The state GOP’s plan to turn Seattle red

Puyallup’s Caleb Heimlich secured the chairmanship of the Washington State Republican Party less than a week ago and he’s already formulating plans to penetrate the state’s bluest city.

The 32-year-old will take over for Susan Hutchison, his former boss, after she announced her resignation earlier this month. Hutchison is rumored to be taking some kind of position with the Trump administration.

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“The party is in a strong position which gives me a lot of confidence going forward,” Heimlich told 770 KTTH’s Jason Rantz. “If you look back over the last four years we’ve flipped nine seats that were previously held by Democrats.”

In an election conducted by the the state GOP committee, Heimlich won out over radio host and real estate agent Marty McClendon and Tacoma restaurateur Monique Trudnowski.

In the 2016 presidential election, 71 percent of King County voted for Hillary Clinton, only 21 percent voted for Trump, but Heimlich says he’s not giving up on Seattle as a place to garner Republican votes.

“I’ve got two young kids, I’m working, I’m trying to pay my mortgage,” Heimlich said. “I think I can relate to the challenges facing a lot of these tech workers that are coming in, working for Amazon, working for Microsoft. They’re frustrated with the things that I’m frustrated with.”

The GOP lost their majority in the state Senate with Manka Dhingra’s victory in the 45th District last year, spoiling the only real power Republicans held in Olympia. Heimlich plans to really hone in on the unpopular positions held by Seattle’s far-left contingent to break the city’s stranglehold on the state legislature.

“We’ve got a city government that wants to tax soda while they’re trying to promote heroin use by pushing safe injection sites,” Heimlich said. “There are voters in Seattle that I think are not Republicans, even an independent voter can say this is getting absurd.”

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