What separates Kim Schrier and Matt Larkin in Washington’s 8th Congressional District

In 2018, pediatrician Kim Schrier turned Washington state’s eighth Congressional District blue for the primary time. Now, the two-term incumbent is defending her seat in opposition to a Republican who says she and different Democrats have “hijacked” the nation.

Why it issues: Schrier’s struggle for a 3rd time period is certainly one of a handful of toss-up races that may determine which celebration controls the Home this November.

Driving the information: Schrier (D-Sammamish) faces Republican Matt Larkin, a lawyer who co-owns his household’s manufacturing enterprise.

• Larkin — who ran for state lawyer common in 2020 and misplaced — is campaigning on a slogan of “make crime unlawful once more,” whereas accusing Schrier of not doing sufficient to assist legislation enforcement.
• Schrier, in the meantime, has emphasised Larkin’s anti-abortion stance and stated he would be part of with Republicans to ban abortion nationwide.

The large image: Of Washington state’s 10 congressional districts, the eighth is the one one rated as a toss-up by the nonpartisan Cook dinner Political Report. The district contains suburbs east of Seattle, in addition to a part of Central Washington.

Listed below are a couple of areas the place the candidates disagree.

Gun management

Schrier not too long ago supported a invoice to ban assault weapons, which handed the U.S. Home in July. The measure, which hasn’t handed the Senate, would ban quite a lot of semi-automatic rifles, together with AR-15s.

• Larkin, against this, has stated he’ll struggle in opposition to gun management measures. In a debate earlier than the August major, he advised the group, “I’ll struggle on your proper to hold a firearm and defend your self with a firearm.”

Jan. 6 and the 2020 election

In a June Seattle Instances article, Larkin declined to touch upon whether or not he believes Joe Biden’s win over Donald Trump was authentic or whether or not he agrees with Trump’s false claims of widespread election fraud. He additionally stated he did not know the way he would have voted on making a bipartisan fee to research the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

Abortion

Schrier ran an advert criticizing Larkin’s stance on abortion as “harmful,” whereas co-sponsoring laws in Congress that might, if enacted, codify the not too long ago overturned Roe v. Wade determination into federal legislation.

• Larkin has been open about his opposition to abortion, saying within the Republican major debate, “I promise I’ll struggle for the lives of the unborn.”
• In a Seattle Instances story in July, Larkin stated he would “not be against” a nationwide abortion ban, although he’d “wish to see the specifics.”

COVID-19

Larkin stated within the spring that, had he been elected lawyer common in 2020, “We would not have any of those mandates — masks, vaccines.”

• Schrier took a extra measured method, saying when native faculties first closed in spring 2020 that it was a crucial step to sluggish the unfold of the virus. She later stated hospitalization and vaccination charges ought to be taken into consideration when deciding whether or not to raise masking restrictions.

Local weather change

In a July interview with conservative radio host Jason Rantz, Larkin stated inflation was a much bigger downside than local weather change for voters.

• “Persons are hurting proper now and it isn’t due to a warming surroundings, it is as a result of they’ll’t fill their gasoline tanks, they cannot afford groceries, they don’t really feel secure going into their native park,” Larkin stated. “These are the problems folks care about.”
• Schrier, for her half, has stated combating local weather change must be a nationwide precedence and has supported preserving the U.S. within the Paris local weather settlement. She not too long ago praised President Biden’s Inflation Discount Act, which can pour about $370 billion into emission-reductions efforts nationwide, telling Crosscut, “It takes on local weather change with the urgency that it deserves.”

What’s subsequent: The 2 candidates are scheduled to sq. off in a debate Friday, Oct. 28, which may be streamed on TVW.

• Ballots for the Nov. 8 election had been mailed to registered voters final week.

Go deeper: Midterm elections 2022 — The way to vote in Washington state