Will MAGA or centrist politics earn support from Washington's GOP in the race for governor?

In November, Washingtonians will select a new governor. And members of the state GOP hope 2024 is the year voters will finally elect a Republican to the position — for the first time in over 40 years.

Former Congressman and King County Sheriff Dave Reichert has raised a substantial amount of cash and shows well in polling against Democratic frontrunner and state Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

But as Seattle Times’ Jim Brunner reports, Reichert may be lacking sizzle with the base heading into the state Republican Party’s convention next week. Some GOP activists say the party should put their backing behind another candidate: Semi Bird, a military veteran and former Richland School Board member.

"There are some Republicans who are on the more Trump-y side, which is a very large part of the party now, who are asserting that [Reichert] is a [Republican in name only]," Brunner said. "They think that Semi Bird better represents their values."

Republican delegates will gather in Spokane to cast their endorsement votes for candidates across the state. Brunner said this is a new format designed to create unity among party members.

"They've asked the candidates in each race to sign a pledge, basically saying, 'We will drop out and support the winning candidate in the race,'" Brunner explained. "The idea being that they go forward into the primary and avoid problems that they've had in some past years, where they had too many Republicans running in certain primaries and wound up with only Democrats in some races in the general election."

Despite encouragement from state GOP leaders to unite in backing a candidate, Brunner said some candidates have already objected to this idea.

"Realistically, the party can't force anybody to drop out of the race," Brunner said. "This is well before anybody's voted in the August primary."