SPOKANE, Wash — With just over three weeks until Election Day, KREM is rolling out a series of interviews with local candidates in key races — contests for state legislature where no candidate had a dominant victory in the August primary.
Washington's 4th Legislative District covers a large area of eastern Spokane County, primarily Spokane Valley.
One of its two current representatives is Matt Shea, who holds position 1. The controversial lawmaker was tied to domestic terrorism in a House investigation last year, and made political waves when he decided not to seek re-election this year.
The Democrat running for his seat is Lori Feagan. She's a nurse practitioner, and has never sought public office before. But she'd been eyeing Shea's seat for awhile — not necessarily for herself, just on a feeling that someone needed to beat him.
"Over the last few years, as his ideologies and effectiveness have become even more burdensome to our district, I started to think about who we needed to run for office to replace that," said Feagan.
This year she thought "why not me?" and launched her campaign. She was quickly able to raise significant funds from donors on both sides of the state.
"Some of the ideologies that are espoused by Representative Shea are not well thought of, not only just in our district, but in our region and in our state, and, frankly, nationwide and worldwide," said Feagan. "So a lot of people recognize the importance of making this change, and also had faith that I was the right person to do that."
But then on filing day there was a twist. Shea decided not to run. Instead, his position 2 seatmate, Rep. Bob McCaslin Jr., filed for position 1.
There's no difference in power between the seats, so the swap seemed more to be about making it so Feagan still had to face a de-facto incumbent — a sign Republicans viewed her campaign to be relatively strong.
Despite the big change, Feagan said her mission and her tactics stayed the same.
"I've always said, it's not just about who I'm running against, but it's who I'm running for. And I am running for the people that mean a lot in my life, which are my family, my neighbors, my patients, the people that are in our community," she said. "And Bob McCaslin Jr. shares a lot of Matt Shea's ideologies and priorities, so I'm happy to have him come over to my position to challenge me. And it's time for Bob to leave, too."
Feagan said her skills as a nurse practitioner will make her a compassionate and effective representative in Olympia, prepared to handle issues like the coronavirus.
"I'm also seeing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on just quality of life and the strain on families," she said. "Not having broadband, not having high-speed internet, not having access to quality childcare that's affordable, and not being able to thrive in a community where sometimes our priorities don't address the most marginalized among us. And if anybody doesn't do well, none of us can do well."
She also said she's ready to make the tough budget decisions the next legislature will face thanks to the huge deficit.
"[We should be] identifying the things that must be prioritized, so that further down the line, we're not making mistakes that impact us years later. So we do have to look at everything that we spend money on, make sure that we're choosing things that give us the best return on our investment, like early childhood education and K-12 education," said Feagan. "The things that we have to cut, they may just be put on the back burner. It doesn't mean that they're going to be eliminated completely."
On the issue of racial justice, she said action needs to be taken, but that what kind of action should be decided by those most directly affected.
"I am not going to dictate to a community that I'm not part of what they need. I want to hear what they need, and then I want them to tell me how I can best help," said Feagan. "But we do have the ability to make differences in the legislature that will be positive impacts and really finally deal with our problems of racial bias and discrimination in our state and in our country. It's time to listen.
Feagan trailed McCaslin by just two points in the primary. However, there were also two other Republicans on the ballot. That means she'll need to sway a lot of new voters to turn the 4th District blue in November.