For WA Republicans, the election was a wake-up call. Here’s how the party wins in 2024

On election night, Washington voters sent a consistent message, even if results were different in central Puget Sound.

From Spokane to Steilacoom, voters preferred candidates who were ready to govern over those who ranted about grievances. Except, in central Puget Sound, being qualified wasn’t enough. You also could not be a Republican.

Outside central Puget Sound, state legislative races were often between a Republican whose experience and demeanor prepared them to govern, and a Republican focused on alleged grievances. Or between a thoughtful Republican who fit the district and a more left-leaning Democrat. While there are exceptions, in most of those races, the steady Republican won.

But, with one exception — the victory of Republican state House candidate Sam Low in the 39th District — central Puget Sound voters rejected qualified, thoughtful Republicans, many of whom were young, pro-choice, civically engaged people of color. Didn’t matter. Voters might have liked the candidate, but they were not about to turn over the keys of government to the Republican party.

That was true across the nation, not just here. But in Washington, the results are inarguable and dire. A few more elections like this last one and Washington’s Republican party will be permanently reduced to an entrenched, irrelevant minority.

There are three reasons Washington voters rejected qualified Republican candidates.

If Republicans want to win in 2024, each needs addressing.

• First, voters associated Republicans with the U.S. Supreme Court decision that there is no Constitutional right to privacy (the foundation of the court’s 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion rights decision). Under the Bill of Rights, rights not in the Constitution are determined by people in each state. Washington voters strongly supported an individual’s right to choose whether to have an abortion even before Roe v. Wade. So, rather than hopping and wiggling on this issue like polka dancers on hot coals, Republicans should press for a state constitutional amendment cementing an individual’s right to privacy. That privacy right should curtail what information governments and companies may collect on individuals, and keep the government out of our most intimate decisions.

• Former President Trump is the second reason Puget Sound voters rejected Republicans. Suburban voters might have liked chatting with that nice Republican who rang their doorbell, but they weren’t going to support the Party of Trump. So, stop being the Party of Trump. The Washington State Republican Party should send a letter to Mar-a-Lago acknowledging the former president’s service, and letting him know Washington will support a different nominee in 2024.

• Third, polls suggested voters shared Republican views on inflation, crime, homelessness, new taxes and Olympia’s unsustainable spending, but I don’t think they understood what Washington Republicans would do differently. Before 2024, Republicans need a platform that represents conservative values and resonates with suburban voters.

What should that platform look like?

Here are seven planks Republicans need in 2024:

1. Elevate individual freedom over government and corporate power. People should be free to choose whether or not they want to buy long-term care and what happens to their bodies. They should also be free to make purchases or inquiries without the government or corporations collecting data on them.

2. Support families by prioritizing spending on children. Ensure every child has access to medical care, food and early education. Modernize our foster care system. Assist families struggling with troubled teens by re-criminalizing hard-drug use and investing in drug treatment and mental health.

3. Cut Olympia’s unsustainable spending and tighten accountability on how our money is being spent. Refund money to taxpayers when sales tax revenues significantly exceed projections.

4. Ensure all children, regardless of where they live, have access to an equal and fully state-funded education.

5. Make it clear Republicans are dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal. That means everyone should be treated the same regardless of their religion, race, gender identity or sexual orientation.

6. Support tax and regulatory reform that celebrates achievement and encourages entrepreneurs to start businesses in Washington. Republicans want the government to support risk-taking, not be an overbearing nanny.

7. Finally, defend public lands so they do not become prizes for corporations and billionaires, nor slums for those who refuse shelter.

• If I get a Christmas list wish, let’s lower taxes on alcohol and dedicate those tax revenues to drug and mental health treatment.

Not all conservatives will agree with the seven planks I’ve listed, but these positions are consistent with conservative values and will resonate in the suburbs. It’s the sort of plan many voters, who right now dislike both parties, are waiting for.

Of course, Republicans could keep doing what they have been doing, but on election night we saw how that worked out.

Bill Bryant, who served on the Seattle Port Commission from 2008-16, ran against Jay Inslee as the Republican nominee in Washington’s 2016 governor’s race.