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Wilcox: “Swing district polling that gives me confidence”

Rep. JT Wilcox is the House Republican Minority Leader. He sent out this dispatch to stakeholders watching the 2018 legislative elections. It is posted here with permission.

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Dear friends,

I wanted to give you a brief update from the inside of the House Republican re-election efforts.

Recruitment is always the key for House Republicans.  Because we know that Washington leans blue, our goal is always to recruit candidates who have an independent identity in their districts that transcends labels and I believe we succeeded in doing that.  Our candidates, who are mostly, but not all filed to date, have deep roots.  In terms of longevity, I know of at least one whose family has been in his home town for over 120 years.  All the others have served their community in profound ways including many who have served in the military.  We are working on a very good portfolio of candidate photos and bios that I will share with all of you as soon as possible.

Both House Caucuses have weaknesses in swing districts.  I know that the democrats will base their campaigns on Trump, who is unpopular in Puget Sound districts.  Republicans can answer, and answer very effectively that we are the caucus that features the widest range of opinions in the legislature and makes room for every member to effectively represent their district rather than an exclusive ideology.

I have seen some very recent Puget Sound area swing district polling that gives me confidence that this election will not be decided based on party preference or a national wave, and our candidates have been selected to reflect the values of their districts to maximize the effectiveness of our independent approach.

As many of you know, I believe in expanding the areas where we confront the other side and Jim Walsh proved that there is a different route to the majority so the WA Coast is now on most lists of swing districts and we will be competing there.  I’m confident in our Eastern Washington incumbents and feeling really good about the strong candidates for those open seats.  We will also fight hard for our incumbents in the Puget Sound area and have exceptionally strong challengers in LD 28 and 44.

I’m sure that our members are contacting you regarding fundraising.  We know that this is a challenging year and are taking no campaign lightly.  I believe very strongly that House Republicans represent the broadest possible cross-section of opinions and are ready to be partners with our traditional friends and with the most unexpected new allies as well.  I hope that you will recognize this with strong financial support of our candidates and our caucus PACs at HROC and the Reagan Fund.

Our members and many of our challenger candidates are listed at https://hroc.us/

Most have W-9’s posted along with links to their campaign websites and HROC contributions can be processed on this site as well.

JT Wilcox
Washington State House Minority Leader
2nd Legislative District


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