on actionable solutions and reclaiming New Deal populism that benefits the working class. We can’t just pass good policy, we have to explain how that’s helping people.

Thanks for all you do,

Chair Shasti Conrad
Washington State Democratic Party