Of the nine statewide positions in Washington's executive branch, only one is officially “bipartisan”: Superintendent of Public Instruction, often shortened to “just.” OSPI. Voters in the Evergreen State may wonder why everyone else has party designations in leadership positions other than these, and the answer is that in 1938 voters approved a statewide initiative, I-126, that made the position officially “bipartisan.”

“The best interests of this state’s schoolchildren will be served when the administration of schools is removed from partisan politics,” the initiative’s introduction states. Voters believed this argument – the initiative received 65.69% support in the 1938 general election. The real effect of I-126's passage, however, was to make voting for the superintendent position much more difficult in the decades that followed, without succeeding in “removing the administration of schools from partisan politics.”

That's because we still have elected office as provided for in the Constitution, just without party labels, making it harder for voters to determine who shares their values. However, the partisan politics remained. Partisanship cannot be removed from politics, it is simply not possible. Everyone in the political arena has values, principles, policies they support, and an agenda to achieve those policies.

This also applies to this year's candidates for OSPI.

Incumbent Chris Reykdal is a progressive supported by the Democratic Party; Challenger David Olson is an ultra-MAGA reactionary supported by Republicans.

Our October 2024 poll of Washington state voters finds that Reykdal had a narrow advantage over Olson early in the election cycle. Of the 571 likely voters surveyed Oct. 16-17 by Public Policy Polling for the Northwest Progressive Institute, 21% said they would vote for Reykdal, while 18% said Olson. A much larger percentage, 61%, said they weren't sure who they were voting for.

This result has some similarities to our 2020 result for the same position. At the time, Reykdal was seeking a second term against Republican-backed challenger Maia Espinoza, who is now running for state Senate in the 28th Legislative District against Democratic incumbent T'wina Nobles. Reykdal's lead in our October 2020 poll was seven points, with 30% saying they would vote for him and 23% saying they would support Espinoza. 47%, a little less than half, said they were undecided.

Reykdal won with 54.57% of the vote, while Espinoza received 44.92%.

The key to Reykdal's victory at the time was that voters became aware of his democratic support and progressive values. And this year is no different. OSPI may be officially “nonpartisan,” but the majority of Washington voters want to be represented by a Democrat, not a Republican, especially because the Republican Party has morphed into a cult that worships Donald Trump and openly promotes a march toward him promotes authoritarianism.

Reykdal's opponent, David Olson, oscillated between suggesting he was a sensible guy who wanted the best for our youth and openly displaying his extreme, ultra-MAGA views. At the Washington State Republican Party convention in April, Olson declared that “all universities could go bankrupt and that would save America.”

“This is disqualifying,” the Seattle Times editorial board noted. “Washington cannot have a superintendent committed to ending higher education.”

The editors added:

Olson says his comment was facetious; He was entranced by the “strange atmosphere” of the “loud” GOP convention. This justification does not inspire confidence.

Additionally, Olson's attempt to distance himself from previous statements about banning history classes that position certain groups as “victims” or “oppressors” was anything but straightforward.

In June, he told the editors that those comments were ill-considered and did not reflect his views, a rookie mistake made three years earlier by a man who did not understand how his words would land.

Please. At the Republican meeting in April, he proudly repeated the same words, successfully trying to win the party's support.

It's only natural to expect that he will display the same duplicity with future voters and lawmakers.

The Seattle Times concluded that Reykdal was the only choice and joined The Stranger and other newspapers in recommending that the incumbent be returned for another term.

Reykdal says his priorities for the next four years are:

• Full funding of basic education
• Supports mental health
• Keep our public schools public
• Graduation from high school
• Opportunity gaps
• Protecting LGBTQ+ Students
• We protect our students from gun violence
• Excellent teachers
• Expansion of dual credit options
• Expanding Career and Technical Education (CTE)
• High standards with local control
• Early learning
• Capital budgets
• Protecting our environment and the future of our students
• (Free) school meals (for everyone)
• Bilingual extension

Olson's website lists six priorities:

• Focus on academic quality and support opportunities
• Dealing with mental health and discipline
• Expanding the possibilities for crafts
• Achieve financial sustainability
• Chronic student absenteeism
• Student assessment

If voters know what Olson has said and what he has told the Republican audience about what he wants to do, then I think it is extremely unlikely that he will win.

At the moment, however, most voters seem very unsure about who is who.

Reykdal has been on the statewide ballot before, but OSPI is pretty far down. There is a lack of visibility from higher-level offices such as governor, attorney general and secretary of state. And as we've discussed, it's the only leadership position where candidates aren't allowed to declare a party preference, which isn't helpful to voters.

Reykdal has made breakthroughs before and our team considers him the favorite. But he definitely has the toughest job running statewide for Democrats this year. No other statewide race had such a narrow margin in our poll.

Here is the question we asked and the answers we received:

ASK:

ANSWER:

• Chris Reykdal: 21%
• David Olson: 18%
• Not sure: 61%

Our poll of 571 likely Washington state voters in 2024 was on-site from Wednesday, October 16th to Thursday, October 17th, 2024.

The survey uses a combined methodology with automated telephone calls to landlines (42%) and online responses from respondents recruited via SMS (58%).

It was conducted by Public Policy Polling (PPP) for the Northwest Progressive Institute and has a margin of error of +/- 4.1% at the 95% confidence interval.

NPI and PPP have worked together for a decade and have an outstanding track record, as detailed in this summary of the 2022 and this 2020 election polls.

Do you value coverage of downballot contests? Support the work of NPI!

NPI is the only organization that polls the entire Washington state ballot up and down and publishes the results. If you value this important research, please consider becoming a member or donating. You can also subscribe to our sister publication, The Chinook Beacon, where we publish even more survey results.

More downballot polls will be released this week

We will be releasing additional polls throughout the week, including for other leadership positions. Findings that have already been published can be found in our archive.