Rep. Dan Newhouse Survives Trump-Backed Primary Challenge

Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Wash.) questions Matt Albence, who was then-acting director of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement, during a hearing in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July 25, 2019. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Republican Rep. Dan Newhouse has survived a primary challenge in Washington state’s Fourth Congressional District against opponents backed by former President Donald Trump.

Newhouse, a former state legislator and state cabinet member who voted to impeach Trump in 2021, has represented the district—which runs through the middle of the state—since 2015. He finished second in the nonpartisan blanket primary, with 24.5 percent of the vote, behind Trump-endorsed Republican candidate and former NASCAR driver Jerrod Sessler, who took 31.5 percent. The race was called by The Associated Press on Aug. 7 at 6:49 p.m. PST.

“The vast majority of this district who know Dan Newhouse well voted to end his congressional career, and unlike in 2022, Republicans succeeded in unifying behind a single campaign that stands for secure borders, traditional constitutional values, and a robust America First agenda,” Sessler’s campaign wrote in a statement to The Epoch Times. He accused Newhouse of voting “for warrantless surveillance of U.S. citizens, for the vaccine tracking database, for amnesty for illegal aliens, [and] for a red flag law to seize firearms without due process.”

Newhouse will face Sessler in the general election, making for a Republican versus Republican matchup. The state uses a nonpartisan blanket primary system in which all candidates appear on the same ballot, and the top two candidates advance to the general election, regardless of their party affiliation. The district is heavily Republican, with a Cook Partisan Voting Index score of R+11, and another Trump-endorsed candidate, nurse Tiffany Smiley, finished third, with 19.2 percent of the vote.

Even though AP called the race on Aug. 7, Sessler’s and Trump’s campaigns touted Sessler’s victory ahead of time, with Trump suggesting that his endorsement was decisive.

In 2022, Trump used his endorsement to unseat another Washington state Republican, Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, in the adjacent Third District, after she voted to impeach him in 2021 following the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol breach.

Trump also endorsed Newhouse’s opponent in 2022, though Newhouse survived a primary challenge and faced a Democrat in the general election, which he won with 66.5 percent of the vote.

Newhouse’s campaign did not respond to a request for comment by publication time.