by Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard
June 23, 2026
As the Democratic Party’s national leaders engaged in public soul-searching after a disastrous 2024 election cycle, their counterparts in Washington state celebrated a banner year.
Democrats swept all statewide executive posts, gained seats in the Legislature and defeated conservative-backed ballot measures. They followed up in 2025 with Democratic candidates capturing every special election for a legislative seat.
It should come as no surprise that when nearly 900 Democrats attended the state party convention in Spokane last weekend, they had a shared vision of turning Washington bluer, and reclaiming control of Congress and the White House from Republicans.
Shasti Conrad, the party chair and a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee, contended, as she has since 2024, that Democrats have the right message and positions. They just need to communicate the party’s agenda better to win over more voters, Conrad said.
“What we’re celebrating is not automatic,” she told convention attendees Saturday night. “We’re showing the country what leading with values looks like.”
Here are 4 takeaways from the event.
Delivering for Democrats
Successful campaigns depend heavily on people who knock on doors, make phone calls and carry out other tasks to spread a candidate’s message.
Delegates arrived committed to doing the hard work. They came to approve the platform that will serve as the party’s value statement heading into the August primary and then November’s general election. And to be inspired.
Enter U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal of Seattle, arguably the most progressive member of Washington’s congressional delegation.
“We show up. We don’t agonize, we organize,” she proclaimed at a Saturday night event. “We’re fighting for the soul of our nation. We are building the political muscle all the way to take back the White House in 2028.”
Pragmatic edges out progressive in the 3rd CD
When U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez captured the 3rd Congressional District seat for Democrats in southwest Washington in 2022, it was an upset of national proportions. She has frustrated many in her party since then with her periodic votes for Republican bills.
She angered quite a few by voting for H.R. 2616, which would ban public schools from using federal funds to teach concepts related to gender ideology and require parental consent before changing an elementary or middle school student’s gender on school forms. President Donald Trump is prepped to sign it if it ever arrives.
Progressives on Sunday pushed a resolution condemning Perez for her position on the bill. It says the legislation is an attempt to erase transgender people from spheres of society and would contribute to the “genocide” of trans children. Gluesenkamp Perez’s support for it “aided and abetted and effectuated this genocide. Condemn her vote,” Guinevere Dinsmore, the resolution’s author, urged delegates.
Terri Niles said don’t do that. She opposed the congresswoman’s vote but said passing the resolution “doesn’t help hold a critical seat” in a Republican-leaning district. To be progressive means to pursue progress, and in that district, “progress comes from electing a Democrat that can actually win.”
“The alternative is not a more progressive Democrat,” Niles said. “The alternative is a Republican taking this seat.”
Delegates rejected the resolution on a 383-377 vote.
Reykdal unleashed
This convention brought the brimstone out of Chris Reykdal, Washington’s superintendent of public instruction.
In roughly 12 minutes on Saturday night, he delivered verbal jabs at Democratic elected officials who he says talk a good progressive talk but don’t walk the progressive walk.
“You cannot say you’re for early learning and then cut transitional kindergarten. You cannot do that. You cannot say you’re for higher education and cut our colleges and universities. You can’t do it,” he said in reference to budget cuts made by the Democratic-led Legislature and Gov. Bob Ferguson, a Democrat.
If a Democratic officeholder’s statements don’t match their actions, it’s okay to replace them with another progressive, he said.
“This party is not about getting elected. We are not here to occupy seats for our ascensions. We are here in service,” he said. “Withhold every fricking dollar you have from a Democrat until they make a pledge to uphold the entire state party platform.”
Pellicciotti plays judicial cheerleader
State Treasurer Mike Pellicciotti veered into a hot race for state Supreme Court in his speech Saturday night.
He did it by leading a chant for Jaime Hawk, a King County Superior Court judge and his longtime partner, one of two candidates with big-name Democratic backers.
Hawk, who was at the convention, is competing with state appeals court Judge Mike Diaz, and Mason County Superior Court Judge David Stevens to succeed outgoing Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis.
Hawk’s endorsements include Ferguson and current Justice G. Helen Whitener. Diaz has support from Montoya-Lewis, and Democratic Attorney General Nick Brown and three former Democratic governors: Jay Inslee, Christine Gregoire and Gary Locke.
Judicial candidates generally like to avoid getting associated too closely with a political party, especially when the court could decide the legality of something like the fate of an income tax crafted by Ferguson and Democratic lawmakers.
No one stopped Pellicciotti as he urged half the room to yell “Judge” and the other half “Hawk.”
Editor’s note: This story was updated to note Pellicciotti’s relationship with Hawk and to clarify details about the provisions in H.R. 2616.
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