State Legislature races roil Whatcom County swing district where Trump rallied

Someone with the Republicans or Democrats might want to knock on Chris Harveston’s door.

Harveston knows what he’s looking for – state lawmakers who want to empower the police “a little more,” boost access to mental health care and protect his town from flooding by the Nooksack River.

But the 39-year-old, who lives on Main Street in Everson and works at Costco in Bellingham, is still wondering whom to vote for in next month’s election, he said, working in his yard on a recent smoky afternoon. Ballots must be postmarked or returned to a drop box by 8 p.m. on Nov. 8.

“I’m right down the middle,” said Harveston, a self-described independent in a swing district that could tug the Washington state Legislature’s politics one way or the other.

With three competitive races and a unique electorate spread across urban, suburban and rural areas, the 42nd Legislative District will put each party’s broader arguments to the test. Few other districts feature true toss-ups.

“The 42nd is probably the purplest district in the whole state,” said Andrew Reding, who chairs the Whatcom County Democrats.

The contests themselves were made to order for 2022. They pit a social worker against a police officer. A staffer for the governor against a businessman who shared a meme likening COVID policies to Nazi persecution. And an economics professor against a recent graduate who worked for President Donald Trump.

Trump rallied in the district, in Lynden, during his 2016 presidential campaign, when Republicans occupied the 42nd’s state Senate seat and both of its state House seats. But Democrats subsequently won the House seats and now have their sights set on the Senate seat, which is held by a 22-year-old appointed after the longtime incumbent suddenly died.

The GOP must retain the coveted position in order to mount a comeback in the Senate. The Democrats, who today hold a seven-member majority in that chamber, view the 42nd as their best chance for a Senate pickup.

The last time the seat was contested, the Republican won by 46 votes. This year, Democratic Rep. Sharon Shewmake has vacated her House seat to challenge Sen. Simon Sefzik in a showdown that’s attracted more than $1 million in campaign donations, plus massive outside spending.

In districts throughout the state, Republicans are raging about high prices and blaming Democrats for crime. Many GOP candidates sputtered in August’s primary, however, with Democrats ringing alarms over the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that struck down abortion rights. Such rights are still shielded by Washington law, Republicans note. But there are no guarantees, depending on this and other elections, Democrats counter.

Those topics are particularly hot in the 42nd, judging by the roads that bristle with campaign signs between quite-red Lynden’s dairy farms and deep-blue Bellingham’s vegan restaurants. Floods are a local concern with no easy answers, because the swollen Nooksack River inundated towns like Everson last winter. So is a housing crunch that’s starting to resemble pricey Seattle’s.

“There was a day when you could walk into a room or go about your business and not talk politics,” said Ken Bell, a Republican who serves on the Port of Bellingham Board of Commissioners. “Now it’s an everyday occurrence.”

The contests

The 42nd appears to be trending blue, due to Puget Sound transplants and suburban growth in places like Ferndale. It includes about half of populous Bellingham. Nothing is certain, however. Democratic candidates captured 47% to 49% in each primary race, so they must turn out more voters this fall.

House challenger Tawsha (Dykstra) Thompson, a former Bellingham police officer, detective and sergeant, has based her GOP campaign on discontent over public safety, saying her “street-level viewpoint” could help. Fewer overall crimes were reported in Whatcom County last year than in 2020, but violent crimes jumped, almost wholly in Bellingham, compared with 2020 and 2019.

Thompson says she’s running because state laws passed in 2021, following racial justice protests, have hamstrung officers by constraining their ability to use force, pursue vehicles and deal with drugs.

“Law enforcement needs to be at the table,” said Thompson, who was terminated under her force’s COVID-19 vaccination mandate (she says she was denied a religious exemption to wait for the Novavax vaccine).

Thompson’s argument is complicated by national data, which showed violent crime increases concurrent with COVID in many other places, and by her opponent, Rep. Alicia Rule. The moderate Democrat voted with Republicans against the law restricting dangerous vehicular pursuits by law enforcement, which reformers say is saving lives.

Rule says she wants to adjust a temporary law from 2021 that classified drug possession as a misdemeanor when done knowingly. The prior statute, which classified all possession as a felony, had been struck down in court.

“I don’t think we have to choose” between safety and help for people with mental health or drug struggles, said Rule, who’s worked in child welfare.

The pandemic has cast a shadow over the other House race, with Democrat Joe Timmons and Republican Dan Johnson vying for Shewmake’s seat.

Timmons, who does outreach for Gov. Jay Inslee in Whatcom and neighboring counties and worked as a lobbyist for Western Washington University, says he knows how to advocate for the region at the state Capitol. Johnson, an ex-Marine who ran a towing business for years and has volunteered as an auctioneer, says his own experience would better serve the 42nd than someone “bred for bureaucracy.”

Their contest was jolted last month when The Bellingham Herald reported Johnson shared extreme views and social media posts, including a meme in 2020 of a yellow Star of David marked “Vaccinated” with the caption, “A new badge has been created which will allow you to go back to work, to travel in your state, to fly, catch a train or bus and to buy and sell.” He wrote about the Holocaust imagery, “I think this would about sum it up.”

Johnson later acknowledged he had “inappropriately compared pandemic mandates to the Nazis’ treatment of Jewish people.” He apologized “if I have ever said something” that caused offense or pain.

The Senate race is the headliner, altered last December when six-term incumbent Doug Ericksen died, having tested positive for the coronavirus while on a trip to El Salvador. The County Council appointed Sefzik in January, choosing him among several GOP options and setting him up against Shewmake, who in 2020 narrowly defeated his mother, Jennifer Sefzik.

Republican PACs are splashing cash to help Sefzik with weighty donations from business interests. Democratic PACs largely bankrolled by labor unions are backing Shewmake, who’s endorsed by environmental groups. They clashed in a recent radio debate. “I try to talk about policy, whereas Simon Sefzik can’t get my name out of his mouth,” Shewmake said. “I’m not going to apologize for pointing out a record I believe has failed,” Sefzik replied.

Lynden to Lummi

There was a stir in the Dutch Treat when Sefzik walked in this month, stopping by the diner near his Lynden campaign office. He’s counting on voters like the older men who convene at a back table every morning. Most of the crew are descendants of Dutch immigrants to the area, they said.

“Republican or Democrat, I don’t care who you are. Tell me if things are going all right. The crime, the homelessness, the gas prices,” said Lee Beld, a sergeant with the Lynden police. “You screw this place up, you pay.”

That’s the message Sefzik is pushing, blasting Shewmake for votes to limit police and establish a capital-gains tax. He graduated from a conservative Christian college only last year, interning in the Trump White House and briefly working there. Yet Sefzik has raised more money than Shewmake. Possessing fentanyl and other hard drugs should be a felony, and Democrats haven’t acted with urgency to address homeless encampments, he says.

“The first step to fixing the problem is to recognize we have one,” the Republican said.

Shewmake says lawmakers may have moved “too fast” on certain policing reforms but connects crime trends with pandemic woes. The WWU professor touts $800 million budgeted in the last Legislative session for homeless programs and says most voters agree that “super wealthy people in Seattle” should be taxed more.

“Republicans are really trying to politicize public safety” and have spent a lot of money “trying to make me sound like a radical,” rather than a “nerdy economist,” Shewmake added in an interview at a Ferndale company that builds modular homes, mentioning her push to legalize backyard cottages. She wants to expand subsidized preschool; Sefzik says tax dollars should “follow the backpack” when kids enroll in certain K-12 private schools.

Far from Lynden, at a powwow on the Lummi Reservation, drummers pounded a steady rhythm and kids danced in a circle while Shewmake browsed hats, shirts and earrings on sale by Native artisans. The Lummi Indian Business Council has endorsed her, Rule and Timmons.

Loretta and Darlene Olsen, sisters who are Lummi Nation members, say they’re worrying about local young people as they watch rents soar, homelessness grow and drug deaths rise. “I don’t know where to point the finger,” Loretta Olsen said. “I blame it on Columbus,” her sister quipped.

Slapping people with felonies for drug use is counterproductive, erecting barriers to jobs and housing, though involuntary commitment is necessary in certain cases, Shewmake said. In their radio debate, she pressed Sefzik on abortions, accusing him of trying to dodge the issue.

In his campaign office, Sefzik said he believes in “the sanctity of human life” and opposed a new law allowing providers like advanced nurse practitioners to perform abortions (and guarding against abortion-related prosecutions). He declined to say whether he would support further restricting abortions.

Hispanic voters could decide a super-close Senate race, said Manuel Reta, president of the Northwest Washington Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, which organized a Fiestas Patrias event in Ferndale last month. Sefzik showed up, which could give the Republican a lift, Reta said.

But Victoria Retasket is thinking about the students she works with at Northwest Indian College, supporting Shewmake partly because the Democrat rang her doorbell and vowed to stand up for reproductive rights. In a district like the 42nd, Retasket is hyper aware that her vote will matter.

“I definitely feel the tension,” she said.