WSDCC – October 2, 2026

MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIR

Friday, October 2, 2026

It’s Friday, Washington Democrats! 31 days until Election Day.

What I’m Asking

As we head into the final weeks before the most important election of our lifetime, there’s important work happening across Washington, and your continual support helps make it possible. Contributing to WA Dems today will help us organize in every community, reach more voters, and elect leaders who share our values. Whether it’s $10, $25, or more, every donation strengthens our party and helps us keep moving Washington forward.

Working for Washington

This is it. We are one month away from the General Election. If you’ve been waiting to get involved when it matters the most, now is the time. Our Year-Round-Organizing team has reached more than 600,000 Washington voters. But we can’t let up now. We need to build upon the momentum Democrats are seeing nationally. So please, sign up for a volunteer shift today! We have some incredible opportunities coming up!

TOMORROW – Join a bilingual phonebank to reach voters in Central Washington. This will benefit great candidates like John Duresky for Congress in CD4 and Ezequiel Morfin and Chelsea Dimas for State Representative in LD14. Whether you speak English or Spanish (or both!) we need your help to turn out Democratic voters. RSVP today!

Monday, October 5 – Join Democrats across the country for a National GOTV Kick-Off Call with Vice President Kamala Harris and DNC Chair Ken Martin. 3PM. Get fired up and learn about how we’re going to win this November! Sign up here.

Saturday, October 10  – One week from tomorrow, we are hosting a phonebank for Carmela Conroy who is working hard to flip the 5th Congressional District. As more Eastern Washington voters learn how Congressman Michael Baumgartner sold them out, slashing the healthcare coverage and food assistance of their neighbors to pay for bailouts for billionaires, the closer we get to flipping this seat in Congress. RSVP today!

Saturday, October 19 at 5:30PM – We have incredible opportunities in Central and Eastern Washington to not only flip seats in the State Legislature, but also in Congress! Make no mistake, these are uphill races, but the fundamentals are so bad for the GOP these seats could be in play. You can’t make history without working for it. In order to compete with MAGA’s millions, we need resources. Join us in Seattle for a fundraiser to benefit our tremendous Congressional candidates in CD 4 and 5, John Duresky and Carmela Conroy. Former Governor Jay Inslee will be headlining this beautiful evening featuring local wines and beers. Tickets start at $100. RSVP today!

Also in Eastern Washington, Democratic candidate for 16th LD State House, Derek Sarley received an unexpected boost with the shock announcement that his opponent, incumbent GOP State Rep. Skyler Rude, would be resigning three days before the election to take a job in the Secretary of State’s office. If you’re able to help volunteer in Walla Walla County to flip this seat, please sign up here!

Saturday, October 17 – Team Adam Smith and Team Marilyn Strickland are working together to send a bus of canvassers to the 3rd Congressional District to ensure Congresswoman Marie Gluesenkamp Perez helps Democrats secure a strong and sizeable majority in the U.S. House of Representatives. We’d love to see you there! RSVP today!

Democrats Fight Back

Governor Bob Ferguson is on a roll this week. He fought for benefits for residents impacted by the Spokane Complex wildfires, laid out how his executive order to counteract “the big bad betrayal bill” passed by Republicans in Congress will mitigate the harm to those getting healthcare through Apple Health, and forcefully opposed Initiative 638 saying, “Washingtonians should know that I-638 won’t create opportunities for girls, but it will force them into invasive sex verification exams in order to participate in sports.”

As Spokane communities continue to recover from the devastating fires, Governor Ferguson requested a major disaster declaration that would enable impacted individuals and local governments to receive reimbursement for fire-related expenses, unlocking $11 million in FEMA aid.

His executive order creates a statewide public awareness campaign and orders the state Department of Health to build a new data system to track which Apple Health recipients lose coverage. H.R. 1, which Governor Ferguson labeled the “big, bad, betrayal bill,” cuts more than $1.3 TRILLION in health care and food assistance nationwide, and will remove Apple Health from an estimated 14,000 lawfully present immigrants starting yesterday. It will also impose work requirements on more than 600,000 recipients starting January 1. State efforts have already cut the immigrant coverage loss number to 11,000 and the new verification system is expected to help an estimated 400,000 individuals in Washington keep their healthcare under the work requirements.

It’s always a good day to fight out-of-state MAGA mega-millionaire Brian Heywood’s Let’s Go Washington initiative campaigns. This week, Governor Ferguson forcefully condemned the effort to discriminate against trans girls in sports by urging voters to reject I-638. Let’s Go Washington is trying to disguise their anti-trans bigotry with claims of “defending equity in interscholastic sports” and would force EVERY female athlete to prove their biological sex using expensive DNA testing or invasive sex exams. Thank you, Governor Ferguson for working to protect our state from the Republican chaos coming from outside and within Washington state!

Congresswoman Dr. Kim Schrier’s Hydropower Licensing Transparency Act was signed into law this week. This new law supports our state’s clean, affordable hydropower and the healthy management of rivers by increasing transparency and efficiency. 30 million Americans rely on hydropower energy and it provides benefits for flood control, irrigation, and recreation. Congratulations Congresswoman Schrier on this huge achievement that will cut red tape and protect clean sources of energy for generations to come!

Attorney General Nick Brown helped lead a multi-state coalition to victory, securing a permanent court order stopping Trump’s unlawful attempt to gut essential health, education, and social service programs for low-income families. AG Brown joined 20 other states to challenge the federal government’s reinterpretation of a decades-old law pertaining to access to social services. Thanks to this victory, programs like Head Start, Title X family planning clinics, food banks, domestic violence shelters, adult education, and Community Health Centers will still receive funding passed by Congress and signed by the President. Thank you, AG Brown for always fighting for hard working Washingtonians!

Rally, Protest, and Gather

• Anytime – Sign up to receive ICE Mobilization Alerts for communities in Washington state. Sign up here.
• Anytime – We have GOTV organizing events nearly every day of the week through the General – find the nearest to you at www.wadems.org/events!
• TOMORROW – Bilingual Phonebank for LD14, 2PM-5PM. Sign up here.
• TOMORROW – Knock Doors with WA Dems, 10AM-2PM, multiple locations.
• TOMORROW – Knock Doors with WA Dems, 1PM-4PM, multiple locations. 
• TOMORROW – Statewide Virtual Phonebank, 4PM-6PM. Sign up here.
• Monday, October 5 – National GOTV Kick-Off Call with Chair Ken Martin and Former Vice President Kamala Harris, 3PM. Sign up here.
• Wednesday, October 7 – Sultan School District Community Legislative Education Town Hall, Sultan Middle School, 5:30PM. Open to all.
• Email details to press@wa-democrats.org.

Donate

If you would like to see less Washington D.C. and more Washington state in your community, please DONATE to The Real Washington Fund – our rapid response account to counter MAGA’s chaos with real organizing, real solutions, and real results. We can’t do the work of holding Republicans accountable without your support.

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Democrats in the News

11,000 Washington residents to lose Medicaid coverage under new federal law, KXLY

After tough primaries, Democrats in key states feel unified, new polls find, The Seattle Times

National politics inflect Spokane’s, fall state House rematch, The Spokesman-Review

Washington AG warns Congress that unchecked AI development could cause ‘catastrophic harm,’ KOMO

State Treasurer highlights impact of financing program during stop in Naches, Yakima Herald-Republic

Washington’s got game: Sec. of State Hobbs rolls the dice for tabletop overseas, KUOW

Washington Governor sets up space council to boost business ventures targeting the final frontier, GeekWire

‘Eastern Washington solutions for Eastern Washington problems’: Ferguson backs sales tax rebate, energy flexibility for those rebuilding from Spokane fires, The Spokesman-Review

Murray leads WA delegation in supporting Governor’s Request for Major Disaster declaration for individual assistance for devastating wildfires in Washington state, U.S. Senator Patty Murray

What I’m Reading

Washington taxed its millionaires. Now the rich want it repealed, The New York Times

The New York Times dove into the fight over the Millionaires Tax on our ballots this fall. I love the quote from Jeopardy! host Ken Jennings, “I like the idea that we could bring back an America where it’s embarrassing for wealthy people to say, ‘Even though I could afford this, and it will improve public services in our state, I’d rather fight it.’” Let’s make that happen by voting NO on all three statewide initiatives this year!

Thanks for all you do,

Chair Shasti Conrad
Washington State Democratic Party

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