Trivia time! Can you name the last Republican presidential candidate to carry Snohomish County?
Mitt Romney? No… John McCain? No… George W. Bush? Hahahaha. A thousand times, no. Actually just no two times, once for 2000 and once for 2004.
In fact, the last Republican to capture the county was George H.W. Bush in 1988.
You thought I was going to say Theodore Roosevelt or some other blast from the distant past, right? It does kind of feel like Republicans have never really stood a chance here, but it wasn’t all that long ago, speaking in geological time anyway.
Republicans do still win some pretty big offices – a County Council seat here, a county assessor job there, but never a county executive in the 35 years since the office was established. And again this year, the only experienced candidates vying for the job are Democrats.
In our latest poll at HeraldNet.com, we asked if you think this is becoming a one-party county. The runaway response was that indeed it is, with 72 percent saying that Western Washington is a Democratic stronghold.
Presidential races are a good barometer of party support over time, if only because they have the highest turnout, and they show a county that’s a deep shade of blue. But these things go in cycles, and there’s no guarantee it will stay that way. It was Republican territory until Franklin Roosevelt came along, then Democratic until the 1970s and mostly Republican again until Bill Clinton in 1992.
One day it will be competitive again, but for now, you mainly have Democrats on the menu in Snohomish County. It’s like an Indian restaurant. You can order it bland or really spicy, but it’s all still going to taste like curry.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
