A call for change: Washington Republicans must embrace a new vision for 2028 | Opinion

On Nov. 5, when liberal cities like New York, San Francisco, Milwaukee and Philadelphia shifted right, Washington’s Republican Party failed to elect any statewide official and lost 2 legislative seats.

Since then, I’ve been asked how Washington’s Republican Party rebuilds from that humiliating defeat.

I first explain that the people who run Washington’s Republican Party aren’t humiliated.

While not true of thoughtful Republican legislative leaders, too many who work and volunteer in the party believe providing a place for like-minded folks to gripe about immigrants and transgender athletes, to denigrate those who disagree with them, and to stoke fear and frustration, is more important than electing statewide candidates.

How else does one explain the party endorsing Semi Bird for governor?

But there are Republicans who remember a party that frequently won statewide races, and since Nov. 5 some of them have asked me what needs to change.

To start winning again, the state party needs to make electing a governor in 2028 its only reason to exist. That will require new leadership, objectively assessing what went wrong on Nov. 5 and whole-heartedly embracing the lessons of Nov. 12.

Nov. 12 was the day our state honored the life and service of Dan Evans, Washington’s former three-term Republican governor, former Republican US senator, former Evergreen College president, and former University of Washington regent.

I’m a Republican because of Evans. When I was growing up on Hood Canal, frequently hiking into the Olympic Mountains with my family, Evans was the 40-something governor who backpacked there with his family.

I wanted to be an oceanographer. Evans, our Republican governor, protected Washington’s shorelines, helped expand the Olympic National Park to include rugged Pacific coastline and tidal pool habitat, and created the Department of Ecology before the federal government created the Environmental Protection Agency. His conservation ethic, which mirrored an ethic dear to many Washingtonians, drew me into his party.

His Republican Party embraced a positive vision.

In 1965, he told Republicans you “will not regain greatness by being the party of radicalism or a lunatic fringe. Extremists [don’t] contribute to the strength of America… [but] feed on fear, frustration, hate, and hopelessness.” He told the state party’s leadership, “Let…the professional bigots, the destroyers, leave our party,”

Evans’ Republican Party repeatedly won because it denounced bigotry, mirrored Washington’s values, and because he moved forward with humor and a focus on accomplishment.

I know this not from what I remember as a kid growing up when he was governor, but as someone he later mentored.

Evans chaired each of my three political campaigns, and after my first victory he swore me in as a King County/Seattle port commissioner. Unfortunately, the day I was to be sworn-in, the port chamber was jam-packed with angry, protesting citizens. My hand was raised to take the oath when Evans looked out at unruly crowd, leaned over and whispered, “Would you like a recount?” That wit took him further than stoking fear and anger ever could have.

During my tenure as a commissioner, he repeatedly counseled me to work with those who shared my vision, even if I gave the other party a win. Accomplishment for the state, not scoring partisan victories, drove his service, and enabled him to expand wilderness in the North Cascades and Olympics, to preserve the Columbia River Gorge, increase funding for higher education, build one of our nation’s first community college systems, and secure greater equality for women. That approach to governing is one Republicans (and Democrats) would be well-served adopting today.

But Evans would be the first to admonish that looking backwards nostalgically isn’t a route to future victory.

If Republicans want to start winning again, we need to embrace Evans’ commitment to Washington values, his focus on accomplishment over partisanship, his preference for humor and inspiration, but we will also need to offer voters a bold agenda that improves their lives.

Such an agenda could include:

• overhauling our tax system with the objectives of fairness, revenue neutrality and encouraging entrepreneurship
• revising building codes and restrictions that unnecessarily raise housing costs
• ensuring every kid, especially those in rural and poorer communities, gets a quality education and reinventing high school so kids who aren’t college-bound graduate with the skills they need to get a family-wage job
• honoring people’s right to live their own lives as they see fit without government dictating morality or religion
• implementing results-driven carbon reduction programs that incentivize innovation and don’t dump costs on working class families.

On Nov. 5 the Washington State Republican Party offered no such vision. It sent a Spanish language text to Central Washington voters stating the Democratic candidates “…support chemically castrating your children in school without your knowledge or consent.” And that they “hate you, they hate your family, they hate God.”

Contrast that vulgarity with Evans’ belief that to lead our state, we must “have the vision to see tomorrow, the intelligence to plan wisely, and the civility to listen to others.” He argued we should focus on “building a better community, creating maximum opportunity for all, and leaving a promising legacy for our children.”

Nov.5 revealed that for Washington’s Republican Party to start winning again, it must reclaim Puget Sound’s suburban neighborhoods. To do that, it should invite those Evans called bigots and destroyers to leave the party, and should embrace the lessons shared on Nov. 12.