Longtime Washington U.S. Senator Patty Murray has drawn a Republican challenger. Former GOP Chair Chris Vance formally announced his 2016 run Tuesday.
Vance launched his campaign with a video announcement and a promise to be a different kind of candidate.
“No cheesy, Hollywood style attack ads,” he said in the video. “No empty meaningless clichés. I’m going to look you in the eye and we’re going to talk about what’s broken in America ….”
Vance said he’s not running to change laws on abortion, same-sex marriage or marijuana. Instead, he said his top priority is debt-reduction in the spirit of President Obama’s bipartisan commission on fiscal reform.
“It is still the in my view the blueprint of what we need to do: we need to cap discretionary spending, we need pro-growth tax reform and we need to make changes in Social Security and Medicare in order to save Social Security and Medicare,” Vance said.
Vance is a former state legislator and King County councilmember. He’s also a prominent political commentator.
In a statement, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee labeled Vance a “partisan extremist.”
