And for the first time in memory, the number of registered Democrats in Deschutes County recently eclipsed the number of Republicans. The transformation shows how demographic shifts and the GOP’s tack further to the right are helping push the party into a nosedive along the West Coast. Now, Republicans are struggling to hold seats in Congress, statehouses and city councils up and down the coast. “There is no way out,” Chris Vance, a former Washington state Republican Party chairman and legislator, said in a telephone interview. The result: The GOP has lost all the statehouse seats it once held in Seattle’s eastern suburbs.

Source: thestar February 26, 2020 14:26 UTC