House GOP leaders Mike Johnson, Steve Scalise stop by Tri-Cities to boost Dan Newhouse’s re-election bid

WASHINGTON – In the final weeks before Election Day, House Republican leaders have embarked on a whirlwind tour of the high-priority districts where close races could decide which party controls the lower chamber next year.

It was notable, then, that House Speaker Mike Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, both of Louisiana, made stops at private fundraisers in the Tri-Cities on Monday and Thursday, respectively, to show support for Rep. Dan Newhouse, a Republican from Sunnyside whose seat is virtually guaranteed to remain in GOP hands.

Newhouse, who has represented central Washington’s 4th Congressional District for a decade, faces a challenge from Jerrod Sessler, an entrepreneur and fellow Republican who lives in Prosser and finished ahead of the incumbent is the August primary. In a Monday post on the social media platform X , Newhouse thanked Johnson for visiting “the better Washington.”

“I’m grateful for the support as we work to elect good conservatives up and down the ballot,” the congressman wrote.

With no Democrat making it through the top-two primary in Washington’s most reliably conservative district, the race between two very different conservatives has been defined by former President Donald Trump. Newhouse was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, and was the only one of them to survive a Trump-endorsed primary challenge in 2022.

After former Republic police chief and gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp won Trump’s coveted endorsement in 2022, the former president endorsed Sessler in April, then hedged his bets by co-endorsing another Republican in the race, Tiffany Smiley, days before the primary. Newhouse squeezed through the primary with about 23% of votes while Sessler finished first with 33%, boosted by a $35,000 text-message campaign from a Newhouse-aligned political action committee that saw Sessler as the weaker opponent and encouraged Trump supporters to vote for him, as Politico first reported.

Sessler, a Navy veteran who moved to the district from Burien shortly before launching his first run for Congress in 2022, said in a voice memo he wasn’t concerned by Johnson and Scalise coming to the district. He dismissed the visits as perfunctory gestures for an incumbent, and said he looks forward to winning in November so that House GOP leaders will back his re-election in future races.

Sessler attended Trump’s speech at the “Stop the Steal” rally outside the White House on Jan. 6 and marched down Pennsylvania Ave. to protest the election results, although he has said he didn’t enter the Capitol that day. Like the former president, who is eligible to return to the White House after all but seven Senate Republicans voted to acquit him in the impeachment trial, Sessler argues that the people who have pleaded guilty or have been convicted of crimes related to the riot should be freed and pardoned.

In photos posted on X by Newhouse, Johnson spoke to a room full of donors at a home in Pasco. Newhouse’s predecessor, former GOP Rep. Doc Hastings, appears in one of the images. On Thursday, Scalise appeared with Newhouse at a winery in Richland.

In a statement, Scalise praised Newhouse as a “dedicated conservative” who has the majority leader’s “complete and total endorsement,” echoing the distinctive wording Trump uses to convey his imprimatur to a candidate.

“A third-generation farmer, Dan Newhouse continues to deliver for rural communities in Central Washington,” Scalise said. “Washington’s Fourth Congressional District needs Dan Newhouse in Congress to keep the American Dream alive for generations to come.”

It isn’t clear how the in-person support of the GOP leaders will influence the race, at a time when voting has already begun and no Republican in Congress can hold a candle to Trump’s influence among the party’s base. To fend off the challenge from Sessler, who also has the endorsement of the hardline House Freedom Caucus’s campaign arm, Newhouse will also need the support of more liberal voters in the district who may be put off by Johnson and Scalise visiting.

Newhouse, who had raised $2 million by the end of September according to the latest Federal Election Commission filings, already has a major fundraising advantage over Sessler, who personally contributed $350,000 of the roughly $548,000 he reported raising in that period. Both campaigns have relied largely on mailing flyers to voters across the sprawling district, along with some online and television ads.

With no public polling on the race, it’s unclear how close the outcome may be, but Newhouse’s first two runs for Congress offer a hint. Facing former NFL player and fellow Republican Clint Didier, Newhouse ran as the more moderate candidate and eked out a narrow victory in 2014 before winning by a more comfortable margin in 2016.