(The Center Square) – An expert in minority voting patterns was proven wrong by the 14th Legislative District results in the Yakima Valley. Voters in the majority-minority district have elected three Republicans.
Federal Judge Robert S. Lasnik’s March 15 order adopted a map provided by the plaintiffs in a Voting Rights Act case that increased the percentage of likely Democrat voters in the majority Hispanic district.
Small business owners Debra Manjarrez and Gloria Mendoza, both Republicans, lead Democratic activists Ana Ruiz Kennedy and Chelsea Dimas by margins of 8% and nearly 14%, respectively, for the open 14th Legislative District seats in the state House of Representatives.
Incumbent state Sen. Rufus King, R-Yakima, is leading challenger Maria Beltran, running as a Democrat, with an 11.57% advantage as of the count on Thursday. Curtis moved eight blocks in order to defend his seat.
Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, called it gerrymandering in an interview following the judge’s decision this spring.
“If you look up where legislators live and the new map you’ll find that they just drew everybody out of their districts,” he said. “I’m now out of Yakima, so the only two Hispanic legislators in eastern Washington were redistricted out of Yakima County.”
Now there are four Hispanic legislators in eastern Washington.
Voters in 13 legislative districts were moved into new districts for 2024, following a decision in the federal Voting Rights Act case seeking to change the boundaries of the Yakima Valley’s 14th and 15th legislative districts as adopted by the Washington State Redistricting Commission.
Palmer v. Hobbs was brought in January 2022 by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit with ties to Democratic administrations at the federal, state, and local levels. The case is currently in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals as Palmer v Trevino, with Granger Mayor Jose Trevino replacing Secretary of State Steve Hobbs as the defendant after the state declined to appeal the ruling by Judge Lasnik which adopted the plaintiff’s map.
“It was the most partisan choice the judge could have made,” said former House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox in an interview this week. “The bright spot is we now have more strong Hispanic Republican representatives in the legislature and that’s good for the long term.”
Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, had previously been elected by Yakima Valley area voters in the majority-minority 15th Legislative District. Torres is the first Latina senator elected from eastern Washington. However, the revised map means she no longer lives in the 15th Legislative District. She will continue to represent the 15th Legislative District until the end of her term in 2026.
“This redistricting was done in a way to try and flip these seats in the 14th to get a supermajority, but part of the focus was to take the 10thLD,” Torres explained.
Rep. Chris Corry, R-Yakima, formerly serving the 14th Legislative District found himself running for reelection in the 15th Legislative District after the boundaries moved.
“Essentially they tried to compact the Republicans into one area in order to create their supposed Democrat district,” he said. “I don’t think it worked. I’m cautiously optimistic overall that common sense will prevail.”
Wilcox agrees the real contest was not in the 14th Legislative District but in the 17th and the 18th districts.
“They took two districts that had been swing for a long time and made them even or lean D,” Wilcox said.
Several legislative races in the 10th, 17th and 18th districts remained close as of Thursday.
In his opinion in the Palmer v. Hobbs case, Lasnik relied on expert testimony comparing the “2022 legislative priorities of Washington’s Latino Civic Alliance (‘LCA’) to the voting records of the legislators from the Yakima Valley region” and concluding the incumbent legislators in three districts were insufficiently supportive of the political agenda of the LCA.
Washington’s independent redistricting commission was adopted by voters via a 1983 constitutional amendment. The process was first used to draw maps in 1991.
