WA-8: Reichert retiring

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Toss-Up at worst for Democrats. Unlike GA-06, this is the kind of district where Trump is really toxic, and it's not like it's "ancestrally Republican". Reichert was just very entrenched, and he still came within inches of losing once.

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Anyways, according to DRA, Rossi won this district 55-45 during his 2010 Senate run, so if he runs I imagine he wins.

That was in a 4% loss for him statewide. Hardly typical for a Congressional race in Washington. Hard to imagine the 2018 results being that favorable for Republicans. Rossi would have a chance, but no one should be saying that he will definitely win.

Oh, and as far as the Washington gubernatorial race goes, some wise American men were fond of telling me last year "you lost, get over it." I think that may apply here.

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This seems like a district where running a generic Very Serious moderate would be a good idea.

I might not go quite that far, but it's definitely a district that would be less friendly to a Sanders-esque candidate than most in Washington.

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Rossi is old news, and 2018 probably won't be as good of a year for Republicans as 2004 or 2010. That said, still a Toss-Up, since it's a competitive district.

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So now that we’re in December dino is still the only republican running while it’s a clown car race on the democrats side I still leave the race at lean republican.

It's not always the case that the side with the more crowded primary loses. In fact, in many recent elections, it's just the opposite.

I'll concede that Rossi will probably overperform a generic R here, but I'd expect a generic R to lose here by at least high single digits, if not double digits. Rossi will probably at least make a race out of this, but I'd rate it a Toss-Up, and my hunch is that it flips to the Democrats, given how toxic Trump is in this district.