Republican candidates make their case in Mossyrock

Ahead of the August primary, candidates for federal, state and county offices gathered in Mossyrock Thursday to share their visions for the future.

Hosted by the Lewis County Republican Party, the forum drew roughly 200 attendees to the Mossyrock Community Center for a panel that included candidate for the Third Congressional District Joe Kent, gubernatorial candidate Misipati “Semi” Bird, candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction David Olson and State Rep. Peter Abbarno.

Semi Bird

Bird, who won the straw poll at the Lewis County Republican Convention in February, doubled down on his campaign promises, which include a third-party audit of state programs and offices. During his remarks, Bird said both young and old residents of Washington struggle to make ends meet.

“We have a gas tax, a liquor tax, a marijuana tax, a gambling tax. We have tolls everywhere, and more taxes than I can actually, well, I’d run out of time,” Bird said. “But yet our roads aren’t better. Our schools certainly aren’t better. The cost of living continues to rise but the standard of living continues to fall. We must do something about it, and it starts with our vote.”

During his stump speech, Bird highlighted his time on the Richland School Board, the only elected office he has held. Bird was later recalled from the position, along with two other board members, after the trio passed an ordinance to make the wearing of masks optional despite a state mandate calling for indoor masking to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

According to the Tri-City Herald, the state Supreme Court ruled the trio “knowingly” violated state law.

“When you have a government that shuts down your state, shuts down your schools, shuts down your places of worship, and anyone who supports that nonsense is on the wrong side of the constitution,” Bird said. “A mandate is not constitutional, it’s unconstitutional, and neither is it a law, can I get an amen on that?”

Bird faces a long list of other candidates in the August primary, including Dave Reichert, the former Republican sheriff of King County, Democrat Bob Ferguson, the state’s attorney general, and state Sen. Mark Mullet, a Democrat.

During the Washington State Republican Party Convention earlier this year, Bird received the formal endorsement of the state party.

Joe Kent

Kent, who is making his second attempt at representing the Third Congressional District in the nation’s capital, again squarely focused his attention on Democratic incumbent Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, who narrowly defeated Kent in the 2022 general election.

“It’s very, very simple what’s taking place. Democrats, and their policies, are destroying America,” Kent said. “Regardless of what personality they roll out up front, Democrat policies are destroying this country.”

Days after Vice President Kamala Harris replaced President Joe Biden as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president, Kent said Democrats continue to enable America’s problems “regardless of who they run at the top of the ticket.”

“They’re trying to pin all of their failures right now on Joe Biden, and sending him off down the river, and saying whether it’s Kamala or somebody else, it’s going to be completely different this time,” Kent said. “There’s no difference in the Democratic policies.”

While on the campaign trail, Kent has attacked Gluesenkamp Perez over the rise in overdose deaths, inflation and the economic woes felt by many, among other issues.

“That’s the big difference between the last time I ran against her in 2022 and this time,” Kent said. “Last time, she could say whatever she wanted to. She’s a lumberjack, she’s a mechanic, whatever. She could create stories because she didn’t have a voting record. This time, she has a voting record, and it’s the last thing she wants to talk about.”

One other Republican, Camas City Councilor Leslie Lewallen, is filed to represent the Third District. During the state Republican Convention, Kent received the formal backing of the state party.

David Olson

While the position is officially nonpartisan, Davis Olson received the formal endorsement of the state Republican Party earlier this year. A member of the Peninsula School Board, Olson focused his remarks on a series of cultural hot topics, including whether transgender athletes should be able to compete in interscholastic athletics.

Olson also defended charter schools, and said that parents lack trust in public education.

“The reason students have fled, parents have pulled their kids, is there’s no trust in our public education system,” Olson said.

If elected, Olson said he would respect the local control of elected school boards in Washington.

“School boards should all be allowed to do their job, based on what the local community would support,” Olson said. “So I support local control of school boards.”

During his closing remarks, Olson again focused on gender identity and sexuality in the public education system.

“How many of you are aware that there are parents that allow their children to go to school, and are identified as a furry?” Olson said to scoffs and laughter in the room. “This is true. This is true. There are children in our schools in this state that go to school and identify as a fury. It can be a cat or a dog or whatever, and the school is required to put litter boxes in the school?”

“Are they going to use it in front of everybody in the classroom?” an audience member shouted to Olson.

As evidence, Olson cited his nephew, who he said transferred schools after “a school district he won’t name” allowed a student to use a litter box during school.

The claim has been falsely repeated by elected officials and candidates throughout the country, and has been routinely debunked. Scott Ellis, executive director of Great Lakes Bay Pride, which services the Midland LGBTQ community, told the Michigan Advance the claim can be harmful.

“We’ve gotten to a place where in order to put down those who are either exploring their gender identity or identify maybe differently than their sex assigned at birth, we start equating these things — like in this particular case, ‘furries’ being a role-play versus somebody’s identity. Those are not the same thing,” Ellis said in an article published in February 2022.