New Central WA districts spark drama as the 2024 election revs up

“I made the determination that I could assist the people of Franklin County in the state Legislature as effectively (if not more so) as I could on the Franklin County Board of Commissioners,” Kennedy said. 

Under a new map approved by a federal court judge and adopted by the state in March, the 14th is now a Latino voter-majority district. Judge Robert Lasnik oversaw the creation of the new map after he sided last August with voters who said the bipartisan Washington State Redistricting Commission violated federal voting rights laws. 

The new legislative map has led to significant changes for this year’s elections. Two incumbent legislators decided not to run in the 14th after being excluded from their old district’s new boundaries, and several Latina and Latino candidates — from across the political spectrum — have filed to run in all three 14th District races. 

Kennedy is running for the seat held by Rep. Gina Mosbrucker, R-Goldendale. Mosbrucker was drawn out of the 14th District and decided not to run for a seat in her new district. Kennedy believes that with the newly drawn Latino voter-majority district, she has a better chance to win. “I think there’s a level playing field,” she said. 

The 14th Legislative District, for now

A group of conservative Latino voters see it differently: They contend the voting rights issue is a guise by Democrats in the state to win elections in Central Washington, a historically conservative region.  

That group of voters who intervened in the voting rights lawsuit tried to stop the implementation of the new map for the 2024 election cycle in both the U.S. Supreme Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals. Both efforts failed, but the voters can still pursue their appeal and possibly prevent the map from being used in elections beyond 2024.

That group, which includes State Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, has appealed the new map and the original voting rights decision from last summer that prompted its creation. 

Republican candidates in Central Washington have continued to push the sentiment. 

“This was nothing more than a Democrat power grab; there’s no other way to put this,” said Chris Corry, R-Yakima, currently serving as a state representative in the 14th Legislative District. “This started with Democrats in the Senate … undermining our redistricting process.”

Corry is now running for reelection in the 15th Legislative District under the new map boundaries. Corry said he didn’t want to move his large family to stay in the 14th District. 

Former Rep. Jeremie Dufault, a Republican from Selah, was drawn out of the 15th Legislative District in the redistricting commission’s 2022 map. Now that he is back in the 15th District, Dufault is looking to regain the seat. The seat is open as incumbent Bryan Sandlin, a Republican from Zillah in the lower Yakima Valley, decided not to run for another term. 

Dufault said being back in his old district was the “only good thing” he could say about the new map. 

“The bipartisan Washington redistricting commission had been a national model for fairly drawing legislative boundaries, unlike many states where the party in power draws maps to its advantages,” he said. “Democrats intentionally broke the system this cycle in an attempt to gain more power.” 

Democratic leaders in the state Legislature dispute this claim. When deciding to let the court oversee a new map process rather than reconvene the redistricting commission, Democratic leaders said they wanted to give Latino voters more feedback on a new map. The original plaintiffs who sued the state to redraw the maps claimed that the map drawn by the Washington State Redistricting Commission diluted Latino votes and weakened voter power.