♪♪ Alex: My family arrived here in the first wagon train.

I got active in government because I wanted to make my state a better place.

I'm proud to be a moderate Republican.

My family are moderate Republicans.

I'm Pro Choice, Pro Gay Rights, and then I'm also very fiscally conservative.

If you're a Republican who is Pro Choice or centrist on issues, we're probably the office that helped you.

♪♪ Jonathan: Washington is viewed as a blue state because we traditionally vote for Democrats for president and we've had the longest streak of Democratic governors in the country.

But, Washington is really a socially liberal and fiscally moderate, to easily, conservative state.

It's classically western, with some libertarian streak, in a progressive big city.

It's legalized marijuana, one of the first states in the country to legalize gay marriage at the polls.

So it's a unique state.

We do want to talk about this transportation package.

We do want to point out that you voted against it.

The legislature is trending Republican and has for the last several years.

My goal in all of this, is to get people working together.

Jonathan: Republicans have taken power by putting the social issues generally, to the side focusing on fiscal issues and now all the energy is going into the legislative races.

Alex: Washington State is as tied as it's possible to be tied, almost.

The Senate is controlled by Republicans by one seat and the House is controlled by Democrats by one and a half seats.

Okay, so Connor why don't we start by going down race by race, where we're at, here.

I'm preparing for us to have to work very hard to maintain our seats in the State House of Representative, our seats in the State Senate.

♪♪ Background number one: the suburbs.

Our consultancy has done a very good job helping people win in the purple parts of Washington State.

Areas that have voted Democrat can vote Republican.

And we've done that by talking about the things that matter to those constituents.

The things that they're worried about and that their State Government actually is in charge of.

Hello my name is Pablo Monroy, I'm running for the State House of Representatives.

I'm a Navy veteran just asking for your vote in August in the current Primary.

Alex: Running for State Representative is very difficult.

You have to go door to door make a lot of personal contacts.

Hey my name is Pablo Monroy.

I'm running for State House of Representatives.

Because you'll discover that the vast majority of people do not know who their state legislator is.

Female: Do you know, for instance, who your state rep is right now?

No.

Female: Do you know who your current state rep is in the District?

I do not.

My family is from Mexico.

I grew up in eastern Washington.

I've had the opportunity to work in some potato fields to kind of make some more income for my family.

Learned everything I learned about life in those potato fields and now I own a brewery.

As a first time candidate, two different challenges.

Not only get your name out there and say this is who I am.

Please vote for me.

But also getting those people to get out and vote.

Write, "Sorry I missed you" on there and then stick it up there between the door knob and the frame.

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump will get 90% of the attention, but they'll have about 10% of the impact on your life.

Onwards.

Alright, next one.

Your state legislative candidates have 90% of the impact on your life, but let's be blunt less than 10% of the attention.

Erin: Nationwide 70% of State legislatures are controlled by Republicans which doesn't necessarily reflect the electorate.

Yeah I already hit this house.

Republicans have done a great job of connecting to their voters, how important local elections are.

Peterson residence.

In a lot of states, the party that controls the State legislature, controls redistricting which draws the boundaries for future Congressional districts and makes it harder or easier for people to get elected.

That national Republican playbook that's worked in other states, that are really going after the social issues, doesn't play well here at all.

And that, I think they recognized, has been a losing strategy.

Hey.

Hi there, how are you?

Good.

How are you?

Good to see you.

Jonathan: The Republicans have been successful recently at recruiting women, particularly moderate women.

A lot more Pro Choice candidates.

I did get the local firefighters' endorsement.

I just received that.

I'm trying to think what else.

The veterinarians.

Jonathan: It's been an effective strategy for the Republicans in gaining seats, particularly in the House.

So remember our special women's universe in the last campaign.

Right.

What if we did a follow-up card.

Before it kind of ran from swaying Democrat to swaying Republican.

We'll move it over one step.

Even a little further left, I think we can pull in some more of those women as well.

Figure a lot of people that are coming out here are doing it so they can have the things that the kind of urban liberals dislike: yards you know neighborhood schools stuff like that.

Yeah.

And they have drive through the roads that Governor Inslee has mismanaged so terribly.

So you've got to figure they're going to be a little grumpy about that.

And therefore more likely to vote for us.

Hey, I'm Pablo.

I'm running for the State House Representative.

Just want to say hi, introduce myself.

What are you guys concerns this year?

Traffic, yes.

Traffic.

Able commuters.

Any time, man.

With this win we can get the majority back on the Republican side.

It's very important.

That's what we need.

Yeah.

Pablo's District is very Republican.

It's the most Republican district in the state that has a Democrat currently representing it.

Pablo has a pretty tough field.

He has some fairly, sort of, rock rib classic Republican opponents.

And then there's a very Pro Union blue dog Democrat.

The District is almost certainly going to vote Republican, which would put the State Legislature, the State House, in an exact tie of 49 49.

So this is a very exciting District to run in.

♪♪ Hello!

Good to see you.

How ya' doin'?

Make America great again.

Awesome me too.

You're a Republican, then?

I am very Republican.

So are you gay or are you just here -- All right.

Here, you can hold some of your own campaign literature.

Pablo all right.

Well, good luck getting out there.

Thank you gentlemen.

♪♪ I'm drinking the tea I made for you.

English breakfast?

Yeah.

Jonathan: One of the challenges for Pablo is that he is known as a gay rights advocate and this was a District that voted against gay marriage.

[singing] A long, long time ago CHILD: Now I know that one.

Now you know that one.

There was a volcano.

Jonathan: It'll be interesting to see how far a District like that, has now drifted basically to the center on gay marriage.

Whether it makes a difference anymore now that it's legal.

Oh those your new glasses?

Those are pretty cool glasses.

Want to take a selfie with them?

Jonathan: Certainly there's a portion of Republicans that will not accept a gay legislator.

♪♪ ♪♪ Erin: We're becoming a more diverse state.

And if Republicans hope to continue the strategy of picking up swing districts in suburban areas, they're going to have to be a more diverse big ten party.

There's a lot of talk about that within the Republican party, but we'll have to wait and see if they're actually able to deliver.

My advice is, if you don't make it, run right again.

It takes almost everyone two runs, to win for the House of Representatives.

The world would probably tell you that he should not be a Republican.

He wanted to run.

He wants to serve the state of Washington.

We're going to test out what that means to be a Republican here.

Jonathan: If the Republicans take the Legislature, there's a little bit of, "Be careful what you wish for."

Here and nationwide, if Republicans just talk about fiscal issues, they tend to win.

But then the social issues creep back into the agenda is going to be a real challenge of leadership and discipline.

Erin: Local races are not sexy races, but we have got to make sure that we're voting in our local elections because each of those elections has a very dramatic impact on your everyday life.

♪♪ ♪♪