In Solidarity – Powell’s Endorsement of Conroy Reshapes The WA-5 Congressional Race

An independent coalition fractured decades of Republican dominance, then united behind a single Democratic challenger.

By Grant Fredericks — The LeClaire Report

Independent Nate Powell did something no other candidate in the contested 2026 WA-5 primary race could do; he built a coalition that united progressives and traditional Democrats, and he pulled in a significant number of disenchanted Republicans around the singular cause to unseat incumbent Michael Baumgartner.

Although Powell fell behind Carmela Conroy, the election trajectory he influenced highlights a movement away from the Republican incumbent in WA-5 for the first time in over thirty-two years.

Republican Dominance Begins to Erode

Republicans won 59.6 percent of the WA-5 primary vote in 2022 and 61 percent in the 2024 primary. This August Republicans won just 46.9 percent of the vote, with a weakened Representative Michael Baumgartner as the only Republican on the ballot.

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