The GOP could win a Senate majority in 2024, but won’t gain a seat in Washington, where Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) is cruising to re-election.
Her Republican opponent, ER doctor Raul Garcia, is a political novice. He’s trailing Cantwell by 55%-32%, with 13% undecided, in a KING 5 News poll three weeks before the election (see story here). The poll was of “likely voters.”
Garcia is ballot filler. No one wanted to take on Cantwell, so the primary ballot was filled with nobodies. Garcia doesn’t have donor backing; Cantwell has raised more than 20 times as much money.
He’s putting on a brave face, insisting the election will be “a lot closer” than polls show, but any candidate has to say that, or his campaign would collapse.
On issues, Garcia is trying to avoid the GOP albatross by saying he doesn’t support an abortion ban. He’s also distancing himself from Trump. He’s against fentanyl, but so is everybody.
“I don’t like what I see outside my door. I don’t like the crime. I don’t like that our children are not safe,” he says. Actually, overall crime is declining nationally, and also in Washington, though vehicle thefts and juvenile crime are up here (see story here). Apart from that, his party’s national ticket is headed by a convicted criminal.
Garcia argues Washington voters “want a change” in the Senate seat. Every poll so far in this race (see them all here) says otherwise.