Did voting against the ‘millionaires tax’ cost these WA Democrats endorsements?

To hold onto his seat in Washington’s 26th Legislative District, Democratic Rep. Adison Richards will need to fend off a challenger from within his own party.

The Gig Harbor lawmaker has at times voted against certain Democratic priorities — including the much-debated income tax on high earners from the 2026 session, nicknamed the “millionaires tax” by advocates.

Republican Rep. Michelle Valdez (formerly Caldier), Richards’ 26th LD colleague who is not running for reelection, said such votes have put a target on his back.

“The WEA (Washington Education Association) is going after him,” Valdez said. “He is going to take some heat.”

Eric Pickens, president of the WEA Olympic UniServ Council, said the teachers union had some concerns about Richards’ stance on the income tax, which supporters say will help rebalance the state’s regressive tax code and offer tax relief for working Washingtonians.

The WEA isn’t the only labor group opting to instead back Richards’ union-educator opponent, Natalie Bornfleth. The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO (WSLC), the state’s largest labor organization representing over 650 local unions, is supporting her, too. Republican David Olson, who sits on the Peninsula School Board, also filed to run for the seat. The top two candidates in the primary proceed to the general election in November.

Asked for comment, Richards said his focus is on ensuring he can “answer to the people whose doorsteps I’ve stood on, the folks I’ve grown up with, and those I have to look in the eye at the grocery store.”

“Despite the labor council’s decision, I remain committed to protecting and expanding collective bargaining rights and protecting and expanding well-paying jobs in our state,” he said.

Multiple other House Democrats who voted against the income tax are also getting the cold shoulder from labor.

WSLC is supporting Democratic challengers over Reps. Melanie Morgan and Amy Walen, for instance. In the races of Reps. Alicia Rule and Kristine Reeves, who aren’t facing a fellow Democrat but will need to beat Republican and independent opponents, the group isn’t endorsing anyone.

Some of those incumbents told McClatchy that they believe this signifies a new era in the Legislature: Toe the party line, they say, or get primaried.

Morgan, a Spanaway Democrat, said she’s been endorsed by the labor council throughout her legislative career; not getting that support this time around was “hurtful.” She said she does the work of the people in the heavily union 29th Legislative District, noting that Tacoma is a big blue-collar town.

If this all boils down to a single vote, she said, then “how far away are we from the federal government in being a bully in how different representatives vote?”

To Reeves, WSLC’s move didn’t come as a surprise.

“Several members of the labor council made it clear, even before I voted no, that were I to vote no, it would be unlikely that I would find their support,” the Federal Way Democrat said, referring to the income tax.

It generally isn’t common for unions to throw their weight behind Democratic challengers over the incumbent, though it has happened, said Ray Shjerven, chair of the 26th Legislative District Democrats.

Reeves and Walen agreed that under past legislative leadership, it wasn’t common for such groups to snub a Democratic incumbent by either backing their intraparty challenger or declining to make any endorsement. But lately, they felt that it has become increasingly so.

House Speaker Laurie Jinkins said that these organizations make independent decisions about their endorsement processes, and that she doesn’t have control over those choices. The Tacoma lawmaker noted that some other Democrats who voted against the millionaires tax did get endorsed.

Democratic Reps. Dan Bronoske, Clyde Shavers and Joe Timmons voted “no” on the tax but still earned WSLC’s support.

Sarah Tucker, WSLC’s communications director, explained that there’s a two-thirds threshold for a candidate to earn an endorsement from WSLC delegates. She said many union members provide public services in need of stable revenue, which the group thinks the millionaires tax will help secure.

“It was important for folks in the room that we endorse people who had supported the millionaires tax,” she said, “and certainly failing to support that tax was on people’s minds when they made these endorsements.”

Still, Tucker said, that vote wasn’t the sole factor in the decision-making process. Even though no Republican joined the majority party in backing the tax, the WSLC endorsed certain labor-friendly GOP representatives, she said, like Mike Steele and Sam Low.

Tucker said she didn’t have numbers on how often the council foregrounds a challenger over the incumbent. But typically when that happens, she said, it’s a reflection of support for a union sibling or someone WSLC believes better speaks for the interests of working people.

Along with local leaders like Pierce County Executive Ryan Mello and Bremerton Mayor Greg Wheeler, the 26th Legislative District Democrats are also sticking by Richards.

Shjerven explained that the lawmaker is accurately representing a purple district as a centrist Democrat. Many in the 26th LD — Dems and Republicans alike — had concerns about the income tax on millionaires, he said.

The Washington State Democratic Party, meanwhile, does not endorse candidates but encourages its members to check their local party organizations’ endorsements, said communications director Stephen Reed.

The Democratic incumbents excluded by the WSLC have broadly said their income-tax votes reflected what their constituents wanted. They also felt the measure didn’t go far enough in granting substantive tax relief to working Washingtonians.

On Friday, Walen said that she’d just learned that Planned Parenthood is also endorsing her opponent, Jessica Forsythe. (Aside from Bronoske, that organization isn’t supporting any of the House Democrats who voted against the income tax.)

Walen said she wants what’s best for Washington families. In the Kirkland lawmaker’s view, so do her Democratic colleagues who broke with their party on the controversial measure, and they “shouldn’t be targeted in this way.”

“We should not target people for differences of opinion,” Walen said. “More voices make better policy.”

Simone Carter

The Olympian

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