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Welcome to Permanent Defense, a project of the Northwest Progressive Institute founded in February of 2002 to protect the Evergreen State from bad ballot measures proposed by the militant right wing. Permanent Defense is a people-powered political action committee working to safeguard Washington’s common wealth, which funds our schools, mass transit, roads, parks, libraries, hospitals, police, fire, emergency response, and all of the essential public services that we as a people have created through the years through the wise investment of our tax dollars.
For decades, our common wealth and our pluralistic society have been threatened and attacked by a steady onslaught of right wing initiatives designed to paralyze our communities and wreck government by metaphorically drowning it in a bathtub. Permanent Defense was created to provide a year-round first response to these harmful ballot measures.
2026 scorecard: Our work against Brian Heywood’s slate of destructive initiatives
Through our Wrong For Washington campaign, we urged voters to reject Brian Heywood’s three 2026 divisive and dangerous initiatives. Two of the three have been rejected by voters in the general election and we’re supporting the legal challenge filed by the ACLU, Legal Voice, and Pacifica Law Group to finish off the third in the courts.
Defeated: Initiative 645
Together with the NO on 645 coalition, we defeated Initiative 645, upholding the million dollar earners tax and protecting billions in funding for K-12, higher education, healthcare, human services, and tax fairness.
Defeated: Initiative 001
Together with the No Hate in Washington State coalition, we defeated Initiative 001, protecting the balance between student privacy and parental rights enshrined in the Safety Act passed by the Legislature.
Ongoing: Initiative 638
The fight against Initiative 638 has moved to the courts after a majority of voters who turned out in the November general election voted in favor of Brian Heywood’s prove you have a vagina to play sports scheme.
