Republicans Jerrod Sessler, Dan Newhouse on track to advance in central WA’s 4th Congressional District

Two Republicans appeared on track to advance in Tuesday’s top-two primary and face off to represent central Washington’s 4th Congressional District in November’s general election.

With just less than 70,000 ballots returned, Jerrod Sessler led with nearly 30% of votes and incumbent Rep. Dan Newhouse stood in second place with 25%. Another Republican, Tiffany Smiley, and Democrats Mary Baechler and Misty Jane “Birdie” Muchlinski trailed and appeared unlikely to advance to November’s general election, as did three other candidates who rounded out the crowded field.

In a statement, Sessler thanked God, his family, his supporters, campaign volunteers and former President Donald Trump, whose endorsement boosted a relatively low-budget campaign. He also appealed to voters who backed Smiley, who also received Trump’s endorsement days before the primary.

“In 90 days, this district is going to vote overwhelmingly for President Trump,” Sessler said. “I will work hard to make sure we also elect a member of Congress who will be his greatest ally in our fight to enact a pro-Constitution, pro-MAGA agenda and heal our nation from the disaster of the Biden-Harris administration.”

If the early result holds, it won’t be the first Republican-on-Republican contest for Newhouse, who defeated Clint Didier to earn his first term in the House in 2014 and again in 2016. In a call with reporters, Newhouse said he was feeling optimistic about the preliminary results and expected higher turnout in November to help his re-election bid.

“I think people will recognize that I’m a pragmatic conservative that represents our district very well, because I’m a product of central Washington,” the third-generation farmer from Sunnyside said. “The issues of my constituents are mine, too, because I live here and work here.”

The race has been defined by Newhouse’s vote to impeach Trump over his role in the violence of Jan. 6, 2021, when Trump supporters – after the outgoing president spent weeks claiming that the election was stolen from him – stormed the Capitol, smashed windows and beat police officers in an effort to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory. Of the 10 House Republicans who supported impeachment, only Newhouse and Rep. David Valadao of California were re-elected in 2022.

In 2022, Newhouse and Democrat Doug White advanced through the top-two primary with roughly a quarter of votes each, while a coterie of six Trump-aligned Republicans split the remaining half. Newhouse easily bested White with two-thirds of votes in the general election, but it wasn’t lost on the congressman’s GOP critics that a Republican challenger could beat Newhouse if voters loyal to Trump united behind a single candidate.

At the beginning of 2024, it looked like that candidate would be Sessler, an entrepreneur who moved to the district from Burien, Washington, before launching a campaign that fell short, with about 12% of votes in the 2022 primary. After Trump’s coveted endorsement went to Loren Culp two years earlier, Sessler secured the former president’s imprimatur in April and appeared to have the GOP’s anti-Newhouse lane essentially to himself.

That changed in May, when fellow Republican Smiley, a veterans’ advocate from Pasco who ran unsuccessfully against Sen. Patty Murray in 2022, entered the race just before the filing deadline. Buoyed by name recognition and a fundraising operation left over from her Senate bid, Smiley began running ads claiming Sessler was a vegan who wanted to raise taxes on beef.

Sessler, who has said that he adopted the plant-based “Hallelujah Diet” during a bout with cancer in 1999 but is no longer vegan, released an ad in which he eats beef ribs and calls himself “a cattle-raising, gun-carrying, brisket-loving conservative.” In an interview, Sessler denied wanting to raise taxes on any meat and said Smiley had intentionally misrepresented his support for the “FairTax,” a proposal that would replace all existing federal taxes with a single tax on retail sales.

On Saturday night, Trump gave Smiley a last-minute boost when he took to his Truth Social platform and gave his “Complete and Total Endorsement to both Tiffany Smiley and Jerrod Kessler – EITHER OF WHICH WILL DO A TREMENDOUS JOB, AND NEVER LET YOU DOWN!”

In the end, Trump splitting his endorsement and misspelling Sessler’s name didn’t seem to hurt the former stock car racer, who spent the past two years campaigning across the district that stretches from Oregon to the Canadian border, encompassing the Tri-Cities, Yakima, Moses Lake and vast swaths of rural farmland.

Meanwhile, Newhouse ran an ad accusing Smiley of deceptively soliciting donations to repay her roughly $1 million in debt left over from her failed Senate run, disclosing only in fine print that the first $2,900 of individual donations to her political action committee would go toward retiring that debt, as the Seattle Times reported. In an interview, Smiley denied those charges and said, “I have been open and transparent with all of my donors from Day 1.”

Unlike many other congressional Republicans who criticized Trump in the aftermath of the Capitol riot, Newhouse hasn’t tried to get back in the former president’s good graces. He has relied on support from the district’s agriculture industry and a coalition of voters who appreciate his reputation for working across the aisle and ability to direct federal funds to the district through his role on the House Appropriations Committee.

Democratic votes were split between Baechler, Muchlinski and two self-identified Democrats who support Trump, John Malan and Barry Knowles. Independent Benancio Garcia, who ran as a Republican in 2022, received about 1% of votes as of Tuesday night.