Wyman has also often played foil to Trump and his false allegations of widespread voter fraud. Last year, Wyman was sued by Republican gubernatorial candidate Loren Culp, who alleged that the 2020 election was rife with fraud. Leading up to and since the 2020 election, Wyman has defended America’s voting systems - and in particular Washington’s vote-by-mail system - as secure and reliable.Īt times that’s put her at odds with her fellow Republicans. “The opportunity to serve our country as a guardian of our election system and to be part of an agency that is the tip of the spear defending our country is a high honor,” Wyman wrote Tuesday in a note to her supporters. our elections are a foundation of our democracy and not a partisan tool,” Sinderman said.įor Wyman, a former county auditor, joining the Biden administration provides a chance to work with all 50 states during a time of persistent cyberthreats to election security, as well as unprecedented attacks by former President Donald Trump and his supporters on the integrity of elections. “I think it’s a smart, tactical move and hopefully will help reassure a segment of the electorate nationally that …. From 2018 to 2020 Masterson held the position Wyman has been appointed to.Ĭhristian Sinderman, a longtime Democratic political consultant in Washington state, also praised the decision by the Biden administration to appoint Wyman. “There is not a better person out there to take over and lead the election security team towards 20,” said Matt Masterson, a non-resident fellow at Stanford University and former DHS official. In her new role with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency ( CISA), Wyman will focus on the "security and resilience of our election infrastructure," according to an official announcement of her appointment. Wyman’s federal appointment is noteworthy because she’s a Republican joining a Democratic presidential administration. The move had been previously reported by CNN and the Associated Press.Ī vacancy in a statewide office, other than on the Supreme Court, is unprecedented in recent Washington state history. On Tuesday, three-term incumbent Secretary of State Kim Wyman, who was re-elected last year, announced she will resign on November 19 to accept a top election security position within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
It’s a political anomaly, and something of an unexplained phenomenon, in a state that otherwise has mostly elected Democrats to statewide office in recent decades.īut now the Republican Party’s 56-year grip on the office could be about to slip away.
Since 1965, Republicans have controlled Washington’s secretary of state office.
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