Why Joshua Freed launched write-in campaign for WA lieutenant governor

Joshua Freed saw his campaign for governor not entirely work out, so he’s trying to be the next lieutenant governor instead. Since he didn’t formally run for that position, he’s employing a write-in campaign as a Republican in a race that’s currently between Democrats Denny Heck and Marko Liias.

“I believe this is a unique opportunity, and we can actually win with just 34% of the vote,” Freed told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “What happened on primary night is two Democrats would move forward in the lieutenant governor’s race. And since we’re a top two state here that means those two top vote-getters move forward to the general election on Nov. 3. And so we talked to the party the day after they reached out to us and said, ‘Josh, you got third place. Out of the 36 candidates running for governor, we think you’re the perfect guy to run for this position.’”

“We need to get around 1.2 to 1.5 million Republicans in Washington state to write the name ‘Joshua Freed’ on their ballot for lieutenant governor,” he continued. “We believe it’s a very, very winnable race once we make sure that all Republicans in the state know to do so.”

Freed is hoping to provide a different ideological choice than two Democrats who he believes tow the party line.

“Right now, the choice is the two Democrats. You’ve got Marko Liias who’s like voting for AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez). And then you’ve got Denny Heck, who’s like voting for Nancy Pelosi. Actually, he votes with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time. So if you want two liberals leading the position of lieutenant governor, overseeing trade and economic development in the state of Washington, and then moving all the bills to the Senate that allow for tax increases, those are your guys,” he said.

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Two of the core issues Freed is focusing on are trade and economic development, as well as drug addiction, issues which he believes have been neglected recently.

“Trade and economic development is so important in the state of Washington. Under this current lieutenant governor, we’ve seen trade go down prior to the COVID crisis by 27%. That’s real money. That’s $20 billion of lost revenue here in the state of Washington,” he said.

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“Number two responsibility for the lieutenant governor is addiction. We have a rampant issue with drug and alcohol addiction in Washington state,” Freed added. “That’s been my platform throughout my race for governor, and it continues to be a very important role of lieutenant governor.”

He says areas outside of metropolitan cores feel like the issues important to them are being ignored.

“I’ve traveled to all 39 counties in the state of Washington — I just spent three days in eastern Washington last week and I continue to have a presence there — because my voters are looking for representation,” he said. “They have not seen the whites of Jay Inslee’s eyes in a long time, and they’ve not been visited by Cyrus Habib, the current lieutenant governor. So they’re feeling that they are in a disadvantaged position there.”

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