Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.), a member of the House Appropriations Committee who champions increased cleanup funding for the Department of Energy’s Hanford Site, will have a primary challenger again this cycle for his fourth district congressional seat.
So far, there are only two announced candidates for a nonpartisan primary scheduled for Aug. 6: Newhouse and a former NASCAR race driver who lost in a multi-candidate primary in 2022, according to the website Ballotpedia.org.
There is plenty of time for more candidates to join the open-primary fray, as the window to officially file a declaration of candidacy with the state is May 6-10, according to a Washington Secretary of State webpage.
Fellow Republican Jerrod Sessler finished fourth with 12% of the vote in 2022’s open primary. Newhouse was first in that primary with 25.5% of the vote, slightly ahead of the lone Democrat in the field Doug White. Newhouse went on to easily beat White in the November general election, taking two thirds of the vote.
Sessler is a Navy veteran with experience as a businessman, NASCAR driver and author, according to Ballotpedia.
Despite having served in congress since 2015 and holding a coveted House Appropriations seat, Newhouse has been on shaky ground with some Republicans since being among a handful of House GOP members who voted to impeach President Donald Trump after a large group of Trump supporters rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Republicans currently hold a narrow 219 to 212 edge in the House of Representatives, with four vacancies. Democrat Tom Suozzi on Tuesday won a special election in New York state to fill the seat formerly held by ex-Rep. George Santos (R-N.Y.). When he is sworn in, Democrats will hold 213 seats. Santos was expelled from Congress following a House ethics investigation.
