… Kamau Chege, executive director of the progressive Washington Community Alliance, an organization with local members including the Hispanic Business Professional Association and Spokane Community Against Racism, agrees that other issues on the ballot could heavily influence the congressional election.
“If this is a year with depressed progressive turnout and higher turnout in Trump’s base, you can imagine an even more conservative person being elected from the 5th Congressional District,” Chege said. “But because it’s such an odd election, where the leading Republican candidate is indicted on multiple criminal charges, you could also see how Republican turnout craters.”
Chege disagrees, however, that Democrats’ best chance is with a centrist candidate.
“I think the ability for progressive challengers in Spokane to run as a slate on common sense progressive solutions and to have a widespread ground game was the difference between 2023 and 2022,” Chege said, comparing local progressive victories last year to Natasha Hill’s loss to McMorris Rodgers the year prior…
