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Representative Dan Newhouse of Washington, one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach President Donald J. Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 attack on Capitol Hill, will advance to the November general election to seek a fifth term after finishing in the top two in a crowded primary, according to the Associated Press. He will face Doug White, a Democratic businessman who has followed him since Friday night.
Under Washington election laws, the top two candidates in the primary, regardless of party, advance to the general election. The race in Washington’s Fourth Congressional District featured seven Republicans, including Mr. Newhouse, and one Democrat, Mr. White.
Mr. Newhouse, 66, drew the ire of Mr. Trump and local Republicans after he backed his second impeachment.
Mr. Newhouse, a hops and alfalfa farmer, was vice chairman of Mr. Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign in Washington State. But after the impeachment vote, six Republican county chairmen in his district called on him to resign.
Mr Newhouse – who, like his father, served as a state legislator – resisted those demands, saying he remained a conservative Republican and urged the party instead to focus on holding the Biden administration accountable.
It was backed by the Super PAC Defending Main Street, which ran an ad campaign worth about half a million dollars, according to AdImpact, an ad tracking firm.
The super PAC’s most-viewed TV spot attacked Mr. Newhouse’s Trump-endorsed challenger, Lauren Kulp, over an unpaid corporate tax bill and accused him of “lining his pockets” with campaign donations.
Mr. Culp, a former D.C. police chief, has made challenging Mr. Trump’s 2020 defeat one of the top issues of his campaign and has also pledged to dismantle the Department of Education and fight vaccine mandates. He was the Republican nominee in the 2020 governor’s race, a race he never conceded despite losing to Governor Jay Inslee by more than 13 percentage points.
Mr. Culp had raised just $310,700 as of July 13, according to campaign finance reports. That was a fraction of the $1.6 million Mr. Newhouse raised, and he also trailed another Republican, Jerrod Sessler, who raised $508,900.
Mr. Sessler, a Navy veteran and former NASCAR driver, put more than $350,000 of his own money into the race. He said he attended Mr. Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 and marched on Capitol Hill with thousands of other supporters, but did not enter the building.
“I’m running because our rights, right now, for people living in America today, are being stolen,” Mr. Sessler he told The Spokesman-Review. “Literally. I think the 2020 election was the biggest heist in world history.”
Mr. White, who raised $390,700, has described himself as a moderate politician who was motivated to seek federal office after the rebellion on Capitol Hill. Running in the heavily Republican district, Mr. White did not mention his party affiliation in his only television spot, which he used to push a platform that included cutting costs, immigration reform and “making our communities safer.”
Other Republicans candidates it was Corey Gibson, marketing executive. Benancio Garcia III, former loan officer for the state Department of Agriculture. Jacek Kobiesa, mechanical engineer. and Brad Clippert, state representative and deputy with the Benton County Sheriff’s Office.
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