4th District Representative, Position 1
Election Results
| Candidate | Votes | Pct |
|---|---|---|
| Matt Shea (R) | 39,572 | 57.74% |
| Ted Cummings (D) | 28,963 | 42.26% |
* Race percentages are calculated with data from the Secretary of State's Office, which omits write-in votes from its calculations when there are too few to affect the outcome. The Spokane County Auditor's Office may have slightly different percentages than are reflected here because its figures include any write-in votes.
About the Race
The Candidates
Matt Shea
- Party:
- Republican
- Age:
- 50
- City:
- Spokane Valley, WA
- Occupation:
- Lawyer
Education: Graduated from high school in Bellingham. Earned bachelor’s degree in history and political science from Gonzaga University in 1996. Earned law degree from Gonzaga in 2006.
Political experience: Elected to state House every two years since 2008. Serves as assistant ranking minority member on the House’s Labor and Workforce and Judiciary committees.
Work experience: Attorney at M. Casey Law since 2013. Formerly handled personal injury cases at Keith S. Douglass and Associates. Co-founded the Washington Family Foundation. Served 4 ½ years in the army, entering as a lieutenant in 1996, including eight months in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Later served 11 months in Iraq as a captain in the Army and Army National Guard.
Family: Divorced and remarried. No children.
Ted Cummings
- Party:
- Democratic
- Age:
- 63
- City:
- Chattaroy, Washington
Education: Graduated from Gonzaga Preparatory School in 1979. Earned an associate degree from Spokane Community College in 1997.
Work experience: Worked at Kaiser Aluminum’s Mead smelter from 1988 until a strike and lockout in 1998. Worked as a supervisor for Alcoa Aluminum in New York from 1998 to 2004. Returned to Kaiser in 2004 at the company’s Trentwood plant. Has served as a vice president for the Washington State Labor Council since 2018.
Political experience: Ran for U.S. Senate in 2016. Ran for state representative in the 4th Legislative District against Matt Shea in 2018. Ran for Spokane County commissioner against Josh Kerns in 2020. Ran for state House Position 1 in the 4th Legislative District in 2022.
Family: Married to Denise Cummings. Has two adult sons and one granddaughter.
Campaign contributions: Opted for mini-filer path, meaning he does not need to report donations or expenditures as long as totals remain below $7,000.
Complete Coverage
The week that was: Ferguson sidesteps question on running for governor; state of Liberty gets another try
Spokane group has breakfast with Attorney General Bob Ferguson, asks if he’d like to be Gov. Bob Ferguson.
Rep. Matt Shea urges crowd to resist gun restrictions with firearms ‘behind every blade of grass’
Rep. Matt Shea calls for a gun behind every blade of grass and people willing to fight gun control.
Spin Control: What’s in store for 2019? Maybe this. Maybe not.
With 2019 stretching before us, Spin Control makes some predictions.
Attorney for state Rep. Matt Shea counters PDC complaints over surplus funds
Attorney for Rep. Matt Shea rebuts PDC complaints over his surplus campaign fund.
‘Pure fiction’: Spokane Valley City Council is not voting on 51st state idea
A longtime columnist for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer apologized Tuesday for a story that falsely claimed the Spokane Valley City Council was planning to vote on a resolution in support of state Rep. Matt Shea’s proposal to turn Eastern Washington into a 51st state.
Shea donations from surplus campaign money prompt complaint
State Rep. Matt Shea’s donations to certain charities from his surplus campaign fund generate a complaint to the state Public Disclosure Commission from a Democratic political watchdog.
Shawn Vestal: Shea finds questioners in Poland more to his liking
Good news, everyone: Matt Shea has found a couple of interviewers he apparently doesn’t consider too dirty, godless or hateful to answer.
Kretz, Maycumber named to House GOP leader posts
Reps. Joel Kretz, Jacqueline Maycumber named to leadership posts by House Republicans.
Matt Shea, Bob McCaslin sweep Democratic hopefuls in Spokane Valley’s 4th Legislative District
Republican state Reps. Matt Shea and Bob McCaslin have fended off Democratic challengers in Eastern Washington’s 4th Legislative District.
Avista, BNSF join list of donors seeking refunds from Shea campaign
Avista Corp. and the BNSF Railway Co. on Friday joined the list of organizations requesting refunds from state Rep. Matt Shea’s re-election campaign. Both companies this year donated $2,000 to Shea’s campaign, the maximum allowed under state law. They want that money back now that the Spokane Valley Republican is under fire for distributing a document titled “Biblical Basis for War,” which spells out how a “Holy Army” should punish those who flout “biblical law.”
AT&T, Washington Realtors seek Shea campaign refunds over ‘Biblical Basis for War’ manifesto
Two more organizations demanded money back from state Rep. Matt Shea’s re-election campaign on Thursday, while others denounced his rhetoric and said they would not support him in future elections. The latest controversy surrounding the Spokane Valley Republican also garnered national media attention, and his Democratic opponent reported a last-minute burst of small campaign donations from across the country.
At least one of Rep. Matt Shea’s campaign donors wants money back
The political arm of the Northwest Credit Union Association, which represents 180 credit unions in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, gave $1,000 to Shea’s campaign this year but recently asked the campaign to return the money. On Tuesday, a spokeswoman told Spokane Public Radio the association had reviewed Shea’s social media activity and determined “his beliefs do not reflect the views and values of our organization, member credit unions or customers.”
Rep. Matt Shea takes credit, criticism for document titled ‘Biblical Basis for War’
Washington state Rep. Matt Shea acknowledged Wednesday he had distributed a four-page manifesto titled “Biblical Basis for War,” which describes the Christian god as a “warrior,” details the composition and strategies of a “Holy Army” and condemns abortion and same-sex marriage. After the document was leaked online Tuesday, the Spokane Valley Republican insisted he was not promoting violence and that the message had been taken out of context.
Spokane Valley Reps. Matt Shea and Bob McCaslin debate Democratic challengers Ted Cummings and Mary May
Candidates for the two House positions representing the 4th Legislative District shared vastly different views on health care, organized labor, immigration and other issues during a pair of debates Tuesday evening hosted by the Greater Spokane Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Matt Shea to join Ammon Bundy at far-right gathering in Whitefish, Montana
The “New Code of the West” conference will be a reunion of sorts for the Spokane Valley state legislator and public-lands opponent Ammon Bundy, both of whom rail against what they consider systemic abuses of power by the federal government.
Matt Shea’s challenger for 4th District House seat Ted Cummings offers different version of Democrat
Ted Cummings admits he didn’t pay much attention to state Rep. Matt Shea until early this year, when he noticed the Spokane Valley legislator had introduced a bill that aimed to cripple labor unions. The so-called “right to work” proposal, which never passed out of committee, was anathema to Cummings, a longtime Kaiser Aluminum employee and member of the Steelworkers union. The phrase “right to work,” he said, is “a misnomer,” that’s “designed to steal from working men and women.” He recalled thinking, “Why would I elect a representative for my state to actively work against my interests?”
Task force looks at public records versus private information
Task force grapples with protecting private information from constituents as it reviews public records law.
Spin Control: Rep. Shea should keep his seat on the Public Records task force
Calling reporters “dirty, godless, hateful” shouldn’t disqualify Matt Shea from serving on a legislative task force on the Public Records Act.
Inslee says Shea shouldn’t be on task force; GOP leader says he’ll stay
Gov. Jay Inslee calls for Rep. Matt Shea to step down from the legislative Public Records Act task force, but the House’s top Republican says that’s not Inslee’s decision to make.