GOP Rep. Dan Newhouse faces challenge from Tiffany Smiley

Tiffany Smiley, the GOP candidate who raised more than $20 million in her unsuccessful 2022 challenge to Sen. Patty Murray, announced a bid Monday to unseat Central Washington Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse.

In an announcement video Monday, Smiley didn’t directly mention Newhouse, but talked about the Washington, D.C. “swamp” and “grandstanding from career politicians” as the U.S. faces woes including a border crisis and homelessness.

Her announcement was the first surprise as Washington’s official candidate filing period gets underway this week.

Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, who narrowly won reelection two years ago after voting to impeach Donald Trump over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, also faces another Republican challenger, Trump-endorsed businessman Jerrod Sessler, in the Aug. 6 primary.

Trump, in endorsing Sessler last month, called Newhouse “weak and pathetic” and said he “has to go.”

Sessler also won the sole endorsement of the Washington State Republican Party at its recent convention in Spokane, easily beating Newhouse, who did not attend the event.

Newhouse, a former state legislator and third-generation Yakima Valley farmer, officially filed for reelection to a sixth term on Monday in the state’s Fourth Congressional District.

As she did in her Senate run, Smiley, a former nurse from Pasco, emphasized in her announcement her personal story of battling government bureaucracy to help her husband, Scotty, after he was permanently blinded in 2005 by a suicide car bomb while serving in the Army in Iraq.

For 20 years, Smiley said, she has worked to change government as an outsider. “And now it’s clear, the best way to continue my work and deliver change for Washington families is inside Congress,” she said.

In an interview Monday, Smiley criticized Newhouse for his impeachment vote, arguing it went against the wishes of his district and would leave him unable to work effectively with a potential second Trump administration.

“President Trump is going to be our Republican nominee. We need to get behind him,” Smiley said.

She also noted Newhouse raised the possibility of invoking the 25th Amendment after the Jan. 6 attacks, which would have allowed a majority of Trump’s Cabinet to vote to remove him from office.

Newhouse defended his record as a fiscal conservative and went after Smiley in a statement released by his campaign Monday.

“With our dams under attack, a crisis at our border and working people unable to afford gas and groceries, this is no time for Central Washington to give up its clout in Congress or to hand over the keys to the federal budget to someone who couldn’t manage her own campaign finances,” he said.

That was a reference to Smiley’s 2022 Senate campaign, which ended with $1 million in unpaid debts owed to political consultants.

Despite the massive spending on her behalf in that race, and promotion by national Republicans and conservative pundits, Smiley wound up losing to Murray by nearly 15 percentage points.

Newhouse was among 10 House Republicans who voted in 2021 to impeach Trump over his role in stoking the Jan. 6 Capitol attack with false claims about the election.

He defended his vote, saying Trump violated his oath of office in failing to stop a mob of his supporters from assaulting the Capitol as Congress tried to certify the election results confirming Joe Biden’s victory. “We had a domestic enemy at the door and he did not respond as he should,” he said at the time.

Newhouse was joined in that stance by then-Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, who lost her seat in the 2022 primary amid Republican anger at her. Herrera Beutler is trying to make a political comeback this year, and filed officially on Monday to run for state Commissioner of Public Lands.

Newhouse survived two years ago because a crowd of pro-Trump Republicans split the primary vote, allowing him to squeak through the top-two primary with 25% support. He easily defeated Democrat Doug White that November.

When running for Senate, Smiley repeatedly declined during a high-profile CNN interview to say that Biden was “legitimately” elected in 2020.

Smiley said she met personally with Newhouse last week in Washington, D.C., to tell him about her plans.

“I said ‘This isn’t about you, Dan, it’s not even about me. It’s about our country and our future’,” she said.

She said Newhouse’s impeachment vote caused “so much division and unrest” in the 4th District and that the area needs a representative without such baggage.

Asked whether she’d diverge from Trump on any issue, Smiley said she supports his agenda, including on shutting down the southern border to stop “an invasion” allowing fentanyl to flood the U.S.

In a statement Monday, Sessler highlighted his Trump and state party endorsements and said he’s the only military veteran in the race.

“I look forward to defeating Dan Newhouse and bringing an America First agenda to DC, and no amount of dark money from outside the district is going to change that,” he said.

To get on the Aug. 6 primary ballot, candidates must file by the end of the week with the Secretary of State’s Office. The filing period opened Monday morning and runs through 5 p.m. Friday.

More than 500 people had already filed by Monday for election to offices across the state, from governor and other statewide positions, to congressional and legislative seats, as well as local offices including county commissioner, judge and sheriff.

A continually updated list of candidates who have filed is available at the secretary of state’s website.

For more election coverage, visit st.news/Election2024.