SPOKAINE, Wash. (AP) — Republican Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley is targeting Washington state’s most high-profile institution in her first political campaign.
One is Democratic Senator Pattie Murray, who has held her seat for the past 30 years and is seeking a sixth term. Seattle She dismissed well-known organizations that grew up locally, including the Seahawks, Starbucks, and Seattle Her Times as “wake-up companies” because they didn’t want them to use their logos in their ads. The city of Seattle, which she accuses of being liberal and crime-ridden.
Smiley’s wide range of targets shows the militant approach she brings to the campaign. This strategy may seem counterintuitive at first to her efforts to garner enough voter support to oust Murray.
Candidates have so far scheduled a formal debate on October 23 at Gonzaga University in Spokane.
Whether Smiley’s efforts will work in states that haven’t elected a Republican to the Senate since 1994 remains to be seen.
Murray has also run a number of negative ads for Smiley, saying that the Republican Party’s anti-abortion stance could threaten women’s rights and seeks to link her to extremist elements within the Republican Party. .
Cornell Clayton, a political scientist at Washington State University and director of the Thomas S. Foley Institute of Public Service and Public Policy, said people didn’t want the campaign to be negative, but such ads weren’t. Said it works.
“Attack ads provoke stronger emotional responses from voters and are more effective in motivating behavior,” Clayton said in an email.
Murray, 71, took to the abortion issue following the Supreme Court’s ruling earlier this year to overturn the Roe v. Wade ruling, saying the ruling had “created confusion and harm to patients.”
Murray also promoted the Democrats’ achievement by saying that President Joe Biden’s infrastructure bill would rebuild roads, bridges and highways. She also said Democrats passed better health care for veterans, a bill to make more computer chips in the United States, and an inflation-reducing bill that would help reduce the impact of climate change and lower the cost of prescription drugs. I also mentioned
Smiley said he personally opposes abortion but does not intend to push for a nationwide ban. , Washington voters decided to approve abortions here decades ago.
“I accept the will of the voters,” Smiley said.
Smiley’s aggressive tactics echo those of Republican candidates across the country who are eager to take on the establishment while blaming problems such as rising crime rates on the Democrats.
Smiley hopes that enough people are fed up with Murray, who was first elected in 1992, to give him an edge in November. She has run large-scale ferocious ads blaming Murray for crime and inflation, especially the high prices of gasoline and groceries.
“We got worse under her watch,” Smiley said.
Smiley, who appears regularly on Fox News, emphasized visiting all 39 counties in the state.
Murray warned that Republicans would seek to restrict women’s reproductive rights.
Mr. Murray recently said on the Senate floor that “the overthrow of Mr. Low was only their first step, despite clear protests from across the country.” “Republicans want to force my voters to continue their pregnancies even if they don’t want to seek doctors who provide abortion treatments.”
Money was poured into racing.
Murray had raised over $17.8 million as of the September reporting deadline, with $3.7 million in the bank. Smiley has raised over $12.8 million. That’s far more than the recent Republican Senate challenger in Washington, who had $2.4 million of him in the bank.
Highlighting issues in Seattle, Washington’s largest city, is not a dangerous political strategy, said Caleb Heimlich, chairman of the Washington State Republican Party. “
“Seattle voters recognize that their leaders are betraying them,” Heimlich said.
Murray was first elected during the “Women’s Year” when she was motivated to run in part by a controversial Clarence Thomas Supreme Court confirmation hearing. She has been promoted to chair the Senate Committees on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions and is a member of the Democratic leadership.
Smiley recently tried to blame Murray and Democrats for the rising crime in Seattle, the state’s largest city.
In a new TV ad, Smiley stands in front of a closed Starbucks coffee shop in Seattle, blaming Murray for the rise in urban crime that led to its closure.
Murray replied, “I’ve seen crime and homelessness rise in every community in our state.”
For her part, Murray linked Smiley to former President Donald Trump and his MAGA supporters.
Smiley said the photo of him standing with Trump featured in Murray’s ad was taken while he was advocating for better health care for veterans.
Murray also pointed to the Jan. 6, 2021 uprising as something voters should not forget.
State Democrats also warned that Republicans were a threat to voting rights and said Mr Murray would protect Republicans.
“Our democracy is at stake,” said Tina Podrodovsky, president of the Washington Democratic Party.
Smiley, 41, from Pasco, Washington, tries to connect with voters by focusing on her personal story.
She is a former nurse and has made a point of defending her past husband, a veteran who was blinded in an explosion while on duty in Iraq in 2005.
Smiley said major issues driving her candidacy include the government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, particularly school closures.
“I am the mother of three boys who have been out of school for a year and a half,” said Smiley.
Murray said the top political priority for the next two years is to “defend women’s right to make their own health care decisions.”