Medved: Loren Culp ‘not a serious candidate’ in bid to unseat Republican in Congress

Former gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp announced Wednesday that he will look to challenge Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse in next year’s primary election. What are Culp’s chances of unseating the four-term incumbent? KTTH’s Michael Medved spoke to KIRO Radio’s Gee and Ursula Show to weigh in.

Culp’s primary reason for mounting his campaign for Congress revolves around Newhouse joining nine other Republicans in the House — including fellow Washington Rep. Jaime Herrera-Beutler — in voting to impeach then-President Donald Trump.

Both Newhouse and Herrera-Beutler have faced criticism from Republicans in Washington state for their impeachment votes, with the latter getting formally censured by the Clark County GOP. Even so, Medved doesn’t believe either of their jobs are in any sort of imminent danger.

More than that, he says that Culp entering the race could actually help Newhouse, given that another pro-Trump conservative, state Rep. Brad Klippert, is also running against the incumbent Republican Congressman.

Medved: ‘I don’t want to be remembered as being on the wrong side’

“Loren Culp jumping into the race probably makes it more likely than ever that Dan Newhouse will be reelected,” Medved pointed out. “We have a top-two primary, and if there are all these Trump Republicans out there in that district, and there’s only one Dan Newhouse, he’s almost sure to make the primary and win the general election.”

Medved also has concerns over Culp as a candidate in general, especially given the questions he faced over his failed gubernatorial campaign’s spending in the weeks following his November defeat.

“I think Loren Culp has a lot of questions to answer about how he spent the money that he raised, some of it under false pretenses,” he said, referring to the frequent claims of election fraud Culp used to raise money for weeks after the results had been certified.

“Loren Culp is not going to be a serious candidate for Congress or anything else,” Medved continued. “I’m very confident that Congressman Newhouse, who is a strong and principled conservative, is going to continue representing the district in central Washington.”

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