Larkin: ‘It’s no longer a toss-up’ in 8th Congressional District race

Matt Larkin, the Republican challenger in the 8th Congressional District, made one thing clear while speaking on The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH: His campaign is gaining momentum.

“It’s no longer a toss-up,” Larkin said. “We’re edging her out.”

The record amount of crime in King County is one reason why Larkin is gaining ground on Rep. Kim Schrier.

“As a business owner, and as a former prosecutor, I’m strong on both of those things, which is why we’re talking [to] a lot to voters about my slogan: ‘Making Crime Illegal Again,'” Larkin said. “People are scared. The stats don’t lie. Murders are up 72% in King County, which is over half of my district.”

Rantz said he didn’t understand the strategy of Schrier and others who want to pretend that crime isn’t an issue.

“It’s gaslighting,” Larkin said. “It’d be very easy for Schrier to say, ‘Hey, I get it.’ It’s a problem. But she’s not even doing that.”

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Larkin claimed Schrier is bought and paid for by the ‘defund the police’ movement.

“She’s always walking this very careful line of appeasing her radical leftist base and trying to sound moderate, but she’s not moderate,” Larkin said.

He also mentioned her habit of voting along the party line 100% of the time.

“I’m not being cute with numbers,” he continued. “I’m not rounding up from 97% or 96%. It’s a literal 100% of the time vote with Nancy Pelosi. That is not a moderate voting record.”

Larkin cited Real Clear Politics‘ decision to move the race from a toss-up to a lean Republican lead.

“That’s the biggest news,” Larkin said. “We went from a toss up to lean GOP. Our internal polls are showing the same thing, we’ve got momentum. Half of this game is peaking at the right time, and we are.”

As far as the economy is concerned, Larkin and his team’s goal is to help everyday people who are feeling the sting of inflation.

“They just want to be able to afford gas and put food on the table,” he said.

As the campaign enters its final week, Rantz said Democrats are putting a ton of money into Washington’s 8th District.

“Oh, yeah, they’re putting a lot of money into trying to save her,” Larkin said. “She’s throwing everything she can at me.

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“I don’t even watch TV in our house anymore because you don’t want the kids to see these lies about their dad, but she’s getting desperate.”

Rantz said there is a tendency for Republican voters to cast their ballots late and that should work out well for Larkin’s late surge.

“It’s really exciting,” Larkin said. “And we just got to close the deal in six days.”

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.