U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, a Republican, announced that he will retire from Congress at the end of his current term (December 2018). Reichert is serving his seventh term in Congress representing the 8th Congressional District, which includes Auburn, Enumclaw, Ellensburg and Wenatchee. A moderate Republican, Reichert faced a difficult political climate as well as protests over his refusal to hold town hall meetings. Democrats have been targeting his seat in their bid to take over the U.S. House in November 2018.
Democrats who had already filed to run against Reichert include:
- Mona Das, a mortgage businesswoman
- Tola Marts, an Issaquah City Councilmember, engineer, and vaccine research lab worker
- Jason Rittereiser, an attorney and former King County deputy prosecutor
- Kim Schrier, a Sammamish pediatrician
- Toby Whitney, a software development group manager at Amazon who worked in Washington, D.C., for the House Ways and Means Committee and as legislative director for former Rep. Jim McDermott
Republican Dino Rossi has announced his intention to run for Reichert’s seat. A real estate executive, Rossi has served in the state senate and has been the Republican nominee twice for governor and once for the U.S. Senate. In 2012 and 2016 he was appointed to fill vacancies in the state senate; he is currently serving out the term of former state senator Andy Hill, who died of cancer last year. King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, previously considered a potential challenger for Reichert’s seat, has announced that he will not run and will be supporting Rossi.