Gun control, abortion access, policing all top-of-mind in race for Washington’s next governor

A former sheriff and a career lawyer are both vying to be Washington’s next governor in November’s election, fighting for the post overseeing a $70 billion budget and more than 8 million state residents.

In the wake of a deadly opioid crisis, rampant homelessness, a looming budget deficit and the skyrocketing cost of living, the state’s next governor will take office with a full plate.

It’s been nearly 40 years since Washington voters last elected a Republican governor. Former King County Sheriff and former U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, a Republican, is vying to make history and shake up control in the historically blue world of state politics. Reichert, 74, is running a tough-on-crime campaign, vowing he’d use the governor’s office to clean up the streets and bolster policing across the state.

Attorney General Bob Ferguson, a Democrat, has centered his gubernatorial campaign around upholding abortion access in Washington following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade. For decades, the right to abortion access and other reproductive health care has been encoded in state law. But Ferguson, 59, warns the new lack of federal protection means that law could be changed under new leadership.

Ferguson and Reichert agree on some problems but clash on a lot of solutions. Both candidates say they would use the office to invest hundreds of thousands of state dollars to incentivize police officers to move to Washington and take jobs in the state that ranks last in the country for police per capita.

This year marks the state’s first incumbent-free race for governor in more than a decade, as Gov. Jay Inslee, a Democrat, finishes his final term before stepping down.

In recent history, incumbent-free races for governor in Washington have been close. When Inslee was elected in 2012, he beat his Republican opponent, Rob McKenna, by 3 percentage points. In 2004, Christine Gregoire beat her Republican opponent, Dino Rossi, in the closest gubernatorial race in U.S. history, by a mere 133 votes.

A new statewide poll published Friday by Cascade PBS showed Ferguson holding a double-digit lead over Reichert.

To date, Ferguson has raised nearly $11 million in campaign contributions, while Reichert trails with $5 million raised.

“Half of the more than 400 poll respondents said they were ‘certain’ or ‘inclined’ to vote for Ferguson,” the report states, “compared to 39% for Reichert.”

But with nearly 10% of Washington voters indicating they were undecided on a candidate, this year’s race could still be close if poll results hold true.

The governor doesn’t make laws in a vacuum. For a bill to be enshrined as a state law, it must first pass through the House and Senate, separate legislative bodies that collectively hold 147 elected leaders from across the state. Bills that pass that test then land on the governor’s desk for the formal signature that turns them into a law.

Along with bill-signing, the governor holds tremendous power in shaping state policy. He or she has the ability to make executive orders, directives to government officials across the state demanding certain actions be taken. Executive orders can sometimes have the force of law.

Inslee announced last year that he would not seek re-election, marking the end of his 12-year run in the post. The current longest-running governor in the United States, Inslee says Washington’s landmark climate policy – the Climate Commitment Act – is his greatest accomplishment. The legislation aims to cap and reduce greenhouse gas emissions across the state and use tax revenue from fossil fuel auctions to invest into green infrastructure and jobs.

Inslee’s climate policy has spurred divisive reactions from lawmakers and state residents due to periods of heightened gas prices and issues with malfunctioning gas tax exemptions.

On the ballot this November, voters will see a proposed initiative – Initiative 2117 – that would repeal the state’s Climate Commitment Act if it passes by popular vote.

In the first of two gubernatorial debates last week, Reichert said he will vote “yes” on Initiative 2117 to repeal the Climate Commitment Act. He has denounced the legislation multiple times throughout his campaign, arguing it is driving up the cost of gas, food and energy prices as companies pass their added expenses from the law onto consumers.

In Congress, Reichert said he had a strong record on climate change, including spearheading the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Addition in 2014 and the Mountains to Sound Greenway National Heritage Act in 2015. But, the Republican said the Climate Commitment Act is hurting hardworking Washington residents.

“The problem with the gas tax is we weren’t told the truth,” Reichert said. “We were lied to. We were told it was going to be pennies. It was more than pennies. It’s gone up 50 cents.”

The Washington Department of Ecology, which is tasked with tracking the Climate Commitment Act, estimates that the act has resulted in a gas price increase of between 10 and 25 cents a gallon this year.

Back in March, Reichert was heard on a recording at a campaign event saying current state policies cannot counter the impact of climate change because “the guy upstairs” is in charge of controlling the weather, the Washington State Standard reported.

“I believe that the weather is changing, the climate is changing, but the guy upstairs is doing it. We want clean water and clean air, but we’re not going to be changing the weather with the stuff that we’re doing,” Reichert says in an audio clip Ferguson’s campaign provided to the Washington State Standard. It was recorded by a campaign worker, the candidate confirmed.

Later, in a response to inquiries about this quote, Reichert said in a written statement sent to the standard:

“Of course climate change is real. How to address climate change will be one of the greatest challenges future generations will face.”

Ferguson says he will vote “no” on Initiative 2117 that would repeal Inslee’s Climate Commitment Act. But if he gets elected as governor, he said he will take steps to adjust the legislation.

If elected, Ferguson said he will work to help farmers across the state who are eligible for gas tax exemptions and expand the amount of money being sent into the Working Families Tax Credit program. Ferguson added that the state’s transition to clean energy will be good for the economy.

“When I was in Wenatchee, I went to an apprenticeship training program there,” Ferguson said. “What were those hundreds and hundreds of Washingtonians trained for? The clean energy economy.”

When asked in Tuesday’s debate if he would take any steps to reduce gas prices in office, Ferguson said “it’s time to move forward,” adding that the state’s government needs to hold gas corporations accountable when they’re not playing by the rules.

From 1997 to 2005, Reichert served as the elected sheriff of King County. He then went on to serve as the U.S. representative for Washington’s 8th congressional district as a Republican from 2005 to 2019. Before his time in elected office, Reichert worked in the King County Sheriff’s Office, moving up from a jail employee to become a detective.

The former sheriff grew up poor in the East Renton Highlands in southeast King County. In high school, he ran away from home and lived in his 1956 Ford Mercury – a time in his life he says made him understand what it’s like to be homeless.

In an interview, Reichert told The Spokesman-Review that he is the “only public safety candidate” in the race for governor, saying that his time working in law enforcement makes him far better equipped for the gig than Ferguson’s career as a lawyer.

Overall crime rates in Washington state started to decline last year, but homicides and car thefts have increased since 2019.

If he’s elected as governor, Ferguson said he will spend $100 million to hire additional police officers in the state and create a new hate crimes unit in the attorney general’s office. He said his work has raised money to combat the housing and opioid crises in the state.

“We, in my office as attorney general, have taken on some of the most powerful corporations in the world who fueled the opioid epidemic by not playing by the rules,” Ferguson said. “What have we done by bringing those cases? We’ve recovered more than a billion dollars.”

Reichert argued that Ferguson’s three terms running the attorney general’s office have contributed to those statistics. The former sheriff has repeatedly criticized Ferguson’s move to hire hundreds of new attorneys in the office when the state is facing a shortage of cops.

“I’ve had my throat slit with a butcher knife from trying to save a woman from being killed by her husband,” Reichert said in an interview. “I ended up with 40-some stitches in my neck when I was 22 years old. I can tell you other stories where my life was put in front of someone I was trying to protect. (Ferguson) has no idea what that means. He has no idea what cops go through on the street.”

In Tuesday’s debate, Ferguson opposed Reichert’s comments about his public safety record, saying his claims directly contradict his political views.

“You are voting for and supporting a convicted felon for president, who, by the way, is also a convicted sexual abuser,” Ferguson said. “And in that race for president, I support a prosecutor.”

A jury found Trump liable last year for sexual abuse and defaming a woman in a civil trial, but Trump has not been convicted of those crimes in a criminal case.

Reichert denied any allegiance to Trump.

“I’m not supporting Mr. Trump,” Reichert said. “I’m also not supporting Ms. Harris.”

Earlier in the year, Reichert avoided publicly stating whether he will vote for Trump in the presidential election. But speaking to a group of Republicans in March, the former sheriff appeared to indicate by nodding his head that he would vote for the former president, the Seattle Times reported, adding that making such a statement publicly would be a “nail in the coffin” of his political campaign.

When asked about the head-nodding incident, Reichert told The Spokesman the incident wasn’t a big deal:

“You’re in the middle of 100 people trying to gain your attention. This is sort of a moment, in my opinion, of humor. Are you going to vote for Trump? Watch my head: You know, you say ‘no,’ and you shake your head ‘yes.’ It’s kind of like dealing with a child, you know? You can have a piece of candy. No. Yes, you can have a piece of candy.”

Reichert said he wants the governor’s race to focus on Washington state policy, not Washington, D.C., issues. The former sheriff added, “I have not said this before in this campaign, but this is not the first time I’ve not voted for Donald Trump.”

Before he was elected to his post as attorney general, Ferguson served as a King County Council member for almost a decade. A fourth-generation Washington resident, Ferguson is the son of a public school teacher and career Boeing employee. On the campaign trail, Ferguson has taken pride in saying he’s spent time in all 39 counties of Washington.

The attorney general said he’s the only candidate in the race for governor who rejects all donations from large corporations.

One of the most stark differences between Ferguson and Reichert is in the topic of gun control.

On the campaign trail, Ferguson has promised to continue his work to heighten legal restrictions on gun buying and ownership. The attorney general has celebrated the state’s passage of a ban on high-capacity magazines, the prohibition on the sale and manufacture of military-style assault weapons, and restrictions on carrying firearms in high-traffic places such as public parks and bus stops.

In his time as attorney general, Ferguson’s office has filed suit against gun retailers in the state that refuse to comply with the new state laws. He said he supports the Second Amendment but added that he believes in “responsible limitations,” adding that more than 60% of Washingtonians agree that universal background checks should be mandatory for gun buyers.

“We just saw another recent tragedy,” Ferguson said of the school shooting in Georgia that killed four earlier this month. “That’s become all too common. After the Mukilteo shooting several years ago here in Washington state, I met with family members impacted by that senseless tragedy.”

Reichert is a supporter of the right to bear arms and believes the answer to gun violence is further collaboration between communities and cops. To address gun violence, Reichert said one solution would be to reinstate the state program that placed a police officer in every school to foster relationships between children and police.

Police officers’ presence in school, Reichert said, makes parents and students feel more safe so they can accomplish their school work.

“Instead of saying, ‘We should keep cops away from kids because they’re scary,’ ” Reichert said, “we should bring them together.”

Reichert pointed to his work at the sheriff’s office on the King County Firearms Coalition and said the state would be better served to look toward collaborative projects such as the federally enacted Project Safe Neighborhoods adopted in 2018.

On the topic of abortion, Ferguson and Reichert have said they would fight to uphold the state’s current mandate ensuring access to abortion and other reproductive health care.

Reichert personally opposes abortion but has said he will protect the law that’s been in place for decades, adding that the governor can’t up and change the law on his own.

“The other thing Ferguson knows that he won’t admit is that the governor of Washington state has literally no power to overturn any of these laws to take away a woman’s access to abortion, period,” Reichert said. “That has to be the Legislature comes forward and starts to present bills, which isn’t going to happen. The people of this state have already spoken.”

Ferguson has criticized Reichert’s public comments in favor of abortion, saying the Republican has told supporters he would work to damage the state’s abortion protections and voted multiple times in Congress in favor of national abortion restrictions.

“You say one thing when you’re speaking to Washington people in a forum like this, and you say something else entirely when you think you are behind closed doors,” he said. “That’s been a pattern with you on Donald Trump. That’s a pattern with you on reproductive freedom.”

The second of two gubernatorial debates will take place at 6 p.m. Wednesday in Spokane’s Fox Theater. The event, hosted by the Association of Washington Business, will be broadcast live on KHQ-TV in Spokane and stream at nonstoplocal.com.

General election ballots will be mailed in mid-October for the Nov. 5 election. Along with president and governor, a number of local, statewide and national races will appear on Washington residents’ ballots.