A majority of American voters have put our nation on a more conservative path. As a conservative, I will be glad to see the changes that are coming from Montana to Florida.
In contrast, a majority of voters in our Washington decided it is not yet time for a similar shift in direction here.
It didn’t matter enough that Republicans offered strong candidates for statewide and legislative positions who would support common sense, family- and taxpayer-friendly policies.
Democrats by and large countered with the same cynical and misleading tactics that were effective for them in 2020 and 2022. The outcome this time was much the same.
Several legislative positions and a state Supreme Court seat remain too close to call as I write this, while it now appears Initiative 2066 has passed.
Those will be settled no later than Dec. 5, when the secretary of state must certify the election results — but we will likely know sooner, as counties must submit their results to the state by Nov. 26.
All of us on the Republican side had high hopes for the four voter initiatives on the ballot. Affordability has been one of the three Senate Republican priorities for the past few years, and the initiatives all were aimed at making life in Washington more affordable.
Unfortunately, the billionaire-funded “no” campaigns were able to afford a very large megaphone to blast their misinformation out for weeks ahead of and during the election period.
I-2066, which would repeal the Democratic law that set the stage for a natural-gas ban in our state, ended up being the only measure that wasn’t overwhelmed by the barrage of propaganda from the initiative opponents.
Two of the anti-initiative campaigns also got an unethical assist from Gov. Jay Inslee’s administration, which used taxpayer dollars to promote the cap-and-tax law that would have been repealed by I-2117 and the mandatory payroll tax targeted by I-2124.
Then there was the news media. Too often, it was guilty of “underperforming,” to use a term used frequently in the election-night coverage of the presidential race.
The role of the news media includes fact-checking campaign claims to help citizens know what is accurate, and what is misinformation.
That’s even more critical when one side is spending up to 10 times more than the other on election ads.
The trouble is, ads opposing the four citizen initiatives included many blatant lies. The same was true in the election for governor.
For instance, passing I-2109 to repeal the capital-gains income tax was never going to mean a cut in funding for education in our state. Passing I-2117 to repeal the cap-and-tax law and its effect on gas prices was never going to cut funding for Washington’s roads and bridges. No governor has the power to overturn Washington’s laws on abortion access.
A competent reporter should know these things, and inform the public accordingly. Yet, with a few notable exceptions, there seemed to be a lack of that kind of journalism in this election cycle.
As a result, the tens of millions of dollars spent by Democrats and their allies to peddle falsehoods paid off, because the news media largely abdicated its traditional role of separating what is true and what is false.
Why that happened is a different question — but it seems to happen more, if not exclusively, when those on the political left are making the false claims. That’s extremely disappointing.
All that aside, the voters spoke clearly on the four ballot measures. We must respect their decision. Although just one initiative may pass, let’s remember the three others approved by the Legislature back in March.
Through I-2113, the people and Republican legislators pressured Democrats into reversing the criminal-friendly restrictions they had placed on police pursuits.
The approval of I-2081 gave Washington parents an important new level of access to critical information about what happens at their children’s schools.
The passage of I-2111 bans an income tax in our state, at any level of government. It is even more significant now that a majority of voters decided against I-2109, which would have repealed the tax on capital-gains income.
Voter approval of I-2066 makes four wins out of the seven initiatives put forward by the people of Washington this year. That’s remarkable.
But, as I’ve mentioned before, we need to wait and see whether a Democrat-controlled Legislature takes a hands-off approach to the three initiatives passed during this year’s legislative session.
Without getting too deep into the constitutional weeds, Democrats may not use their majorities to immediately gut or even repeal an initiative passed by voters.
As it looks like I-2066 will prevail, the Legislature cannot touch it in 2025 without two-thirds of the Senate and House agreeing — meaning bipartisan votes.
An initiative passed directly by legislators has no such protection, unfortunately.
Rumors abound that Democrats did not agree with the police-pursuit, parental-rights, and no-income-tax initiatives but went ahead and joined Republicans to pass them in Olympia, knowing that would leave all three laws open to immediate repeal with partisan, simple-majority votes in 2025.
Republicans will be watching.
Another important win needs to be mentioned: The apparent re-election of Republican Sen. Curtis King to his fifth full term.
Senator King received 55% of the vote in the Yakima Valley’s 14th Legislative District, even though its boundaries were recently “gerrymandered” to favor Democrats — by a Democrat federal judge, after Democrat activists successfully sued to overturn a different set of boundaries created by our state’s bipartisan redistricting commission.
Republicans also won the two open House of Representatives seats in the 14th District.
Together, these results completely discredit the Democrats’ argument that the Yakima Valley’s Hispanic population would prefer their candidates if given the opportunity.
Let’s remember the activists had even drawn the new district map in a way that actually reduced the proportion of Hispanic residents while increasing the proportion of Democrats and disenfranchising the first Republican Latina senator elected to represent the valley. It still didn’t bring them a victory.
The results from the Yakima Valley also confirm what we just learned from the presidential election: no group of voters should be viewed as a block that automatically supports one party or the other.
More proof that the times are changing: 46% of Hispanics just voted Republican, nationally, with the proportion of Hispanic men voting Republican climbing to 55%.
Also, a Republican Latina flipped a House seat in Texas that Democrats had previously won by 15-plus percentage points.
While the rest of the ballots are being counted, and the results are being certified, it’s time to return to the job of legislating.
The Senate and House committees will assemble in mid-December to get a jump on the 2025 legislative session. The session will begin Jan. 13 and is to last 105 days, under our constitution.
Republicans have already been working on the proposals we will offer. Some are good ideas that Democrats have blocked for no good reason, like helping communities hire more law-enforcement officers, and adding fentanyl to the state’s child-endangerment law.
On the day after the election, one of the national organizations for state legislators sent an email with this subject line: “A Good Night for Republicans Up and Down the Ballot.”
That wasn’t the case in our state, unfortunately. But still, the presidential election offered a timely reminder that voters will respond to policies that affect their lives. Good policies can win elections, and bad policies can lose elections.
Despite being in the minority, Senate Republicans have been remarkably effective in driving the legislative agenda these past few sessions. I am optimistic that will continue in 2025.
History tells us our Democratic colleagues will push ideas to signal their virtue, even though they’re wrong-headed from a policy standpoint.
Republicans will fight against those while advocating for policies that support our priorities, which reflect what we have been told by the people we serve: increase public safety, make living in Washington more affordable, and improve the lives of our children.
That’s how we make Washington better for everyone.
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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.
