2nd District House: Mukilteo Republican challenges incumbent Larsen

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen is facing a challenge from Dan Matthews in the 2nd Congressional District, which will be Whatcom County’s only House seat after recent redistricting.

A Democrat from Everett, Larsen is seeking his 11th two-year term in the House against Matthews, a Republican from Mukilteo, in the district that now includes all of Whatcom, Skagit, Island, and San Juan counties and the western part of Snohomish County.

Larsen, who has a master of professional studies degree from the University of Minnesota, serves on the Armed Services Committee and the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and is a member of the New Democrat Coalition of center-left House members who are considered socially liberal and fiscally conservative.

“I supported landmark recovery plans — both from the pandemic and its economic impacts — by voting for the CARES Act, the American Rescue Plan and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act,” Larsen said at his website.

Those relief programs brought millions to Bellingham and Whatcom County governments, schools and other agencies, and most recently he’s ensured funding for a new electric ferry for Lummi Island and for the Whatcom Transportation Authority to buy electric buses.

“But our work is not done until everyone has recovered, which is why I will have voted — and will continue to push — for legislative solutions to combat rising costs, including for prescription drugs, childcare, housing, gas, and baby formula, despite the opposition of every Republican in the House,” Larsen said.

Larsen raised $1.6 million for his campaign through Oct. 19, according to the Federal Elections Commission.

According to his campaign website, Larsen is endorsed by the Whatcom Democrats and other Democratic Party organizations in Whatcom County, and a broad combination of environmental and social-justice organizations and unions, including Planned Parenthood, the Sierra Club, the Washington State Labor Council, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, and Bellingham-Whatcom Firefighters Local 106.

Matthews, who placed second in the August primary that featured 10 candidates, is a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel. He has a master’s degree in public administration from Golden Gate University.

He served combat roles in Vietnam and the first Gulf War and has been a commercial airline pilot and flight instructor for Boeing.

In a video at his campaign website, Matthews said he promotes “civility and understanding” and promises to curb inflation and reduce crime, without citing specific programs or ways he would accomplish those tasks.

“We are at war!” Matthews said at his website, which alludes to Stalinism and the Holocaust, “rigging elections,” media conspiracies, and other claims.

“It didn’t start with gulags or gas chambers. It began with one party controlling the media, one party controlling the message, one party deciding what is truth, one party censoring speech and suppressing opposition, undermining the family unit; indoctrinating the children. One Party dividing citizens into ‘us’ and ‘them’ — always consolidating their power by fear and lies, as they seized the education system and then the citizens’ means of defense, mandating their compliance, calling on their supporters to harass and hate, muzzling the church, marginalizing any voices of reason, defunding the police, enabling lawlessness, rigging elections, and weaponizing government itself, one party, silencing all dissent and labeling dissenters,” Matthews said.

“Absurd political theories that divide and enflame; sexual confusion and agendas that threaten society, political science — masquerading as science and fact; the undermining of law enforcement and law itself — on so many fronts, we are now at war!” he said.

Matthews is endorsed by the Whatcom Republicans and the GOP organizations of Snohomish, Skagit, San Juan and Island counties, along with the Washington State Farm Bureau Political Action Committee and the Family Policy Institute of Washington, a conservative Christian lobby.

He’s raised $59,196 for his campaign through Oct. 19, according to the Federal Elections Commission.