Kim Schrier vs Spencer Meline: WA's Congressional District 8 race

From the suburbs of King and Pierce Counties across the Cascades to eastern Washington's orchards, Washington's 8th congressional district is both geographically and politically vast. Yeah, for its first 35 years of existence, District 8 was the largest Republican stronghold in the Seattle area until it wasn't. FOX 13's Taylor Winkle has more on what's at stake for voters as Democratic incumbent Kim Schrier faces Republican challenger Spencer Moline. District 8 brings together diverse communities with different daily concerns, but sitting at the center of this race is the economy. Everyday costs from food to gas to energy and insurance. We wanted to know how these two candidates would address the concerns of their constituents, but it's a hard comparison to make because Spencer Moline wouldn't sit down with us on camera and says he's kept much of his campaign purposely out of the public eye. Since its creation in 1983, Congressional District 8 was considered one of the most reliably red areas in the state. Represented by Republicans Ron Chandler, Jennifer Dunn, and Dave Reichert until 2018. That's when Democrat Kim Schrier won the seat in the general election, flipping the district blue for the first time when she defeated Republican Dino Rossi. Now the bid for Congress by her Republican challenger, Spencer Moline, a small business owner, husband and father, is viewed as a long shot. Here's a campaign video he posted on Facebook when he won his spot on the ballot. This campaign has never been about winning an election. It's been about restoring the hope to the people of this district. It's been about believing that we can make life more affordable for working families. Moline doesn't have any formal political experience while Schrier brings seven years. We didn't get a chance to ask Moline questions directly, but his website says the American dream is getting harder to reach because of affordability. I'm hearing a lot of pain right now, a lot of frustration with the administration and with the unwillingness of Republicans who hold the majorities right now to hold this administration accountable for everything they've done to hurt the people I represent. Maybe you're feeling the pinch at home. Everyday expenses from gas to groceries to your health are growing. Right now, people in this district are drowning. They're getting hit with higher and higher insurance premiums if they can get insurance at all. Schrier and Moline both want to protect public lands. They both want to relieve the squeeze families are feeling on their budgets, and they both support police. On his website, Moline's focus is homeownership. ownership. He says it's moving further out of reach. To fight that, he wants to build more and protect starter homes from large institutional investors buying them up. For her part, Schrier's focused on healthcare. The former pediatrician who lives with diabetes advocates for lowering insulin costs and protecting affordable insurance. Schrier also serves on the subcommittee for health, energy, commerce, manufacturing, and trade. She's pro data centers and advocates for balancing new tech with investments in hydro, wind and nuclear energy. We're using the internet, we're using social media, we're using AI and I don't see those things going away. The data centers are going to have to be somewhere and they're either here in the United States or they're in China or Saudi Arabia and I think they do need to be here. But here's the thing, they can't hurt us, they can't jack up our energy bills, they can't take our water resources for cooling. Molina says artificial intelligence may be one of the most consequential technologies of our generation, and government shouldn't try to stop innovation. When it comes to affordability, Molina says he wants to curb federal spending, cut regulations, and boost domestic fuel production to drive energy costs down. How we spend taxpayer dollars should reflect our values. Here in Washington, we want healthy forests that we can recreate in, and healthy forests that don't catch on fire and burn habitat. candidates sit on opposite sides of the aisle and live on different sides of our mountains and each hopes their message resonates with voters from Issaquah to Kashmir on November 3rd, election day. Reporting in the studio, I'm Taylor Winkle, Fox 13 News.