Marla Keethler hopes to bring Democratic representation to the historically Republican 17th Legislative District

This year, thanks in part to the court-ordered adoption of modified legislative district boundary maps, the 17th District in Washington State has emerged as a key pickup opportunity for Senate Democrats. The 17th District has historically been solidly Republican, as shown by Lynda Wilson’s win with 54.5% of the vote in 2020.

However, judging the results from the August Top Two election, this year’s race could be a tossup. With only a few hundred votes separating the two candidates — Republican State Representative Paul Harris and Democratic hopeful Marla Keethler, Mayor of White Salmon — the race will easily be one of the autumn’s top battlegrounds.

Before Trump’s presidency, Republicans had control of the Washington State Senate for a five-year stretch. In 2017, Democrats flipped the Washington State Senate with Manka Dhingra’s victory in a special election in the 45th Legislative District. Since then, the Democratic majorities in both chambers have increased significantly. House Democrats have added eight seats to their majority, while Senate Democrats have added four.

The revised 17th District looks quite different from its predecessor, now stretching along the Columbia River and including portions of Clark, Skamania and Klickitat counties. The district got redrawn as part of the decennial redistricting process in 2021, like every other district, and was then reshaped again after a court determined that the map approved by the Redistricting Commission violated the Voting Rights Act.

https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2024/09/marla-keethler-hopes-to-bring-democratic-representation-to-the-historically-republican-17th-legislative-district.html