SEATTLE NEWS ARCHIVES & FEATURES
Susan Hutchison: There is a quiet revolution in Washington
Oct 26, 2018, 5:42 AM
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Susan Hutchison greets Boeing workers as she campaigns outside a plant in Renton. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
(AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
According to U.S. Senate candidate Susan Hutchison, the tide is turning in one of the nation’s bluest states.
The former KIRO 7 broadcast journalist and state Republican Party chair aims to unseat Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), who has represented Washington state in the U.S. Senate for 18 years. Challenging a longtime Democratic incumbent in the part of the nation known by some as the “Left Coast” may seem a herculean task, but Hutchison told KIRO Radio’s Dori Monson that she looks at the upcoming midterm election with optimism.
“Our polling is showing we’re very close and we’re within striking distance,” she said. “And wherever I go around this great state, I feel we have got sort of a quiet, grassroots revolution going on.”
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Unlike public polls that concern all registered voters, Hutchison said that her poll is conducted with likely voters, meaning the people who are most likely to actually make the effort to vote.
After decades of left-wing policy largely dictated by the population center in the Seattle metropolitan area, Hutchison said that voters have had enough.
“People really want a change,” Hutchison said. “They’re so tired of the status quo in this state.”
Residents of Washington, particularly those in rural areas, have a feeling of political alienation stemming from the “sense that people have that they have no voice in this state against the power elite of Seattle,” she said.
“They’re so tired of it, and they’re so tired of [Seattle’s] bad policies just spreading like contagion over the state,” Hutchison said. “And they’re afraid of it, too.”
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If one looks at the makeup of the state Legislature, Washington really is purple, Hutchison said. She pointed to prominent Republicans in the state government, such as Secretary of State Kim Wyman, elected in 2012 and 2016, and Treasurer Duane Davidson, elected in 2016, as evidence that the state is not as left-leaning as people think.
Hutchison said that she has managed to attract longtime Democrat voters who are fed up with the policies in Washington state. One King County woman told Hutchison that while she personally is not a Republican, she is voting for Hutchison because she is frustrated by the people who come to Washington and receive government benefits that they haven’t earned, while she has worked hard and paid high taxes her entire life, only to receive no handouts.
“They just don’t see that Maria Cantwell has any answers,” Hutchison said.
Susan Hutchison: Debating the issues
Hutchison said that while talking to voters across the state, she has found that the top issue of concern is immigration. For Washington voters, illegal immigration is “a national security issue,” Hutchison said.
One only has to look at the migrant caravan moving through Central America, she said, to see that there are larger forces at play that are funding these movements.
“You can see that there’s a lot of money behind it … we have to look at it with our eyes wide open,” she said.
Hutchison, who said she has spoken in-depth with border guards who have served on the U.S.-Mexico border and learned of their experiences, would “support a wall in different forms.”
Besides immigration, the other most concerning issue for the voters of Washington is traffic and transportation, Hutchison said.
“People are just overwhelmed with the mess on our [federal] highways,” she said.
She promises to bring home the federal infrastructure funds needed to improve freeways in the state.
“Our state is not respected anymore, and it’s because of the leadership we send to Washington,” she said. “I will change that and I will fight for the people of this state.”
