A bitter battle is brewing in one of Washington state’s last swing districts

Battle Ground is at the heart of the 18th Legislative District, an area that has been a Republican stronghold for decades but has been shifting blue in recent years. Currently, the district is represented by Republicans at the state House level, but it also has a Democratic state senator, a rarity in an increasingly divided Washington state, where a single party tends to control all the seats in a given district.

Democrats are looking to scoop up more legislative seats this November in Battle Ground and other chunks of Southwestern Washington as they edge toward a supermajority in Olympia — a shift that would give them broad power to pass legislation or redraw the state’s voting maps.

A total of four state House seats in the 18th and neighboring 17th Legislative District are up for election, and the sitting Republican representatives underperformed in the primary race against Democratic challengers.

Shifting demographics in the region are helping change who gets elected here, said Dean Nielsen, a Democratic political consultant.

The area has long been home to conservative Christians – evident on a drive through Battle Ground, where there seems to be a church every few blocks – but more families are relocating up from the Portland metro area, just across the state line, looking for affordable housing.

“It's been Republican for most of the time I've been in politics for the last 30 years,” Nielsen said. “It was rural turf, and as these areas have suburbanized, different types of people have moved there. Young families with kids and who are turned off, I think, by the national Republican social agenda, and they're turned off by, in particular, Donald Trump.”

This fall, Republican incumbents Reps. John Ley, Stephanie McClintock, Kevin Waters, and David Stuebe will face Democratic challengers, Deken Letinich, Randi Knott, Ben Christly, and Diana Perez respectively. After the August primary, all four Democratic challengers were leading their races with over 50% of the vote.

Part of what’s made these contests so competitive is a flood of attention and campaign dollars into a particularly hot Congressional race, Neilson said. The 17th and 18th Legislative Districts are located within the 3rd Congressional District, where incumbent Democratic U.S. Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez is running against Republican John Braun, a state Senator. Nielsen said extra money and support from this Congressional race has trickled into down-ballot matchups in the area.