Fed up with MAGA and socialists, why some Central WA voters back independents
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Some Central Washington voters frustrated with both parties are backing independents.
- Independents and third-parties rarely have any traction in conservative Central WA.
- Candidates include Devin Pooré, Jacek Kóbiesa, Favian Valencia and Zac Rossi
Skye White doesn’t want her member of Congress rubber-stamping anything from either of the two mainstream political parties.
“I think it’s not good for Central Washington,” said White, 49, of Richland. “We’re diverse and nobody gets represented when people do that.”
A former Democratic Party precinct officer who recently declined to renew her membership, White says she’s fed up with her former party and the broader debate within bipartisan politics.
She also doesn’t believe a Democrat can win in Washington’s 4th Congressional District — the most conservative district of its kind in the Evergreen State. So she’s chosen to throw her weight behind an independent to “get the best out of CD-04.”
“I’ll probably vote for Devin (Pooré),” said the telecommunications worker. “A lot of people will tell you a third-party vote is a lost vote, but I think the more people that vote third party makes that less of a thing. I think you either have to stick to your two-party system or you have to vote third party to make the point.”
With Aug. 4 primary election ballots due to arrive in voter mailboxes shortly after July 17, the 11 candidates running to succeed U.S. Rep Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, are wrapping up their pitches to voters before the field is whittled down to the two who will appear in the Nov. 3 general election.
But Central Washington’s moderates, independents and third-party supporters see an opportunity this cycle to make an impression with a voting base that has become increasingly more dissatisfied and checked out of partisan politics and with President Trump’s MAGA sphere of influence.
Though these dissatisfied voters, and even the candidates they’re supporting, admit a third-party win is a long shot, they’re carrying forward hope that they’ll build momentum in the coming years.
Nearly half of voters nationwide already identify as “independent,” and public support for a third U.S. political party remains historically high, acccording to Gallup polling.
The 4th district stretches from the U.S.-Canada border down to Oregon. It encompasses the Tri-Cities, Yakima, the Yakama Indian Reservation, Moses Lake, East Wenatchee, Omak and Goldendale.
But it has never elected a representative who hasn’t affiliated with either the Republican or Democratic parties. The last Democrat to win the seat was Jay Inslee more than 30 years ago, though he served just one term before losing re-election in 1994.
In the 2024 presidential election, Trump won the district over former Vice President Kamala Harris by nearly 21 percentage points.
An insurgent Cascade Party?
Devin Pooré, a Central Washington congressional candidate running as a member of the Cascade Party, stopped by the Richland Community Center on July 1 for a Tri-Cities pit stop and stump.
He was joined by party Chair Krist Novoselić, the former Nirvana bassist turned political reformer and activist.
White called Pooré’s campaign “refreshing” and brought along a friend to the event, which took place during a U.S. World Cup match and was meagerly attended. Still, White and five other attendees had plenty of time to ask questions and prod the candidate on his anti-corruption platform, health care concerns and how best to improve Central Washington’s economy.
Novoselić said Pooré, 31, of East Wenatchee, is “very reformed minded,” though he says there’s room for disagreement within their party.
“Devin really sees that there’s structural things — the way campaign finance works and how it advantages insiders. It can be corrupt,” Novoselić said. “Republicans and Democrats, you look at their leadership — they’re dinosaurs, they’ve been there forever. The idea is to get in there and shake things up structurally.”
Novoselić, who ran for president under the Cascade ticket in 2024, admits he’s trying to shake off the “moderate” label that has been affixed to his two-year-old political project.
The “Smells Like Teen Spirit” star originally came into the Democratic Party in the aughts, and even served as chair of the Wahkiakum County Democrats. But he ditched the party after Obama’s inauguration and became an independent.
Cascade Party’s role is greater than its center-style politics, Novoselić says — they’re trying to “distill the issues,” both new and old, to busy voters.
“I’m just not going to say that we’re a centrist party, or say that we’re a moderate party, because it just sounds so lame,” Novoselić said, though he did compare their efforts to those of the late U.S. Sen. Dan Evans, a Republican from Washington, or those “who built Washington state.”
Washington’s political system is one of the most friendly to independent and third-party office seekers in the nation. It’s the type that can help nurture political parties like Cascade to gain some traction.
Its jungle primary system allows the top two candidates who receive the most votes to advance to the general election, regardless of political affiliation. The state’s rules on political party organizing also allowed eight third-party presidential tickets to get on 2024 ballots —from Libertarians to the Socialists.
Who is running for WA 04?
Pooré isn’t the only independent or third-party candidate running in Central Washington.
He’s one of four candidates who are vying to replace Newhouse. The others include Jacek “Jack” Kóbiesa of Pasco, Favian Valencia of Yakima and Zac Rossi of West Richland.
Once scarce in Central Washington politics, candidates bucking the two party tents are more regularly showing up on the ballot. But without substantial name recognition or a comprehensive fundraising machine, they face a gigantic uphill battle.
Over the last 10 years, independents or third-party candidates vying for Washington’s 4th Congressional District have failed to collectively crest above 4.5% of all primary voter support here. Candidates say while they get lots of vocal support on the campaign trail, that rarely translates into fundraising dollars or votes.
Kóbiesa, 61, of Pasco, previously ran for this seat in 2022. He garnered just 500 votes in the jungle primary — fewer than half a percentage point — and failed to make it through to the general. He planned to run in 2024, but was asked to bow out by the Republicans, the party he previously affiliated with.
“I’m running because I was born in socialism and communism. I see what it does and I see the same kind of stuff that is happening in the United States,” said Kóbiesa, born in Poland and who came to the U.S. with his family in the 1980s. “Instead of reinforcing ourselves as a first-world country, we’ve started to drift toward that third-world country politics, which is eventually going to put the country on a completely wrong path.”
Democratic socialism's growing popularity in big cities and success within in the Democratic Party are aspects worrying independents and moderates alike. Last year, democratic socialists won mayoral seats in Seattle and New York, and they’re testing their viability in swing states like Wisconsin.
Novoselić — who characterized Washington’s Legislature “activist” —said socialists are on a “massive roll right now.” He pointed to a deep blue congressional district in Colorado, where voters unseated their long-standing representative for a more progressive candidate.
If elected, Kóbiesa said he would focus on establishing English as the national language to “unify” the country. He also wants to reform what he sees as “judicial oppression” and remove judges from their positions. A mechanical engineer by trade, Kóbiesa would also promote nuclear energy in Central Washington and work to create more energy jobs in the region.
With Newhouse set to retire after serving six terms in Congress, Kóbiesa said he believes an independent has a real shot at winning this November.
“I think that both of those brands are tainted,” he said of the Democrats and Republicans, which he compared to Russia and Ukraine. “What do they do? They fight. They hate each other and they fight.”
Tax breaks and reforms
Valencia, 43, is a 15-year civil rights attorney from Yakima, the son of migrant farmworkers who settled in the valley. His family also opened a business together three years ago, Amá Café.
He’s an independent who previously supported Trump and chose to jump in the race after feeling he couldn’t align with any of the candidates.
He says Newhouse doesn’t get “enough credit” on local issues affecting the Yakima Valley, including on water and agriculture matters. But he feels the U.S. should move toward a single-payer universal health care system and wants to reinstate COVID-era Obamacare subsidies.
“My intention is to put forth a bill and find support for it, bipartisan, for no more federal taxes (on individuals) that makes less than $60,000,” and to eliminate federal tax filings for them, he said. “The goal with that is it will leave more money in people’s pockets, so it’s a direct way to allow relief for inflation and the tariff effects we’re seeing.”
Valencia says that nationwide proposal would diminish tax revenues 3%, yet save the IRS about $4 billion annually in processing and operational costs.
“My whole idea running as an independent is we need to find common ground as a country,” he said. “There are some Democrat ideas I like, and there are some Republican ideas that I like. But the problem is nobody’s walking the walk.”
He also stands for a “safe and secure border,” and is in favor of reforming immigration enforcement back to focus on cartels and criminals. Valencia, who considered himself a Democrat until about five years ago, is also concerned that the party is becoming too extreme. These days, he says he aligns more with businessman Andrew Yang’s Forward Party.
“I’m running this race to win it, and I’m conscious this is an uphill battle and I could lose,” he said.
Rossi is using his candidacy as a de facto advertisement to bring attention to the national debt crisis. “Do not waste your vote on me,” he writes on his campaign website. Rossi is still calling for health care efficiencies, an end to daylight saving time, more federal cuts and “realistic tax reform.”
.png "download (19).png")
Pooré’s campaign is focused on ending “legalized corruption” — and a politics he says has short-changed working class people for decades — while aiming to deliver a “new deal” of investments for Central Washington’s struggling farmers.
He’s in favor of publicly funding elections, establishing congressional term limits and banning congressional stock trade. He’s also in favor of restoring funding to Medicaid that was cut under the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, and protecting public lands from sales or transfers.
“Our country is at a moment in its history where it’s very important that we right the ship a little bit,” he said. “We’ve got to start to get back on course, and it’s going to take time and it’s not going to be easy.”
He believes reliable Republican voters who have some skepticism of Trump and will consider backing an independent, though he says shifting them blue would be next to impossible.
Republicans running in the district includes Amanda McKinney of Yakima, Jerrod Sessler of Prosser, Matt Boehnke of Kennewick, John Hughs of Lind, Elpidia Saavedra of Toppenish and Ken Vaz of Seattle.
John Duresky of West Richland is the only Democrat running in the race.
The 2026 midterm election cycle includes the Aug. 4 top-two primary and Nov. 3 general election.
