by Jerry Cornfield, Washington State Standard
April 17, 2026
An early fundraising leader has emerged from the crowd of candidates battling to succeed retiring Republican Congressman Dan Newhouse in central Washington.
Republican Amanda McKinney, a Yakima County commissioner, hauled in $523,892 through the end of March, far outpacing the other seven people vying for the reliably GOP seat in the 4th Congressional District.
Meanwhile, in a closely watched congressional race in southwest Washington, Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez raised $1.3 million in the first quarter of 2026, more than three times the amount collected by the leading Republican challenger, John Braun, per the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission.
Congressional candidate fundraising totals for the first three months of this year were due Wednesday. The next reports, covering April 1 to June 30, will be posted in mid-July.
In the 4th District, McKinney, one of four Republican candidates, reported $451,000 on hand as of March 31, according to Federal Election Commission records.
She called the financial support “deeply humbling.”
“This is what momentum looks like,” said McKinney, who is endorsed by President Donald Trump. “While others are still trying to figure out their campaigns, we are building a movement.”
Those others include Republicans Jerrod Sessler of Prosser, who is making his third consecutive bid for the seat and also claims Trump’s backing, Matt Boehnke of Kennewick, a state senator, and John Hughs of Lind.
Boehnke, who entered the race in January, raised roughly $58,000 and had about $40,000 as of April 1. The reporting period coincided with the state legislative session.
Sessler’s first-quarter report was not online Thursday. Prior filings show that he ended 2025 with just over $96,000 in his campaign account. Hughs reported $1,300 in contributions.
John Duresky, the lone Democratic candidate, raised nearly $64,000 and had two-thirds of that sum available on April 1.
“We’re well positioned for the fight ahead,” said Duresky, who is trying to become the first Democrat since 1992 to win the U.S. House seat. Former Gov. Jay Inslee won it that year but lost reelection after one term to Doc Hastings, a Republican, who served until retiring in 2015. Newhouse succeeded Hastings.
As of Thursday, filings for Devin Poore and Favian Valencia, who are running as independents, were not online. Carmen Black became the eighth candidate earlier this month and is running as an independent.
Washington’s 4th District stretches through the middle of the state from the Canadian border to Oregon. It includes the agriculture-heavy Yakima Valley, the Yakama Indian Reservation, and the Tri-Cities.
Washington’s battleground
Gluesenkamp Perez is seeking a third term representing the 3rd Congressional District that encompasses Clark, Cowlitz, Lewis, Pacific, Wahkiakum, and Skamania counties and a small part of Thurston County.
In 2022, then a political novice, she stunned the political world by beating Republican Joe Kent, a Trump-backed right-wing spinner of conspiracy theories. Kent had defeated then-Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler, a moderate Republican, in that year’s primary. Herrera Beutler had represented the district since 2011.
Regaining the seat has been a GOP priority as it is viewed as pivotal to determining which party controls the U.S. House.
Gluesenkamp Perez, with her latest fundraising, had nearly $3.5 million on hand at the end of the first quarter. In the latest period, she received funds from individual contributors and a variety of political committees.
Her donors run the gamut from entertainer Barbra Streisand to Sierra Pacific Industries chief executive Mark Emmerson.
Braun, the state Senate minority leader who received Trump’s endorsement on Tuesday, hauled in $356,000. Combined with his earlier fundraising and spending, he reported just under $1 million on hand at the end of March.
Thus far, the bulk of his money is from individual contributors. Among them are Newhouse, McKinney, and Brian Heywood, founder and leader of the conservative political committee Let’s Go Washington.
Meanwhile, Brent Hennrich, a progressive Democrat running to the left of Gluesenkamp Perez, raised nearly $100,000, pushing his total for the election cycle to $167,000. He had just under $40,000 on hand on April 1.
Antony Barran, who entered the race as a Republican and is now running on the Cascade Party ticket, reported less than $2,000 in contributions this cycle. Combined with early fundraising, he had around $5,000 on hand.
Reports for three other candidates — Republicans Wadi Yakhour and Lawrence Kellogg and independent Suzzanna Tanner — were not online as of Thursday.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Washington State Standard maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Bill Lucia for questions: info@washingtonstatestandard.com.