October 12, 2022

Headlines about Smiley’s attempts to hide her extreme views from Washington voters are piling up 

Axios:“GOP Senate candidate scrubs website of 2020 election doubts” 

HuffPo: “GOP Senate Candidate Scrubs Election ‘Integrity’ Section From Website”

ICYMI: On CNN this weekend, Tiffany Smiley would not admit Biden was legitimately elected — asked three times by Dana Bash

(Seattle, WA) — With nine weeks left before the general election, MAGA Republican Tiffany Smiley is increasingly gaining national attention for her extreme views — even as she doubles down on efforts to try to hide them. No matter how hard she tries, Tiffany Smiley can’t run from her extreme record that is way out of touch with Washington voters.

“Tiffany Smiley made a choice at the start of her campaign to embrace Donald Trump, endorse one of the most extreme abortion bans in the country, support Mitch McConnell for majority leader without batting an eye, and promote dangerous conspiracy theories about the 2020 election,” said Washington state Democratic Party spokesperson Caitlin Harrington. “No matter how much she tries to hide it now, there’s no escaping the facts: Tiffany Smiley is way too extreme for our state and cannot be trusted an iota to stand up for Washingtonians’ rights.”

Here are Smiley’s most extreme positions on major issues — all of which put her way out of touch with Washington state voters.

  • PROMOTES BASELESS LIES ABOUT ELECTION FRAUD: Smiley drew national press attention after removing the “ELECTION INTEGRITY” section of her website that stated, among other things, that “The 2020 election raised serious questions about the integrity of our elections.” After Washington’s primary election, Smiley replaced that section of her website with a far more sanitized version — and in a recent CNN interview, she refused to admit that President Biden was fairly elected.
  • PROUDLY ANTI-ABORTION AND PRO-FORCED BIRTH: Smiley celebrated the Dobbs v. Jackson Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, endorsed the Texas abortion ban — one of the most extreme in the nation, with no exceptions for rape or incest — and is raising money from, campaigning with, and collecting endorsements from anti-abortion politicians who are committed to passing a national abortion ban. Notably, one of Smiley’s first endorsements came from U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA), who is reportedly drafting legislation that would ban abortion nationwide.
  • PRO-TRUMP AND ANTI-DEMOCRACY: Smiley has aligned herself with former President Donald Trump, saying it would be “awesome” to have Trump’s endorsement — despite mounting and undeniable evidence that Trump incited an insurrection to overturn a free and fair election. Additionally, Smiley has accepted thousands in campaign donations from Richard Uihlein, Cliff Asness, and Laurel Asness, three prominent Republican donors who gave money to groups and legislators who sought to overturn the results of the 2020 election — Uihlein in particular contributed millions to the Tea Party Patriots, one of the leading groups behind the January 6th insurrection.
  • BACKED BY MAGA REPUBLICANS WHO KNOW SHE’D BACK THEIR EXTREME AGENDA: Smiley has promised her donors that they can count on her to “always be a rock-solid conservative vote” and touted the support she received from extreme MAGA Republicans including Elise Stefanik and Rick Scott. Stefanik, a self-avowed “ultra Trumper,” campaigned on the dangerous and racist “replacement theory” conspiracy in a political advertisement; Smiley called Stefanik a “groundbreaking leader in the Republican Party.”  Smiley’s campaign has also touted that Senator Rick Scott had held a fundraiser and overflow reception for Smiley; Senator Scott is leading the charge on the Senate Republican policy agenda which could eliminate Medicare and Social Security in five years.
  • A RUBBER STAMP FOR MITCH MCCONNELL: In an interview with McClatchy, Smiley gushed about how she told Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell in a meeting that it would be great for Washington to be the state that flipped control of the Senate in 2022. Smiley has run her campaign notably “light on specifics,” leaving no doubt that she will be a rubber stamp for Mitch McConnell’s radical agenda.
  • ANTI-LGBTQ AND BUDDY-BUDDY WITH CHRISTIAN FUNDAMENTALIST GRAHAM FAMILY: Smiley has repeatedly praised far-right extremist Billy Graham and his family, despite their egregious history of anti-LGBTQ+ activism. Smiley called Billy Graham an “amazing man of God,” said it was great to see Franklin Graham, and that she loved sharing her story with the Billy Graham Association. NBC News noted that Billy Graham was known for being a “crusader” against LGBTQ+ rights, that Franklin Graham claimed Satan was behind LGBTQ+ rights, and that the Billy Graham Association provided a platform for “virulent homophobia. Smiley also echoed the Graham family’s transphobic beliefs, retweeting Franklin Graham’s claim that “God created two different genders” and quote tweeting Franklin Graham’s praise for Trump’s ban on transgender people serving in the military, adding that “Under Obama admin you could be trans in the military but not a Christian.”
  • ANTI-OBAMACARE WITH NO REPLACEMENT OR PLAN: Smiley said in 2021 that she had seen the “failures of Obamacare” and argued against “expand[ing] the reach of the government or the bureaucrats” further into health care. She touts “opposing the government takeover” of health care but has not released any health care plan of her own – and notably, the only health care plan Senate Republicans have put forward is ending Medicare. 
  • IN THE POCKET OF THE ANTI-PUBLIC SCHOOL DEVOS FAMILY: Smiley accepted thousands in campaign donations from Richard “Dick” DeVos, the husband of Trump’s Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who said in 2022 that she thought “the Department Of Education should not exist.” One of Smiley’s biggest champions is Senator Rick Scott, whose agenda calls for eliminating the Department of Education. 
  • ENDORSED TRUMP TAX GIVEAWAYS FOR THE WEALTHY BUT OPPOSED TAX CUTS FOR MIDDLE-CLASS FAMILIES: Smiley said on FOX News that she “looks forward” to extending the Trump tax cuts, which overwhelmingly benefitted corporations and the wealthy, exploded the deficit, and put vital programs like Medicare and Social Security at risk of devastating cuts. But Smiley opposed the American Rescue Plan, which expanded multiple tax credits that benefited low-income and middle-class Americans — including the historic expanded Child Tax Credit, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit — and also came out strongly opposed to the Inflation Reduction Act, which caps prescription drug prices for seniors, lowers health care costs, and cuts families’ energy bills. 

###