WA Democrats chart path to more power in 2026 at Spokane convention

SPOKANE - For Washington Democrats, it's been a teeth-grinding, demoralizing 18 months as they have watched President Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress enact policies they vehemently oppose.

At a state party convention over the weekend, Democrats looked ahead with zeal to midterm elections that could let them take back some power on a national level - and further expand their already dominant position here from the Legislature to the state Supreme Court.

U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Seattle, fired up hundreds of delegates at a Saturday night dinner, predicting Democrats would win control of the House of Representatives.

"We'll have a House that stands up to this corrupt president," Jayapal said. If Democrats do take back the House, Jayapal noted she'll chair the immigration subcommittee and vowed to haul Trump administration figures including Kristi Noem and Dan Bovino in front of the panel and "hold them accountable."

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin, of Minnesota, also thundered against Trump and Republicans at the Saturday dinner.

"They're throwing parties at Mar-a-Lago. They're covering up the Epstein files. They tore down the East Wing to build, as we now know, a taxpayer-funded ballroom for billionaires. They used our tax dollars just last week to put a cage match on the lawn of the White House."

Attorney General Nick Brown, who has sued the Trump administration 60 times, mocked the president and his allies for seeking to stamp his image on money and public buildings.

"If you've been to D.C. in the last year, you see portraits of the president like he's a North Korean dictator. The reason he is doing that now is because no one will honor him when he is gone," Brown said, speaking to a veteran's caucus.

A day earlier, at a Juneteenth commemoration, Brown blasted the Trump administration as "led by fear and racism and fascism" and reliant on "white nationalism."

Brown was the highest-ranking state Democrat in attendance, as Gov. Bob Ferguson skipped the event, saying in a recorded video that he was attending his daughter's softball tournament.

Despite some rifts among Democrats nationally, the weekend gathering was largely conflict free, though delegates were sharply divided Sunday on a proposed resolution condemning U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, D-Washougal, for voting earlier this year to pass a Republican bill banning schools from teaching "concepts related to gender ideology."

Her vote was portrayed as abetting "genocide" against transgender people by supporters of the resolution. But opponents countered that Democrats needed to support Gluesenkamp Perez in the midterms as she navigates the difficult politics of her Republican-leaning district. The resolution narrowly failed, 383-377.

Democrats were shellacked nationally in 2024, but Washington state bucked the trend - including by reelecting Gluesenkamp Perez - extending the party's winning streak. Democrats now control every statewide elected office and maintain solid majorities in the Legislature.

Shasti Conrad, the state party chair, said Democrats are looking to build on those advantages this fall.

It's possible the party could get a two-thirds supermajority in the Legislature, allowing Democrats to join the national fight over partisan gerrymandering and pursue changes and try to redraw the state's congressional maps to give Democrats an even more lopsided advantage. Washington's current map favors Democrats 8-2.

If Democrats achieve a supermajority, Ferguson has pledged to lead a redistricting effort requiring a constitutional amendment, joining Democratic states like California in responding to Republican states that have redrawn their maps this year.

"I think it's on the table, and you know I keep telling our folks that our focus needs to be on organizing and doing the work to flip seats," Conrad told reporters. She said Democrats need to flip seven seats in the state House and three in the Senate.

Conrad also pointed to the nominally nonpartisan races for state Supreme Court as a priority this fall.

Five of the court's nine seats are on the ballot, and Republicans and Democrats both are backing candidates partly with an eye to a looming lawsuit seeking to overturn the state's new income tax on households earning more than $1 million.

"That is probably one of our number one pieces of work this year," she said, pointing to "Democratic-aligned" candidates for the court. Republicans, she said, are backing other contenders in an effort to secure a conservative court majority.

At least one state Supreme Court candidate courted delegates at the convention. King County Superior Court Judge Jaime Hawk touted her credentials as a former ACLU attorney and highlighted endorsements from Democratic elected leaders and unions.

Democrats on Sunday also adopted a detailed, 76-page platform that acknowledged voter frustration with the party, including among people who see little difference between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to standing up for working people over powerful monied interests.

"We acknowledge that the Democratic Party must become the party of the people, the party of reform," the platform says in an introduction. It says the Democrats must "elect leaders of unquestioned integrity who serve the people rather than wealthy interests or corporations."

The platform supports ending the influence of big money in politics, protecting transgender people from discrimination, abolishing ICE and closing all immigrant detention centers in Washington.

Democrats also passed a platform plank backing reparations for "descendants of victims of United States chattel slavery, a measure strongly backed by Black legislators and activists.

"We're about to make history," said Jesse Wineberry, a former state legislator who helped champion the provision, and said it was believed to be the first of its type adopted by a state party.

While most of the platform had been constructed before the convention in hundreds of hours of committee work, delegates approved a couple of amendments Sunday.

One cemented firm opposition to trying juveniles as adults under any circumstances, replacing platform language that had favored some exceptions. Another stated that higher education should be made "equally available for all," removing a caveat that it should be "on the basis of merit."

Responding to the Trump administration's assault on diversity, equity and inclusion programs was a thread that ran through the Democrats' gathering.

"Before Trump got in office we know we made strides towards inclusion. Now voting rights have been rolled back. Everything we fought for, it seems like we took not just one step back, but several steps back, and we've got to keep fighting," said Azziem Underwood, a delegate from the Renton area, who received an award as a longtime Black leader in the party.

Underwood was thankful for one thing: "Presidencies are temporary, especially in America."

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This story was originally published June 22, 2026 at 6:34 AM.