by Melissa Santos from Crosscut
Eight years ago, Kim Wyman wanted to be the first county auditor in Washington state to issue a same-sex marriage license.
Then the auditor in Thurston County, Wyman created a plan to give 10 same-sex couples their marriage licenses right as Washington’s same sex marriage law went into effect — at 12:01 a.m. on Dec. 6, 2012.
Now Washington’s secretary of state, Wyman, a Republican, calls issuing those first same-sex marriage licenses a highlight of her career. “It’s something I’m really proud of,” said Wyman, 58, who last week was elected to a third term.
Wyman’s early support of LGTBQ couples is just one of the ways she has shown her independence from the national Republican Party, whose platform still opposes same-sex marriage. This year, as Washington’s chief elections official, Wyman also has repeatedly countered President Donald Trump’s unsupported claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud. She has written op-eds and appeared frequently in national media outlets to defend voting by mail, a system Washington has employed statewide since 2011.
Wyman’s success has made her a rarity on the West Coast — a Republican who can actually win statewide races. Last week, she defeated Democratic state Rep. Gael Tarleton, fending off a fierce Democratic challenge in a state that has gone blue in the past nine presidential elections. Come January, Wyman will be the only Republican statewide elected official on the West Coast south of Alaska.
It’s a lonely club, but one Wyman knows well. When she was first elected in 2012, Wyman enjoyed the same distinction. At the time, no other Republicans occupied statewide elected office in California, Oregon, Washington or Hawaii.
During her second term, Wyman had more GOP company, as Washington’s state treasurer and Oregon’s secretary of state also were Republicans. But this month, Washington’s Republican state treasurer, Duane Davidson, lost his re-election bid, while a Democrat won the race to succeed Oregon’s GOP secretary of state.
Why has Wyman proved so resilient, even as Washington state and the region trends blue? Part of the reason may be tied to the office she holds. Republicans have won the secretary of state’s office in Washington every year since 1964.