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Republican Chris Vance Avoids Social Issues In Bid To Unseat Patty Murray

Vance for Senate Campaign
Republican political commentator and former GOP chair Chris Vance has announced he will run against U.S. Senator Patty Murray in 2016.

Longtime Washington U.S. Senator Patty Murray has drawn a Republican challenger. Former GOP Chair Chris Vance says he plans to focus on issues like the national debt. Vance formally announced his 2016 run Tuesday.

Vance launched his campaign with a video announcement and a promise to be a different kind of candidate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZy5x_PvBcc

Chris Vance Video: “No cheesy, Hollywood style attack ads. No empty meaningless clichés. I’m going to look you in the eye and we’re going to talk about what’s broken in America ….”

Vance says he’s not running to change laws on abortion, same-sex marriage or marijuana. Instead, he says his top priority is debt-reduction in the spirit of President Obama’s bipartisan commission on fiscal reform.

Chris Vance: “It is still the in my view the blueprint of what we need to do: we need to cap discretionary spending, we need pro-growth tax reform and we need to make changes in Social Security and Medicare in order to save Social Security and Medicare.”

Vance is a former state legislator and King County councilmember. He’s also a prominent political commentator. In a statement, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee labeled Vance a “partisan extremist.”

Since January 2004, Austin Jenkins has been the Olympia-based political reporter for the Northwest News Network. In that position, Austin covers Northwest politics and public policy as well as the Washington State legislature. You can also see Austin on television as host of TVW's (the C–SPAN of Washington State) Emmy-nominated public affairs program "Inside Olympia." Prior to joining the Northwest News Network, Austin worked as a television reporter in Seattle, Portland and Boise. Austin is a graduate of Garfield High School in Seattle and Connecticut College in New London, Connecticut. Austin’s reporting has been recognized with awards from the Association of Capitol Reporters and Editors, Public Radio News Directors Incorporated and the Society of Professional Journalists.