Liberal Democrats run WA state politics. Republicans have only themselves to blame | Opinion

Liberal activists rejoicing over victories in the Washington state legislature, including in the just concluded 2023 session — on issues from the capital gains tax to gun regulations, climate protection, criminal justice reforms and more — have one man to thank: Donald J. Trump.

Trump’s transformation of the national GOP has crippled Washington state Republicans and rendered them incapable of serving as an effective check on the ambitions of liberal Democrats.

Since the Great Depression, Washington has always leaned toward the Democrats (sometimes more than leaned). But Republicans were always a credible opposition, capable of winning legislative majorities and electing statewide officials.

When I was a member of the state House in the early 1990s, Republicans held a majority in the state Senate. When I was Republican State Party Chairman in the early 2000s, Republicans at various points held a one-seat majority in the House, and then a one-seat majority in the Senate. As late as 2015, Republicans had a one-seat majority in the Senate and were within two seats of the majority in the House.

Recognizing that they always faced the potential loss of competitive suburban seats, Democratic leaders such as former House Speaker Frank Chopp and House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan consistently resisted calls to pass an aggressive liberal agenda, often enraging their party’s activists.

Then came Trump.

Democrats made major gains in the 2018 Trump mid-term election, winning seats that Republicans have been unable to recover. Democrats now enjoy a nine-seat majority in the Senate and an 18-seat majority in the House. Significantly, Republicans have lost all their seats in the King County suburbs. The math just isn’t there for Republicans to achieve majorities without winning a few seats in King County, which seems virtually impossible now.

The 2022 election solidified this reality. Democrats were facing a difficult cycle, with an unpopular President in a midterm election. Republicans recruited numerous high-quality candidates to run in suburban districts they held before Trump, and made zero progress. In fact, they lost a net of one seat in the House and one in the Senate.

Freed from the threat of losing their majorities, since the 2016 election Democrats have adopted a wish list of liberal priorities. They passed a capital gains tax and two new payroll taxes to fund family and medical leave and long-term care. They passed clean fuel standards for automobiles, and a cap and trade program to tax carbon emissions. They also adopted sweeping changes to police practices and passed some of the toughest gun control laws in America, including banning assault rifles. Although they failed to reach a final deal on a bill that would have addressed the state Supreme Court’s 2021 Blake decision and the short-term legislation that followed, every Democrat did vote to dramatically reduce penalties for drug possession.

Nothing is more indicative of this new fearlessness than the Democrats’ attitudes toward Tim Eyman initiatives. In the past, Democratic majorities, fearful of a political backlash, passed into law Eyman initiatives on car tabs and property taxes approved by voters but later thrown out in court. This year they went in the opposite direction, repealing Eyman’s initiative on advisory votes for tax and fee increases and nearly repealing his 1% property tax cap initiative.

No matter how you feel about these Democratic policies, (and there are some I support) the point is this: In the not-so-distant past Republicans would be blasting Democrats for raising taxes, raising gas prices and energy costs, and being soft on drugs and crime — and it would have worked. Democrats would have lost elections. But now, all Democrats have to say to win in the suburbs is “Trump,” “abortion” and “January 6th.” No matter what the Democrats do in Olympia, by allowing Donald Trump and other extremists to define them, the GOP has disqualified itself from holding power anywhere on the West Coast.

Perhaps the time will come when Democrats go too far left, and the national Republican brand recovers a bit. Maybe someday serious people will see the need for some alternative to our two-party duopoly.

But for the foreseeable future, in Washington state, America’s two-party system has given us a one-party liberal government — and Republicans have only themselves to blame.

Chris Vance is a former Republican state legislator, King County Council member and State Party Chairman who left the GOP in 2017 and is now a member of the moderate Forward Party.