Dave Reichert remains confident in Washington’s gubernatorial race, despite the polls

WASHINGTON STATE — Despite trailing in the polls, Republican gubernatorial candidate Dave Reichert told KOMO News he is confident and predicts he will win the race. If that happens, a Republican will be in the Washington governor’s mansion for the first time since the 1980s.

KOMO News’ Michelle Esteban conducted a one-on-one interview with Reichert on Wednesday.

The former seven-term U.S. congressman and two-time King County sheriff who helped catch the infamous “Green River Killer” is getting “support” not from polls but from months of outreach to voters.

“I’m running for all the families here in Washington state,” Reichert told KOMO News from his campaign office in Bellevue. “I’m running because I know the criminal justice system is absolutely broken. I’m running because we don’t help the homeless. In fact, it got worse. Yes, we can point to some successes, but we have spent a lot of money on the homeless. I’m running because the economy is so out of control that our young people can’t even think about buying a condo or their first home, and I’m running because our education system needs to be reoriented.”

If Reichert is successful in his re-election bid, it won’t be the first time he’s come from behind to claim victory. Reichert said he has won six of his seven congressional races, but this will be the first time in four decades.

“I knew I had to do it, and I didn’t. It was not my goal to be governor. That’s what people encouraged me to do. I feel compelled. I feel energized to do this because I have five great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild on the way,” Reichert said. “I want to change the direction we’re going here in Washington state, not just for my own family, obviously, but for all families in Washington state, just to give a reality check.”

In a recent KOMO News/Strategies 360 poll of 600 registered Washington voters, participants were asked who they would vote for governor if they were voting today, and 51 percent said they would vote for challenger Bob Ferguson, Washington’s current third-term attorney general. , while 41% chose Reichert and 8% said they were undecided. The margin of error of the poll was +/-4%.

“I used to lose 10 points, shortly before the start of the campaign. In my seven congressional campaigns, I’ve lost numbers before, not as sheriff. So I don’t really look at the numbers,” Reichert said. “I’m listening to people and I think there’s an undercurrent of this movement happening in the state that can’t be measured by the polls, so I’m going into these last six days feeling very positive about our chances. We are going to win. I believe in it.”