Schrier squares off against 10 challengers in contentious primary for 8th Congressional District

If politics meet in the middle anywhere in Washington, it’s the 8th Congressional District.

Stretching from eastern Pierce and King counties across the Cascades, the swing district is now represented by Dr. Kim Schrier, who was first elected in 2018.

“I promised the people of this district that I would go to bat for them like I’ve always gone to bat for my patients,” Schrier said.

Schrier’s campaign has more than $6 million in cash on hand, but she faces 10 challengers, including three Republicans who raised hundreds of thousands of dollars each before the middle of the year.

Big campaign themes from all four candidates are crime, gas prices, and inflation.

“The number one, two, and three issues are the economy, the economy, the economy,” said Jesse Jensen, who challenged Schrier in 2020 and lost by 3.5%.

The former Army Ranger, who founded a group that rescued people from Afghanistan after the U.S. withdrawal, is running again.

“I had to rescue 2,500 people out of Afghanistan because the Biden administration refused to do it. You have record high gas prices, runaway inflation, the list goes on and on,” Jensen said.

Matt Larkin is also running.

He’s a businessman and former prosecutor who ran in 2020 for state attorney general.

“I woke up one day and didn’t recognize my state,” Larkin said. “I see crime going up everywhere. It used to be a Seattle problem, it’s creeping out right now.”

Larkin proposes withholding federal grants from prosecutors who don’t follow sentencing guidelines.

“What I would call the Make Crime Illegal Again Bill, where we hold some of these local, state law enforcement and prosecutors accountable for not pushing criminals into the justice system,” Larkin said.

“We have to get serious about addressing the crime problem. The defund, disarm, and disparage movement has failed,” said Reagan Dunn, a five-term King County councilmember and former federal prosecutor who is also vying for the seat once held by his mother, the late Congresswoman Jennifer Dunn.

“I’m running on a civility platform. I think modern American political discourse has gotten nasty, increasingly tribalism. I think we need to elect leaders who bridge that divide,” Dunn said.

Congresswoman Schrier said she’s already bridging the divide, cracking down on oil company profits, calling for a federal gas tax holiday, and addressing crime.

“We absolutely should not defund the police, I have never wanted to defund the police. It is absolutely foolish and what we should be doing, especially at a time of rising crime, is fully funding the police,” Schrier said.

Schrier differs from her challengers on abortion.

After the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, she says the country needs national abortion protections.

“The next step is to get me back to Congress as the only pro-choice woman doctor in all of Congress and the only one in this race who will protect a woman’s right to make her own health care decisions,” Schrier said.

As an attorney, Larkin says the Roe ruling in the 1970s was poorly written.

“Being pro-life, yeah, I’m glad the Supreme Court ruled the way they did. I think as a society we need to value life,” Larkin said.

Asked if he would support a nationwide abortion ban, Larkin said, “I always err toward sending it back to the states.”

Jensen said he is personally pro-life.

“I’m also a constitutional conservative and what the Dobbs decision did was move a very difficult and polarizing conversation to state legislatures, which underscores the importance of state elections and in Washington state it’s settled law,” Jensen said.

Dunn, who voted against abortion funding and a pro-choice resolution at the county council, describes his position as libertarian.

“It is up to the woman to make that decision and not the federal government,” Dunn said. “I would not vote to ban abortions at the federal level for the same reason I wouldn’t vote to keep them legal. I don’t think the federal government, particularly Congress, should be doing it.”

Whether the driving issue is abortion, crime, the rising cost of living, or something else, voters in the 8th are deciding now which two candidates will advance to the November election.

Ballots are due back Aug. 2.

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