Smiley makes Newhouse congressional race mostly about one issue: Loyalty to Trump

Tiffany Smiley had a simple question for Central Washington Rep. Dan Newhouse.

How was her congressman going to legislate with the executive branch if Donald Trump wins a second term?

After all, the Sunnyside Republican and former President haven’t been on good speaking terms since Newhouse voted in favor of impeachment following the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

But with three years under the Biden Administration, and Trump as the presumptive Republican nominee in this year’s presidential election, Smiley hoped things would have smoothed over by now.

“You look around our country today with an open border, fentanyl coming into our communities here in the 4th Congressional District. You look at our economy, you look at the unrest around the globe — and we need Donald Trump and we need his policies,” she told the Tri-City Herald in a Wednesday interview.

So the mother of three booked a flight, from one Washington to the other, to meet with her congressman.

But sitting down with Newhouse in D.C. last week, Smiley says she didn’t like what she heard. He couldn’t give her an earnest answer.

“I told Dan, ‘This isn’t about you, this isn’t even about me. This is about our country. This is about the future for our children,’” Smiley recalled. “After that, I made the decision because it was the right thing for our district.”

That decision — which caught many Republicans by surprise on Monday — was to challenge Newhouse, Washington state’s sole Republican incumbent in the 2024 congressional races.

Smiley, 43, is the Pasco, Wash., Republican who was plucked from political obscurity in 2022 to run against U.S. Sen. Patty Murray. Her story as a mom-turned-veterans advocate in the wake of her husband’s injury during a military tour in the Middle East captivated Washington voters.

While polling suggested a competitive race, Smiley ultimately lost to Murray, the three-decade incumbent, by a margin of 14 percentage points.

In the 18 months since Smiley suspended her campaign, she has kept busy by forming a political action committee, Endeavor PAC, to fund conservative outsider candidates, and with regular appearances on cable TV news shows.

Now, Smiley says she’s being called to service again.

Trump endorsement

Smiley says Newhouse won’t be effective if he wins a sixth term this year, citing his fallout with Trump and a pair of votes that expanded certain amnesties for undocumented immigrants and farm workers.

“If Dan Newhouse stays in, who’s to say he’s not going to impeach Trump again?” she said. She added later: “It almost feels delusional, a little bit. Like, ‘How are you going to go back to D.C. and think that you will have the ear of the President.’”

About a month ago, Trump took aim at Newhouse by endorsing Jerrod Sessler, a Prosser businessman who was at that point the congressman’s sole challenger.

Trump called Newhouse a “weak and pathetic RINO,” or Republican in name only.

Smiley says Sessler is a “perennial candidate” with low name recognition and “no chance” of winning. Now that she’s in the race, she said she would welcome Trump’s endorsement at any point.

Newhouse, Sessler hit back

Both Sessler and Newhouse took jabs at Smiley after her announcement.

In a statement Tuesday, Sessler called her a “fraud” who is “ethically compromised and a supporter of far-left Democrats,” claiming funds raised by her Endeavor PAC went to debts she owed to “D.C. swamp consultants.”

Smiley’s 2022 bid against Murray ended in more than $1 million in debts and, according to the Seattle Times, funds raised by the political action committee she formed in 2023 helped pay off those expenses.

“With our dams under attack, a crisis at our border and working people unable to afford gas and groceries, this is no time for Central Washington to give up its clout in Congress or to hand the keys to the federal budget to someone who couldn’t manage her own campaign finances,” Newhouse’s campaign said in a statement this week.

Central Washington voters will have three Republicans and one independent to vote for in this August primary if a Democrat doesn’t jump in at the last minute before the end of the state’s filing week.

Newhouse is something of a rarity in the halls of Congress these days.

He and California Rep. David Valadao, R-Hanford, are the only pro-impeachment Republicans left after the 2022 midterms saw retirements and Trump-endorsed candidates unseat incumbents.

Newhouse was just one of 10 U.S. House Republicans to vote “yes” to the second impeachment of Trump after the insurrection.

Loren Culp was endorsed by Trump in 2022 to oust Newhouse, but a crowded field of Republicans led to Newhouse escaping the August primary with a Democratic challenger.

Newhouse handily won reelection during the general with 66% of the vote in the conservative 4th District.

Pasco, WA roots

Smiley lives in Pasco. It’s her hometown, where she was born and raised, where she played sports and got involved in 4-H.

It’s also where she and her husband, Scott, are raising their three boys — as well as their hogs.

The Smileys were high school sweethearts. In 1998, a young Scott Smiley led his Pasco High School bulldogs to their first state football championship. He went on to graduate from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 2003, and the two married later that year.

But their lives changed forever on April 6, 2005, when his convoy was attacked by a suicide car bomber while deployed in Mosul, Iraq.

The shrapnel struck and blinded Scott, who had been in Iraq for less than six months at that point. And Tiffany chose to put her career as a triage nurse on hold after that. Her advocacy for him led to his becoming the first blind active-duty Army officer, with duties that included teaching at West Point and commanding a Warrior Transition Unit.

‘Results for the American people’

Smiley believes the country is approaching a crossroads and says Newhouse’s legislating has left their district in an “incredibly unsafe” place.

She called the Biden Administration’s involvement in secret plans that would breach the Lower Snake River dams to recover fish populations “extremely problematic,” adding that the four structures need to be preserved for the well being of farmers and food commerce, and to “unleash American energy independence.”

Smiley gave kudos to House Speaker Mike Johnson for coming into the speakership during a historically tumultuous time for GOP leadership and says he’s done a good job at focusing on conservative priorities.

“I’m not there, I’m not talking to him every day. But from the outside we need to make sure our priorities, especially in this election, are delivering results for the American people,” she said.

Johnson’s leadership was jostled around a bit this week after Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, of Georgia, one of Trump’s most vocal allies, triggered a long shot vote to oust him from his speakership.

Smiley believes Republicans are poised to expand their slim majority in the House this year, but says she’s open to collaboration across the aisle as long as it benefits Americans. She underscored her fundraising with Endeavor PAC as clout that she can help Republicans win seats.

“I would work with anyone that wants to secure our border, protect our families, stop the flow of fentanyl and make sure that we unleash American energy independence,” she said. “At the end of the day, these aren’t really Democrat or Republican issues. So, whoever’s in office, those have to be the priorities and I’m happy to work with anyone.”