Initial election results in the November 2024 general election show that Washingtonians have rejected three measures sponsored by Republican State Party Chair Jim Walsh and funded by right wing multimillionaire Brian Heywood that would have repealed or sabotaged landmark laws to strengthen education funding, fight pollution, and improve access to long-term care.

A fourth measure spearheaded by Heywood and Walsh’s political machine to disrupt Washington’s transition to a clean energy future was too close to call.

The four Heywood and Walsh measures attempted to:

• Disrupt Washington’s transition to a clean energy future by making it more difficult for Puget Sound Energy to keep gas prices stable for customers who aren’t yet ready to electrify and prevent local communities from incentivizing a transition away from petroleum gas (Initiative 2066);
• Repeal the capital gains tax on the wealthy that helped make Washington’s tax code more equitable and provided long overdue revenue for education, early learning, childcare, and school construction (Initiative 2109);
• Dismantle Washington State’s landmark Climate Commitment Act, which we need to accelerate our transition to a clean energy future (Initiative 2117);
• Sabotage the Washington Cares Fund, which the Legislature created to ensure Washingtonians would be able to access funding for long term care when they need it (Initiative 2124).

“Our thanks to the people of Washington for voting down Initiatives 2109, 2117, and 2124,” said NPI founder Andrew Villeneuve. “For over a year, our team at NPI has been working with the Defend Washington coalition to secure the Evergreen State’s future and stop greed. The early results are a testament to the success of our movement’s organizing and mobilizing work. We have saved the Education Legacy Trust, the Climate Commitment Act, and the WA Cares Fund… and that feels really, really great.”

“In this election, the public investment impact disclosure (PIID) law we worked so hard on saw its first application,with PIIDs written for I-2109, I-2117, and I-2124. Our team heard from many voters that the PIIDs made it easier to vote on the initiatives and understand their ramifications. According to our research, more than eight in ten Washingtonians support this vital transparency law, including majorities of Republican voters. We’re delighted that it worked as intended and look forward to proposing and championing more reforms that will strengthen the initiative process.”

“Initiative 2066 remains too close to call. We’ll see what happens with the late ballots. The result may be close. If the measure is not defeated, our movement will confer on options for preventing its harmful provisions from going into effect, or mitigating them.”

Please visit StopGreed.org for more information, including a FAQ about the initiatives.