Washington’s second congressional district— Snohomish, Whatcom, Skagit, Island and San Juan counties— is a super-safe D+16 seat. Biden beat Trump there 60.1% to 37.2%. The conservative corporate Dem who represents the district, Rick Larsen, beat his GOP opponent last year 60.2% to 39.8% but only managed to get 45.8% in the primary. He’s not particularly popular but no-one wants to elect a Republican. They just figure he’s the lesser evil.
This cycle, WA-02 voters have a non-evil alternative, former Washington state Democratic Party official, Jason Call, who is now running on the Green Party line. Blue America endorsed Call when he ran as a Democrat last time and we’ve endorsed him again this year. You can contribute to his campaign here. He’s a lifelong antiwar and climate activist, an organizer, a former elected union leader, and a public school teacher and, in a letter to district voters yesterday, he explained why he’s running on the Green line this year.
“Over the years,” he wrote, “local progressives have tried repeatedly to engage our Congressman on the issues that matter to our community. I went to him both as a constituent and a member of the state Democratic Party leadership. But we couldn’t get Rick Larsen to listen. No matter how we approached him, we just kept hitting a brick wall. It turns out, that wall was made of money. The people Rick Larsen DOES listen to are the lobbyists and the corporate PACs – the aviation conglomerates, fossil fuel executives and defense contractors who fund his long political career.” More from Call’s letter after the video.
That’s why I decided to run for Congress in 2020. And although we were virtually shut down by a once-in-a-century pandemic, our scrappy grassroots campaign came within 2.4% of winning a spot in Washington’s Top Two nonpartisan primary that year.
So I ran again. In 2022 we raised 3.5 times more money and made headlines as Larsen’s “best funded” opponent. And despite the efforts of some within the Democratic Party establishment to shut us down, we earned broad support among local Democratic clubs and again came within 2.4% of winning the primary.
What’s changed since 2022?
While the climate crisis is accelerating, a Democratic president has issued more drilling permits to Big Oil than Trump did, including the catastrophic Willow Project in protected Alaskan wetlands.
While we ended America’s longest war by withdrawing from Afghanistan, the war machine immediately ramped back up pushing for new conflicts with Russia and China– both nuclear powers– while Democratic lawmakers like my congressman cheered them on.
As a global pandemic raged and took more than a million American lives, the case for universal healthcare was stronger than ever– and I made that case in an op-ed in 2022. But Democrats didn’t even raise the conversation despite controlling the Presidency, House, and Senate.
And during an inflation crisis fueled by corporate greed, a Democratically controlled House and Senate alongside a Democratic president allowed the child tax credit to expire– despite the program’s enormous success in lowering child poverty by half. And they did nothing to punish the corporations who are price-gouging working people at the grocery store and the gas pump.
It became clear to me that I no longer had a home in the Democratic Party– and I registered as a member of the Green Party of Washington State. Now, at the urging of my community and my party, I am once again running for Congress to defeat corporate greed and bring real working class representation to Washington D.C.
As a member of the Green Party, I will have some advantages in this new race that I didn’t have in 2020 or 2022. This time, my party will be working with me to help our campaign succeed. I’ll have the support of the party’s infrastructure, volunteer base, and strategic advisors– none of which was an option for me as a Democratic challenger.
In 2020 and 2022 we came within 2.4% of winning the primary despite everything we were up against. This time, we’ve got the wind at our backs and a clear, viable path to victory.
I want to be clear. There are only two people who can possibly win this seat in November of 2024– and it’s either going to be me, or Rick Larsen.
No Republican has any shot of winning in the 2nd district. This community cares deeply about climate action, social justice, and labor rights– all things the Republican Party is inherently opposed to. Since 1965, this district has only been represented by a Republican for 6 years.
Our progressive, working class community deserves a representative who will fight for working families and a livable future.
My platform hasn’t changed. I’m still running to pass Medicare for All. I’m still fighting for urgent climate action and a fundamental transformation of our economy with a REAL Green New Deal. And unlike my opponent, I’ve never taken a dime of corporate PAC money– and I never will.
WHEN (not if) we win this seat, we are going to make history. I will be the first member of the Green Party elected to federal office, and a genuine independent, unbought, working class voice in Congress.
The Democratic Party has left the 2nd district to the wolves of corporate greed and climate annihilation. You and I are going to change that.
