WENATCHEE, Washington — Republican Tiffany Smiley is stubbornly resisting partisan and ideological labels in her underdog bid to unseat Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), indicting the incumbent as failing at the most basic responsibilities of political leadership.
“From the beginning, I’ve just been Tiffany Smiley, running to find common ground,” she told the Washington Examiner Thursday in an interview. “That’s what I’ve been focused on from the beginning of this race, connecting with people on common ground, regardless of your political affiliation.” So does Smiley consider herself a “moderate” Republican? It certainly wouldn’t hurt her campaign to oust Murray in deep-blue Washington state.
“I hate labels,” she insisted. “You can’t label me.”
That isn’t to say Smiley does not sound like a rank-and-file Republican.
She blames Murray, 72, for skyrocketing inflation and rising crime. Smiley claims the senator’s support for President Joe Biden’s “out of control spending” is spiking costs for groceries and gasoline. She also calls Murray “soft on crime,” saying she has directly undermined public safety. But Smiley’s dominant attack on the five-term incumbent is far less politically conservative than it is a personal impeachment of her leadership shortcomings.
“Sen. Murray is stale,” Smiley said. “Sen. Murray is not relatable — she’s simply not relatable to people who are struggling, everyday Washington families who need a voice. She’s completely out of touch.”
Smiley spoke with the Washington Examiner in Wenatchee, a community in central Washington where she hosted an evening rally that attracted a few hundred supporters, after beginning the day early in Spokane Valley and barnstorming the state from east to west in a blue and green touring bus emblazoned with “There’s a new mom in town.”
Smiley’s moniker is a deliberate dig at Murray, who campaigned as a “mom in tennis shoes” when she was first elected in 1992.
“Sen. Murray is Washington, D.C. That’s who she is,” Smiley said earlier Thursday in rural Ritzville, Washington, rallying approximately 50 supporters at a public park who braved 30-degree temperatures and freezing rain to meet her up close. “She’s not the mom in tennis shoes anymore.” That last comment is a major line in Smiley’s stump speech.
It’s as if the Republican, a first-time candidate, is claiming for herself the very quality that propelled Murray to the Senate nearly 30 years ago and has sustained her political career ever since. And what, precisely, does Smiley mean? “When she went in, she probably had the right intentions,” Smiley said. “She wanted to fight for our children, she wanted to fight for families — and it’s clear that she’s no longer that.”
Smiley, 41, is the mother of three young boys. Her husband, Scott Smiley, is blind from wounds suffered in combat while serving in the Army in the Iraq War. His story is key to understanding Tiffany Smiley. When Scott Smiley was recovering at Walter Reed Hospital, Army officials asked his wife to sign his discharge papers. She repeatedly refused, and he ultimately became the first blind person to serve in the Army on active duty.
The episode led Tiffany Smiley to become an advocate for military veterans and, ultimately, to electoral politics. Top Republicans in Washington, D.C., consider her a prized Senate recruit and refer to her as possibly the best GOP candidate of the 2022 midterm elections. But defeating Murray was always considered a reach, maybe possible with an especially favorable political environment.
Washington state has not voted Republican for president since 1984; it has not elected a Republican to the Senate since the GOP wave of 1994 — with the state becoming so reliably liberal, most Democrats holding or running for statewide office here were shielded from red tsunamis in 2010 and 2014. But recent polling suggests Smiley has an opportunity to break her party’s Washington state jinx.
Murray’s lead has shrunk to 3 percentage points in the RealClearPolitics average: 49.3% to 46.3%, with some private Republican polls showing the race tied. The Murray campaign could not be reached for comment. But the senator and her allies are blanketing Washington state’s television airwaves with attack ads, suggesting the survey data they are looking at are not much different than the polls Republicans are seeing.
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Central to Murray’s argument is that Smiley would be a loyal foot soldier for Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and jeopardize abortion rights in Washington state. Smiley sidestepped questions about whether, if elected, she would support McConnell for another term as the Senate’s top Republican. But Smiley argued she would not do anything in Washington, D.C., to undercut legal protections for abortion that exist under Washington state law.
“Sen. Murray is continuing to use fear and scare tactics to scare people,” Smiley said.
