Dan Newhouse won't endorse Amanda McKinney to succeed him in Congress, but some of her primary opponents already have
WASHINGTON – After besting five of her fellow Republicans by a wide margin in the Aug. 4 primary, Amanda McKinney is the odds-on favorite to represent central Washington’s 4th Congressional District starting next year. But she approaches November’s matchup with Democrat John Duresky without the endorsement of her GOP predecessor.
Rep. Dan Newhouse, who is retiring after 12 years representing Washington’s most reliably red district, said in a statement he doesn’t intend to endorse either candidate in the general election. As a Yakima County commissioner, McKinney was one of few elected Republicans who stood by Newhouse after he voted to impeach President Donald Trump for inciting the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021, but she kicked off her campaign in December by saying she had a yearslong plan to “retire” her erstwhile ally.
“I have not been asked for an endorsement and have no plans to do so,” Newhouse said. “History has shown that a conservative is the better fit for us in Central Washington and I fully expect that to continue. I encourage all constituents in the 4th district to cast a vote for the candidate they believe will best represent them in the other Washington.”
After signaling his support for McKinney by inviting her as his guest to attend Trump’s first address to Congress after the president returned to office in 2025, Newhouse made the same gesture in February to state Sen. Matt Boehnke, R-Kennewick, soon after Boehnke jumped into the 4th Congressional District race. Newhouse didn’t formally endorse Boehnke or any of the 11 candidates in the crowded primary, and the state senator finished with 10.5% of votes, trailing McKinney’s 34.9%, Duresky’s 29.9% and three-time GOP candidate Jerrod Sessler’s 14.6%.
Freddy Ortiz, McKinney’s campaign manager, said Boehnke reached out and left a voicemail for McKinney expressing support after the primary. In a post on Facebook on Aug. 7, Boehnke congratulated McKinney “on her hard-fought victory.”
“Now is a time to come together,” Boehnke wrote, without explicitly endorsing McKinney. “Central Washington needs a conservative fighting for us in Congress to ensure our values are represented and to help keep the House of Representatives red.”
Ortiz said Sessler texted McKinney after the election, though he didn’t specify what Sessler’s message said. The campaign manager added that Elpidia Saavedra, the Republican mayor of Toppenish who received 1% of votes in the primary, had expressed her support for McKinney.
In a statement, Saavedra endorsed McKinney, whom she called “the candidate that falls in line with the values that are most important to Americans,” including public safety, fiscal responsibility and “an America first mindset.”
“Our farmers must be represented, ensuring labor and water accessibility, all the while providing more financial support to smaller municipalities for capital projects, such as the needs the City of Toppenish has been facing for years have been promises made by Amanda McKinney, and as a result she will have my endorsement and support moving forward,” Saavedra said in the statement.
Sessler, who first challenged Newhouse in 2022 and won the 2024 primary before losing a Republican-on-Republican race to Newhouse in that year’s general election, said he will vote for McKinney but tempered his support with criticism he voiced during the campaign.
“I spent years building support as a steady conservative to replace a representative who did not reflect our values,” Sessler said in a statement. “Amanda McKinney advanced in the primary largely through a high-profile endorsement that she paid for and heavy special-interest funding, despite receiving no support from the county Republican parties.”
In addition to the president’s endorsement, McKinney was backed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and other prominent members of the GOP establishment, and she benefited from nearly $2.2 million in spending by outside groups, mostly from super PACs backed by the cryptocurrency and artificial intelligence industries. Sessler, who was endorsed by Trump in 2024 but not in 2026, touted that earlier endorsement and was backed by GOP central committees in multiple counties.
In the statement, Sessler said McKinney’s primary win means the 4th Congressional District will likely be “sending another moderate” to the Capitol, linking her with Newhouse.
“I will vote for her in November, but I will not offer my support or use any party influence I have until she demonstrates a clear commitment to protecting life from conception, traditional marriage, balanced budgets, election integrity, parental rights, deregulation, a pathway to success for the AG industry, and ending congressional stock trading,” Sessler said. “She will have at least one term to prove she should be representing this district; if she does, I will support her.”
Asked if he would challenge McKinney if she doesn’t satisfy him, Sessler replied, “God may decide differently but I’m done with politics. Washington could have had a truly great and smart fighter for good for our future. God knows who we are and clearly decided it wasn’t time for Washington to turn towards sanity yet.”
The Cook Political Report rates Washington’s 4th Congressional District “solid R,” with voters in the district favoring Trump in the last two presidential elections by a margin 10 percentage points higher than the national average. But Duresky hopes he can defy the odds and become the first Democrat elected to represent the district since Jay Inslee in 1990. A retired Air Force major, Duresky worked at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Hanford field office in Richland until 2025, when he took an early retirement offer amid the Trump administration’s efforts to downsize the federal workforce.
No other primary candidate has endorsed Duresky so far. Devin Pooré, who entered the race as an independent before running under the banner of the nascent Cascade Party, received 1.4% of votes in the primary. In a text message, Pooré said he plans to announce his endorsement in the coming weeks.
Asked about Duresky’s outreach to other candidates after the primary, Campaign Manager Gabe Apodaca said Duresky “is a genuine guy and he really wants to do good for the people of Central Washington.”
“I think it speaks to his character and his ability to work across the aisle that he was able to build support from candidates of all stripes while on the campaign trail,” Apodaca said in a text message. “He and Jerrod Sessler had a lot of fun banter back and forth and I often had to remind him that we were competing. We appreciate all of the support for John and the campaign and we look forward to expanding that support in the coming months.”
Republican Ken Vaz and independent Zac Rossi, who each received less than 1% of primary votes, didn’t respond when asked which candidate they support in the general election. Nor did Favian Valencia, an independent who won 4.1% of votes.
“I am not going to help or support any of the candidates,” said Jacek Kobiesa, an independent who received 1.6% of votes in the primary.
John Hughs, a Republican who received 1.2% of primary votes, voiced strong disapproval of both remaining candidates. In an email, he said McKinney has “sold her soul for money” and called her “the absolute worst” of the 11 candidates, while dismissing Duresky as having “zero chance” of winning.
“I cannot in good conscience vote for either,” Hughs said. “What has unfolded is frankly the worst case scenario for the 4th District.”