GOP's Susan Hutchison files to run for U.S. Senate seat held by Maria Cantwell
SEATTLE -- Former state Republican Party Chairman Susan Hutchison on Friday filed to run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Democrat Maria Cantwell.
Hutchison, 64, a former local television news anchor, chaired the state GOP from 2013 until this year. She resigned as state party chairman on Feb. 5, giving no specific reason outside of declaring it was a good time for a transition.
She will join 29 other candidates who have filed so far to run for the Senate seat in the August primary. The top two vote-getters advance to the November general election.
In 2005, Hutchison was one of 10 people appointed by King County Executive Ron Sims to the King County Independent Task Force on Elections, created to make recommendations to reform the election process after the contested gubernatorial election of 2004.
When Sims stepped down in April 2009, Hutchison announced her candidacy for the nonpartisan race for King County Executive. Hutchison won the primary election with 37% of the votes and advanced to the general election against Dow Constantine, who won in the November election.
Cantwell, 59, was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000 and re-elected in 2006 and 2012. She is seeking re-election in November 2018.
Cantwell previously served in the state House of Representatives from 1987 to 1993 and the U.S. House from Washington's 1st Congressional District from 1993 to 1995.