Northwest now is supported in part by viewers like you.

Thank you.

Dr. Kim Schrier flipped the eighth Congressional District to the Democrats back during the 2018 Blue Wave.

The question now is, can she keep Republican challenger Matt Larkin from flipping it back?

The race for the eighth Congressional District is the discussion next on Northwest.

Now.

Analysts say Washington's eighth Congressional District is in play.

And the national PAC money that's flowing into the race between second term incumbent Kim Schrier and challenger Matt Larkin seems to bear that out.

The eighth has always been a swing district since it covers large swaths of the suburban West Side and a good chunk of the rural east side as well.

SCHRIER More than doubled Larkin's vote county in the primary.

So the question is whether there are enough independents and Republican votes out there to make it a close election.

Kim Schrier is a pediatrician from some Amish.

Representative Schrier, thanks for coming to Northwest now.

I want to start with the first question about your traveling.

And we talked a little bit about that prior to this interview.

Why do you want to do this again?

Traveling from a Western state in a perpetual election cycle of a House of Representatives member in a time of deep political division in this country.

Why is it worth it to you?

Well, Tom, and you're asking when I just got off a plane about a half hour ago and just got to my apartment.

You know, I am loving this job.

It is such an honor to represent the people in the eighth district I've met so many people who I otherwise would not have had the privilege to meet.

And I think of this role as a member of Congress in many ways, similar to being a pediatrician.

Like I said, I would go to bat for my for my constituents.

Like I've always gone to bat for my patients.

And so now on this broader scale, I'm going to bat for orchardists and hydropower engineers and going to bat for moms and dads and seniors and, you know, spent the past four years almost 100 town halls listening and learning and bringing those concerns to Congress and making sure I'm going to bat for my constituents and bringing home real results.

Let's talk about those town meetings and about some of the constituents whose you you mentioned deliberately, I'm sure, orchardists and whatnot.

I know you've done a lot of those meetings and I think suburban Democrats, you know, feel comfortable with your agenda.

But how are you doing in more rural red portions of the eighth District, which makes that district kind of interesting?

What are they telling you that they need that maybe doesn't necessarily align with the Democratic Party agenda all the time?

And I know you're way ahead in this race, but those folks need representation to you know, I I knew when I came in in 2019 that there were a couple counties in this district that really had the least faith that I would be the best possible representative for them.

And right away, I came in and said, I'm going to join the Agriculture Committee.

I am the only person from the whole Northwest on the Agriculture Committee.

And I did it specifically to be a representative tive for the farmers in this district.

And let me just tell you, I mean, I heard in your question that skepticism I have worked hand in glove with orchardists, with hay farmers going to bat for them.

I because they're my constituents, you know, that is my job.

And so I have dived in, gotten dollars for research, brought the undersecretary out here, brought the chairwoman of my subcommittee to meet with probably 150 people from the ag community, everything from orchardists to Derek Sanderson at the Washington State Department of Agriculture to people involved in food security so that they could be heard.

And so I can be their best representative as we take on this next farm bill.

And so I'll tell you, I don't know if you've noticed, but there's a couple of hay farmers on TV right now vouching for me.

And what I have heard is that they always took the other guys for granted, but I've done more for them than anybody else ever has.

So here's a little bit of a pickle.

You you have those as your constituents.

You're a pediatrician.

And we're in an era of these school shootings and mass shootings.

I do think there's a probably a fairly decent chance you may have a chance to vote on an assault weapons ban.

When you think about all those things, red, rural, eighth district, your role as a pediatrician and this national problem of mass shootings.

Where do you where do you think you would come down on an assault weapons ban?

I really voted to support an assault weapons ban, and I don't think it would surprise anybody out there that a pediatrician would believe firmly that weapons of war do not belong in our neighborhoods and near our schools.

Talk a little bit more about your legislative accomplishments.

What what in your mind when you tell people about what you've done in Washington?

What do you list off and I know there's there's probably a lot of things that you've signed on to, but maybe, you know, your top couple.

Well, I think it's important for people to know how much of a priority it is for me to work with both parties to get things done.

And so I find partners in Republican doctors and other and Republican representatives from Western states to work on things like vaccine education, to work with other moms on nutrition and the work program during the pandemic, to work with other doctors on getting a generic insulin to market and also to work with, as I mentioned, you know, Republicans from Western states on and fire resiliency on making our forests healthier so that we can avoid these catastrophic wildfires.

So I think that's really important to know is that I seek out those partnerships and find them.

And the other is that I've been a highly effective the member of Congress, just from a legislative standpoint, having 14 bills signed into law and eight of those were signed by President Trump and six by President Biden.

And then I would add to all that, because there's so much to talk about that there has been these community projects that I've brought home to the eighth District that wouldn't have happened were it not for for me and my office working hard again on behalf of the people here.

Everything from a a school based health clinic in Graham to wastewater treatment in Ellensburg to fire resiliency in Roslyn.

And, you know, that's what you get when you put a pediatrician in Congress who listens and then takes those concerns to Congress.

They bring home deliverables.

Well, I'll give you a pass on picking one or two, but that's okay, cause I know you've got a list there.

You've been criticized a little bit for an ad where you say you took on the Biden administration for a gas tax holiday.

But your legislative record, and not surprisingly, is a yes on American Rescue Infrastructure Inflation Reduction Act total about 4 to $5 trillion we're talking about in there.

And you don't have to say it.

I will.

That's a lot of dollars chasing fewer goods and services by nature.

That's going to be inflationary.

But here's here's my question for you.

What do you have in mind in terms of fiscal solutions, fiscal policy, fiscal things that you would support as a Congress person in the budget making arm of the legislature to help take some of the sharp edges off inflation?

Let me just tell you that we are all feeling inflation.

We're feeling it at the gas pump.

We're feeling at the grocery store.

We're feeling it everywhere.

And none of us are not feeling this impact.

I have been working so hard.

You know, if there were a magic bullet for inflation, it would have happened already.

But let me tell you, some of the things I've been working on.

One was indeed taking on the administration and early on, back in February, introducing legislation to suspend the gas tax, just to say, look, in the eighth District, people drive really far.

We are an agricultural district.

And and so any relief we can get from these high gas prices will help my constituents.

And that was a push on this administration.

And I will tell you that I will also work with any administration situation if it is for the benefit of the eighth District.

And so there are times when you work together and there time you have to push a little harder.

And another one of those times is to stand up for the veterans in Wenatchee who are not getting the care they need from the VA. And so, look, my job is to represent and to go to bat for the people I represent.

And part of that is, again, working with the administration, and part of it is pushing where I need to push.

I'll ask it in a different way and just reframe it.

Does this country spend too much?

You know, when I interviewed when I interviewed with the Seattle Times and when they wrote up our our interview and their editorial endorsement, they said, you know, it kind of seems like there's been a collective amnesia in our country about where we were in January of 2020 when almost nobody had gotten a vaccine.

Many kids were not yet back in the classroom.

Small businesses were just hanging on by a thread, some of them on the verge of closing theaters, gyms, restaurants.

We had people also hanging by a thread, on the verge of being evicted.

And what we did in the rescue plan was we helped Main Street stay afloat.

We help those small businesses stay afloat.

We avoided not just a recession, quite possibly a depression.

We bounced our economy back faster than any other in the developed world.

And we got the shots in arms that allowed our kids to get back in school safely.

So I it that that was a win and we can't forget the conditions we were under when we passed that bill.

I also want to say, to speak to your point that we have put in a rule this Congress that is not there with every Congress, but we put in a rule last one and this one that we would have a pay for, for everything we do.

And so you will notice, for example, in the big climate and health care bill, the one that invests in climate change action and the one that caps insulin prices for seniors and finally allows Medicare to negotiate the cost of prescription drugs that is paid for by having the wealthier, just like billion dollar corporations finally pay their fair share of taxes.

Because I pay my taxes, my constituents pay their taxes.

And I think it's time that the wealthiest in these giant corporations just pay their fair share.

So that is how I address spending.

You have a pay for and that's what we've done in these bills, just carrying on with that theme just a little bit.

You know, there's no doubt you're looking ahead here.

And if the for the Fed is forced to really kind of kick this economy in the shins, to bring on a recession, to fight inflation, any policy ideas you have in mind going forward here in the next two years, in this next cycle?

When I think about the economy, I think about those town halls and the meetings that I have with people who are telling who are telling me that this is a kitchen table issue for them.

I'm not an economist.

I'm not going to make grand prognostications.

But what I will tell you is that when you sit down at the kitchen table and you look at your expenses and you look at your groceries and you look at your gas and you look at rent, you also look at what you're paying for your prescription medications.

And that's why I voted to cap insulin prices and to let Medicare negotiate drug costs.

You also yeah, you also look at your energy bills and that is why it is time for the United States to move toward energy independence and why we put in provisions so that every individual household out there can invest in energy saving equipment, whether it's an electric cooktop or a heat pump, to save on their own energy bills.

And so sometimes this comes down to what you're feeling at the kitchen table.

And I will add to that discussion at the kitchen table that a decision about when whether under what circumstances to have a child is also a kitchen table issue.

I'm the only pro-choice woman doctor in all of Congress.

And right now I am there to hold the line and make sure that women make their own health care decisions and not the government.

And what I see happening around this country is downright scary and outrageous and dangerous.

And that is yet another reason to send Dr. Kim Schrier back to Congress to stand up for people in this district.

Last 30 seconds for a give you a fun one.

What's something people should know about Kim Schrier?

They don't.

I think it would be fun for people to know that I never played sports before, but I joined the women's congressional softball team basically out of guilt because of Donna Shalala conjoin at age 79 and Kim Schrier sure ought to be joining.

So anyway, join the softball team.

And we just played Democrats and Republican women on one team, the press on the other team and the women that congressional women won.

So that's Congress one press zero for.

All right, Dr. Kim Schrier, thanks so much for coming in Northwest now.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Good to talk with you.

Republican Matt Larkin declined to appear on Northwest now.

So joining us now is a longtime member of the Northwest now election team, PLU professor Michael La Time.

Michael, welcome to the Northwest now.

Great to have a member of our election team here on election night.

Provide some commentary for us.

This is the eighth Congressional District race that we're taking a look at in this program.

Why is the eight so important from a balance of power perspective?

I mean, this race is being watched nationally.

Yeah, well, you know, the Democrats have an uphill battle in the House, and this is seen as one of the key races in the country.

So if you look at 538, the eighth is listed as one of the most competitive House districts.

The Cook Political Report has it as one of 22 toss up seats.

And we're really talking about a small margin of error for Democrats if they want to hold on to the House.

And so it's being seen as, you know, one of these one of these key races that's going to determine the balance of power in Washington, D.C..

The eighth is also interesting, just as it in and of itself is a district, because it's it's it's kind of built as a swing district in a lot of ways.

Talk about some of those unique qualities.

Give us a feel for the variety of constituencies within that district and how that leads to it being in play.

Yeah, you know, the eighth is a really interesting district.

So if you look at the eighth, the eighth includes King Pierce, Snohomish as well as Ashland and Catena's counties.

And in many ways, if you just look at the averages on a lot of demographic categories, the eighth looks pretty similar to the rest of the state.

So, for example, 68% of your residents identify as white.

That is pretty consistent with other districts in the state.

The median household income is about 20% higher than average in the state.

Education is also right in line with state numbers, with 36% having a bachelor's degree.

And it would be easy to look at those numbers and think this looks pretty similar to the rest of the state, but that doesn't account for the fact that there's a pretty significant rural urban divide in that area and in the liberal pockets of the district.

It's becoming more liberal in the conservative parts of that district, it's becoming more conservative.

So it's a really interesting it's a really interesting dynamic.

About 57% of voters in the district are in King County, but there's also about 7000 square miles of rural area in the district as well.

So it's a really interesting microcosm of of the state, which is often in tension between rural communities and more populous.

Yeah.

Who really matters in the eighth district?

Could Kim Schrier win just by owning suburban progressives on the East Side, or do you need the read The Geographic area of the red part of that district going into kids to ask county in some of those places?

Is that essential?

Is that is that essential for a pathway to victory or not necessarily?

I don't think you can strike out in those areas entirely.

So certainly the key is going to be to get out Democratic voters in those, you know, populous urban areas.

But you can't ignore you can't ignore the rural areas as well.

The more rural areas, you're going to need some support.

So.

So you've seen her, you know, run ads about standing up to the Biden administration, even though, you know, she has she has a voting record that's, you know, 100% in line with the Biden administration.

It's still important for her to demonstrate that she is independent.

She's also been using the campaign to highlight instances in which she is engaged in bipartisanship.

Right.

So these are efforts to so that show that she's not she's not too liberal for perhaps some of those more conservative voters in more rural parts of the district to support.

And we in our discussion, Matt Larkin, didn't want to appear on this program, but my discussion with him, she made a point that, you know, she's actively sought out the agriculture Committee to engage in that and to provide representation to those folks, even though they aren't necessarily aligned with her on a lot of other issues.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

And that's a that's a that's a good a good strategy to demonstrate that she can both work within progressive circles, but also she cares about the interests of more rural parts of her district as well.

Kym's position as a pediatrician and a health care provider puts her in a little bit of a unique position on certain issues.

One of them, of course, is abortion.

Her position on that is no secret.

In the past, Larkin has talked about no exception for rape or incest when it comes to abortion.

And I'm wondering, even in red Washington state, is that too extreme, even for the red portions of Washington State?

Yeah, you know, I think that, you know, at least if you look at if you look at polling data for for even even Republicans, there is there's at least a small amount of opposition to rape, rape and incest being included in in abortion bans.

And it's those are unpopular positions with independent voters in particular.

So if if Lakin is going to appeal to independent voters, the more that the the Dobbs decision, the more that abortion is within the conversation, that might that might hurt his chances.

Yeah, it augurs.

And you've seen a lot of it not necessarily in this race, but around the country.

A lot of Trumpist Republicans starting to move to the middle.

There's been a lot of documentation of that.

It's been very interesting to watch.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think that, you know, even among even among conservatives, there is a rejection of, you know, sort of across the board bans.

And so the types of positions that Republican candidates had to stake stake out in primaries are now kind of putting them in vulnerable positions as they move into general elections where they're trying to appeal to a wider electorate, which circles back to this, I think, rather cynical strategy that the National Democratic Party engaged in, which is trying to promote actually help Trumpist Republicans and help extreme right wingers win elections so they could face them in the general.

Yeah, that's backfired than on them a little bit, though, hasn't it?

Yeah.

You know, I would be wary of that.

I think if there's anything that 2016 shows as it's that I'm trying to predict, the outcome can be can be tricky business.

And so, you know, I would be careful of promoting dangerous candidates in any part of of the country, assuming that they're not going to have success in the general election.

A number of different things, unpredictable things can happen in a general election campaign.

And and that could lead to some pretty bad outcomes.

Yeah.

Because it can unleash some of the, the darker angels in the electorate that maybe aren't front and center, but if given the chance, who knows?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Absolutely.

One of the things I think folks know this, but I want to reiterate it, you also one of the areas of study is the relationship of the media to politics and how those interface.

Once again, Matt Larkin had no interest in in coming on this program.

That's fine.

I don't suggest that the you know, the seat in the eighth Congressional District runs to the northwest now.

But I will say, is it becoming is that a trend?

Is it becoming less necessary for the mainstream media to carry a message?

Can you do it yourself, basically by creating your own media and your social media campaigns and and kind of having a do it yourself thing or, you know, you still need editorial, you still need television commercials, you still need big budgets.

Where are we right now?

Because I do sense a change, but I don't know where we are.

Well, it depends on who you are as a candidate.

So I think that for somebody like Larkin, it would have made sense to come on this program.

It would make sense to take advantage of any media opportunities that are available to you because the name recognition isn't quite as high as some other candidates.

And so one of the things that's important is that voters get to know who you are.

They know who it is that they're voting for, that can only happen if you make yourself visible.

If you're somebody who has lots of name recognition, you can go it on your own a little bit more.

You can you can take you can take advantage of only media opportunities that seem to be in more friendly news outlets.

You can cherry pick a little bit.

Yeah, yeah, you can do a little bit more cherry picking if you're somebody who has lots of name recognition.

But I think that that's a little bit more of a risky strategy if people don't already know who you are.

I mean, to a certain extent, these races have become pretty nationalized.

I mean, they do.

Yes, it does.

It does matter in terms of, you know, what is going to happen at the there's so much national balance of power, so much national money pouring in for those reasons.

Yeah.

So you're going to get die hard Democrats.

Die hard Republicans who are going to turn out and vote for the D or the R on the ballot.

But there's there's folks who do need to know who you are and need to understand who it is that they're voting for, and especially if you're a challenger in these races.

So I think that I think local media is still really important and should be a tool that some of these campaigns take advantage of more.

And in terms of we talked about the editorial side like Northwest now, but there's also the the the inventory on the avails for television commercials that drive everybody crazy because they've taken every availability, which is great for the television industry, but not so great for the viewer.

Do you think that's a trend that's going to change or no?

Television, broadcast television and getting on cable and getting on those those television commercials on is still going to be important if not crucial in the foreseeable future.

It will still happen.

It is still going to happen in 2020.

There was more television advertisements then in 2016 and 2012.

And and so we don't see campaigns moving away from that.

And even though there are there's online advertisements, there's different ways that you can advertise and than in the past.

Broadcast media is still the number one choice for these campaigns when they're choosing to advertise to the electorate.

So I don't see that going away anytime soon.

I mean, there's different debates within political science about, you know, the degree of effectiveness of of these ads.

And so so there's a question as to whether they change voter behavior.

But campaigns believe that they're important and they're going to keep relying on them moving forward.

Last 30 seconds.

And I love that comment because people in surveys will always tell you, I hate the negative ads.

Yeah, but then you do the attitude research and some of the other research follow up.

They work.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

We, I talked about this with my students or I don't think they're going to go anywhere anytime soon.

And there's, there's a debate about whether you can even learn more from negative ads and you can from positive ads, you know, showing people walking around with their dog or whatever.

Yes.

The classic cliche of intense walking, walking with the dog and shaking hands with veterans and exact constituencies.

All right, Michael, our time.

Thanks so much for coming in Northwest.

Now we look forward to having you on election night.

All right.

Happy to be here.

The Democrats hold a razor thin margin in the House of Representatives.

The bottom line, this race in the eighth Congressional District may prove pivotal.

I hope this program got you thinking and talking about it to watch this program again or to share it with others.

Northwest now can be found on the web at KB Etsy dot org and be sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter at Northwest.

Now a streamable podcast of this program is available under the Northwest Now tab at KBTC dot org and on Apple Podcasts by searching Northwest.

Now that's going to do it for this edition of Northwest.

Now and Till Next Time, I'm Tom Layson.

Thanks for watching.