Former Rep. Dave Reichert announced Friday that he was coming out of retirement to run for governor of Washington, a decision that gives Republicans the most prominent candidate they could have landed this cycle for an office they last won in 1980. Reichert, who has famously flirted with running statewide for over a decade but had never done so until now, kicked off his first race since his 2016 reelection by telling KING 5 that he still opposes abortion rights while insisting he wouldn't try to change the state's pro-choice policies.
It remains to be seen, though, if Reichert will be the only former GOP congressman competing in the top-two primary to succeed Democrat Jay Inslee, who is retiring after three terms. Jaime Herrera Beutler, who served alongside Reichert for eight years, reportedly has been considering her own campaign for months, though we haven't heard anything about her deliberations since May.
Reichert did lose one intra-party rival Friday, however, when physician Raul Garcia said he'd switch over to the race to face Democratic Sen. Maria Cantwell. Richland school board member Semi Bird is the only other notable Republican still competing in the governor's race, but he's yet to attract much attention. The Democratic field includes Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz and state Sen. Mark Mullet, while Attorney General Bob Ferguson has an exploratory committee for his own all-but-assured campaign.
Reichert has a long history in Evergreen State politics, including several close wins in a swing seat, though he was last seriously tested at the ballot box in 2010. The Republican, who spent years as a member of the task force working to apprehend the notorious Green River Killer, was appointed sheriff of heavily Democratic King County in 1997, a post that he easily held in that year's elections and won again without opposition in 2001. He attracted national attention weeks after that uncontested victory when he announced the arrest of Gary Ridgway in connection with the killings; Ridgway would go on to plead guilty to murdering 49 women, though some investigators think he could have been responsible for dozens more.
In 2004, Reichert ran for the open 8th District in the Seattle suburbs, a constituency that had long sent Republicans to the House even as it often supported Democrats further up the ballot, and both parties made the contest a priority. Democrats argued that the sheriff's opposition to abortion rights and gun safety laws made him too conservative for the district, but Reichert's fame helped propel him to a 52-47 victory against radio host Dave Ross even as John Kerry was beating George W. Bush here 51-48.
The new congressman faced another tough contest two years later as Bush's unpopularity dragged down Republicans nationwide, and former Microsoft manager Darcy Burner did all she could to tie Reichert to the administration and Iraq War. Local journalist Michael Hood also questioned Reichert's efforts to bring the Green River Killer to justice, charging that the incumbent didn't deserve credit for arresting Ridgway because, among other things, he had waited years to test crucial DNA evidence. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer also published a story in which two of Reichert's old supervisors criticized him, with one saying he "actually was more of an impediment to the investigation."
Reichert, though, continued to highlight his law enforcement history while arguing that Burner, a first-time candidate, had little experience in public life. The congressman also sought to campaign as a moderate even as he accepted fundraising help from Bush, and held on in a close 51-49 race. The two used similar arguments against one another in their 2008 rematch, but Burner and her allies hoped that Barack Obama's strength at the top of the ticket would be the difference-maker. However, that's not what happened: While Obama took the 8th in a 57-42 landslide, Reichert actually expanded his margin of victory to 53-47.
Democrats weren't so optimistic about beating the congressman during the 2010 red wave, though another Microsoft alum, Suzan DelBene, impressed observers by holding him to a 52-48 margin. That would prove to be the last competitive race of Reichert's congressional career, though. The state's Redistricting Commission reconfigured the 8th District, replacing several liberal-leaning communities with more conservative rural areas, shrinking Obama's margin to just 51-47. Serious Democrats were consequently reluctant to challenge the battle-tested Reichert, who secured his fifth term 60-40 as DelBene was winning the race to replace Inslee in the 1st.
Reichert enjoyed similarly easy campaigns the next two cycles, but Democrats renewed their interest in challenging him in 2017 as Donald Trump threatened to wreck the party's prospects in longtime GOP suburban strongholds such as this one. Pediatrician Kim Schrier was one of several candidates to launch a bid against him, but Reichert, who'd volunteered that he'd cast a write-in vote for Mike Pence, ended up delighting Democrats when he decided to retire. Schrier ultimately flipped the seat, defeating Republican Dino Rossi 52-48, and still holds it today.
Reichert, who went on to become a lobbyist, has largely stayed out of the news since leaving office, but Democrats are hoping to achieve what they couldn't during the Bush years and tie him to his party's leader. "As a congressman Dave Reichert voted in line with Trump 92.5 percent of the time," Franz tweeted on Friday. "More so, Dave Reichert has repeatedly taken extremist anti-choice positions throughout his long career in politics, including voting to criminalize abortion."
If Reichert were to prevail next year, he'd find himself in rare company: Only two governors currently represent states won by the opposite party's presidential nominee by margins wider than Washington's in 2020, Republican Phil Scott of Vermont and Democrat Andy Beshear of Kentucky. Biden's 19.2-point victory in the Evergreen State in fact slightly edged out Trump's 18.6-point win in Louisiana, where Democrat John Bel Edwards serves as governor.