Republican Schmidt to face Democrat Cummings in 4th Legislative District race

Republican Suzanne Schmidt and Democrat Ted Cummings will move on to the November general election in the race to replace retiring Rep. Bob McCaslin in the 4th Legislative District.

Schmidt received 36% of the vote and Cummings received 39% of the vote, according to initial results Tuesday night.

The candidate who McCaslin endorsed as his replacement, Republican MJ Bolt, was trailing with 24.6% of the vote. Bolt, a golf teacher, had also received the endorsement of current 4th District Rep. Rob Chase.

The 4th district is where Rep. Matt Shea served for eight years before a House Republican caucus investigation found he engaged in domestic terrorism. McCaslin aligned himself with Shea during his time in the Legislature.

Schmidt, a recently retired workers’ president and CEO of Associated Builders and Contractors Inland Pacific Chapter, had received the support of 6th District legislators Rep. Mike Volz and Sen. Jeff Holy.

Cummings, who has worked for Kaiser Aluminum off and on for 30 years, had not received any large donations. He said he was running to ensure no Republican ran unopposed in the primary.

“I need to stand up for people that I believe are under threat, which right now is an entire nation,” Cummings said Tuesday. “So that’s why I’m in this race.”

In the 3rd District race, Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, will face Republican Natalie Poulson in the general election.

Ormsby received 61% of the vote while Poulson received 36.5%.

Poulson, a longtime teacher with Spokane Public Schools, was escorted from Finch Elementary School last year for refusing to wear a mask. She later left the district, she said, because of Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

S-R reporter Carly Dykes contributed to this report.