It was going to be a normal election year in Eastern Washington.
U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a Republican, seemed poised to run for reelection again, and win, as she always has.
But then, in early February, McMorris Rodgers abruptly announced that she would be stepping down after two decades representing the 5th Congressional District. The news turned the race on its head. The floodgates were suddenly open.
Five months later, the race for Washington's 5th Congressional District — which stretches from west of Ritzville to the Idaho border, and from the Oregon border to the Canadian border — is one of the most crowded in the state. Six Republicans and four Democrats are running for the seat.
A fifth Democrat, Bobbi Bennett-Wolcott, will also appear on the ballot. But on July 19, Bennett-Wolcott announced that she was dropping out and endorsing fellow Democrat Bernadine Bank.
The two candidates with the most votes in the Aug. 6 primary election will advance to the general. Republicans have a historic 8-point advantage in the district, but Democrats say they're hopeful. Republican Michael Baumgartner says his campaign's polling data indicates that voters "will likely see a Democrat in the general election."
The 10 candidates are running in the shadow of a historically tumultuous presidential election. Most say political division is one of the biggest concerns they hear from voters.
It's a fast-moving race with a lot of big ideas and big personalities. To help break it down, here's a rundown of who's running and what they're talking about.
THE SIX REPUBLICANS
BRIAN DANSEL
THE TRUMP APPOINTEE
Dansel, 41, has one big asset that sets him apart from the other Republicans: a direct connection to the former top boss himself. In 2017, then-President Donald Trump appointed Dansel to serve as an adviser at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and later as an adviser on the National Economic Council. Dansel's references to Trump got him big applause breaks at a recent Republican debate.
"It was an honor to serve in his administration," he says.
Dansel, a former state senator who currently serves as a Ferry County commissioner, has been endorsed by the Spokane County GOP and the Washington state Republican Party. He paints himself as an ordinary guy who drives the establishment "a little crazy" because he was "never part of the fundraiser, photo-op crowd."
At a debate hosted by North Central High School this spring, Dansel joined Republican opponent Rene' Holaday in claiming Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president in 2020. Candidate Jacquelin Maycumber said she had "grave concerns" about that election, and the other Republicans acknowledged, somewhat begrudgingly, that Biden was, in fact, legitimately elected.
THE SEASONED SPOKANE LEGISLATOR
On the campaign trail, Baumgartner, 48, likes to paint himself as an experienced legislator who knows how to defeat Democrats in competitive elections. He previously served as a state senator and is currently Spokane County treasurer. He highlights his efforts in Olympia to bring a medical school to Spokane, fund the North-South Freeway and pass legislation eliminating five state government agencies through consolidation.
Before entering politics, Baumgartner, a WSU grad with a master's degree from Harvard, worked in Afghanistan and Iraq doing economic and counterinsurgency work for the State Department. Today, he says the effort to spread democracy in the Middle East was "noble in its goals, but was not practical in its abilities and costs."
Baumgartner has a sizable fundraising lead. He has $616,866 in reported campaign funds — more than double the amount raised by Jacquelin Maycumber, the Republican with the second-highest total. He also boasts endorsements from prominent local Republicans including state Sen. Mike Padden and former Spokane Mayors Nadine Woodward and David Condon.
JACQUELIN MAYCUMBER
THE RURAL POLICE REPRESENTATIVE
Maycumber represents northeastern Washington's 7th District in the state Legislature. She grew up there and describes seeing the challenges her constituents face firsthand.
"I live in one of the poorest areas in the state," Maycumber says. "I see the struggles every single day."
Maycumber, 44, also has experience as a legislative assistant and as a deputy with the El Paso County Sheriff's Office. She has a slew of endorsements from law enforcement leaders and gun rights groups, including the National Rifle Association and the Washington Council of Police and Sheriffs. She also has endorsements from nearly three dozen state lawmakers.
Maycumber describes herself as a "workhorse not a show horse," pointing to a string of legislative victories that includes capping the price of insulin, securing auto theft prevention funding, creating a high school apprenticeship program and providing mental health support for first responders.
THE CHRISTIAN CITY COUNCIL MEMBER
Bingle's decision to run was prompted by frustration over COVID lockdowns. Shortly after his election to Spokane City Council in 2021, he was censured for refusing to wear a mask. His trivia events company was also impacted by business restrictions. He thinks every elected leader — even McMorris Rodgers and Trump — should have done more to fight back.
"My business got shut down," Bingle says. "My elected leaders failed me."
Bingle, 37, is a devout Christian. He's staunchly pro-life and lists "reviving the American Spirit through a return to our Judeo/Christian roots" as one of his top priorities.
THE RIGHT-WING RADIO HOST
Unlike the other candidates, who did not bring it up once, Holaday used the words "communist" and "communism" a total of 55 times in our 50-minute interview. The Christian talk radio host and former legislative aide to former state Rep. Matt Shea is deeply worried about the ideology. Holaday, 53, has written two books about her belief that communists are working through the United Nations to infiltrate America in a shadowy plot to destroy individual freedom.
Holaday and Rick Valentine Flynn are the only two candidates who have not reported raising any money so far.
THE MODERATE REPUBLICAN
Flynn, 48, is a longtime Republican. But in recent years, the disabled veteran and farmer says he's started thinking of himself as more of an independent. He says the Republican Party has shifted to the far right and lost sight of its roots in fiscal conservatism.
Flynn was also driven to run for office because of his frustrations with Veterans Affairs — an organization that he says mistreated both him and his wife, who is also a disabled veteran. He thinks the agency should be done away with entirely so veterans can receive treatment through the Medicaid system instead.
THE FOUR DEMOCRATS
DR. BERNADINE BANK
THE OB-GYN
Bank, a gynecologist at the Community Health Association of Spokane, says she was prompted to run for Congress by the overturning of Roe v. Wade. The "straw that broke the camel's back" was a proposed Alabama bill in 2023 that would have charged women who terminate pregnancies with murder.
"I was thinking, 'Are they going to go back 50 to 60 years?'" Bank says.
Bank, 64, currently has a slight lead over the other Democrats when it comes to fundraising, with $239,006 in reported contributions compared with Carmela Conroy's $224,226. She is also interested in expanding rural health care and reforming Veterans Affairs.
CARMELA CONROY
THE DEMOCRATIC DIPLOMAT
Like many other Democrats, Conroy, 62, was inspired to run by the fallout of the Trump administration.
The former deputy prosecutor served as a foreign service officer in the U.S. Diplomatic Corps up until 2020. When she returned to Spokane, she became involved in local politics and served as chair of the local Democratic Party.
Conroy, Bank and Ann Marie Danimus are the only candidates who filed in the race before McMorris Rodgers announced she wouldn't run again. Conroy has endorsements from local Democratic lawmakers including state Rep. Marcus Riccelli and outgoing state Sen. Andy Billig.
As with Bank, Conroy is reluctant to support withholding U.S. military aid to Israel to hold the country accountable for civilian casualties in Gaza. Doing so could hurt the "security umbrella" in the region, she says.
ANN MARIE DANIMUS
THE LIBERAL ACTIVIST
Danimus has done this before. In 2022, she ran for the 5th District seat and was bested in the primary election by Democratic candidate Natasha Hill.
Danimus, who owns a marketing company, is one of the most unapologetically outspoken of the Democrats.
"I'm so tired of nay-saying, crying Democrats," she wrote in one recent post on X, formerly Twitter. "If y'all haven't noticed, Biden is running against a f---ing Nazi."
Danimus, 54, has pledged to accept zero dollars in corporate money, and she emphasizes her focus on rural economic issues.
She was the only Democrat in this race to explicitly call on President Joe Biden to stay in the race amid concerns about his age and ability to beat Trump. Of her fellow Dems, Bernadine Bank said Biden should drop out, while Matthew Welde declined to comment. Carmela Conroy said both parties need to "think long and hard about who is best suited to serve."
MATTHEW WELDE
THE WOMEN'S RIGHTS PROSECUTOR
Welde, a Liberty Lake resident, has spent more than a decade working as a domestic violence prosecutor, most recently in Kootenai County. He lists the epidemic of missing and murdered Indigenous women as one of his top priorities.
"I fight for women's rights in the arena of domestic violence every day in court," Welde says. "An extension of that is fighting for their reproductive and privacy rights."
Welde, 47, also emphasizes his upbringing in a union household and his support for organized labor. He wants the U.S. to adopt a more universal health care model similar to Japan's.
ABORTION
The Democrats running for office this year say reproductive rights are a top priority. Many of this year's Republicans, however, don't like talking about it at all.
"I don't like to talk about it because it is just such a soundbite," Dansel says. "I never had one person ask me about it except for reporters. Never. It's not an issue."
Earlier this month, the Republican National Committee approved a new platform that, for the first time in 40 years, did not include a national abortion ban. Bad polling data and a string of recent electoral defeats have prompted some in the party to view it as a political liability.
"An uncomfortable truth is that no matter how you feel personally on abortion, the overturning of Roe v. Wade — coupled with the push for abortion bans — has succeeded in pushing a lot of women to vote Democrat," Flynn said at a forum hosted by the Republicans of Spokane County earlier this month.
If a national abortion ban did come up in Congress, Maycumber says she would look at it as long as it had exceptions. Baumgartner takes an originalist view of the Constitution and thinks abortion issues should be decided by individual states. Dansel stresses that he's pro-life, but says he doesn't like talking about hypothetical scenarios.
Bingle, on the other hand, thinks abortion is the "humanitarian issue of our day," and he is critical of his fellow Republicans for shying away from the issue and dropping it from the national platform.
Bingle and Holaday would support a national ban on abortion starting at conception. Bingle would also support limits on in-vitro fertilization treatment. He's OK with exceptions for the health of the mother, but says he would only consider exceptions for rape or incest if it was a "serious, nuanced discussion."
The four Democrats all say they'd vote to codify the right to abortion nationwide. Danimus, Bank and Welde support some form of limit based on the modern standard of when a fetus becomes viable, while Conroy thinks it should be up to the patient, ideally with consultation from their provider.
The Democrats push back on the idea that abortion should be a state issue.
"If you're a second-class citizen in Idaho state because of this, you're also a second-class citizen here," Bank says. "It just feels like we're going backwards and not moving forward with equality for women and their families."
THE BORDER
The Republican candidates say "securing the southern border" is their top priority. Bingle and Baumgartner even flew down there to check it out in person as part of their campaigns.
"In every conceivable way it's worse than you can imagine," Bingle says, recalling his experience standing near the border wall with an agent and watching people cross.
Baumgartner, who toured the border with former Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf, recalls similar scenes. It's a "humanitarian crisis," he says.
Bingle and Baumgartner have faced criticism from some other candidates for using their border trips as a "photo op."
"Frankly, I don't think taking a trip down to look at the border wall could tell anybody what they need to know," Dansel says.
Regardless, the Republicans all agree that the border desperately needs reform to stop fentanyl and human trafficking. They support building out the wall, investing in drone technology and hiring more agents. Some candidates suggest more dramatic approaches: Holaday supports closing off the border entirely, and Bingle says he would support sending U.S. troops into Mexico to "eliminate the cartels."
The Democrats agree the border needs fixing. They all say they'd support the Border Act of 2024, a sweeping border security bill that would have increased funding for more agents and detention facilities. The bill had brief bipartisan support but died amid partisan opposition prompted in large part by Trump.
"It would have been extremely helpful," Bank says. "You've got to get more personnel down there."
Baumgartner claims he talked to "a number of Border Patrol agents" who said it wasn't a good bill. Welde notes that the bill was endorsed by the Border Patrol Union.
You can read more about the candidates' policy stances on Inlander.com/Election2024. ♦
