Having seemingly not learned any lessons from Dino Rossi’s four unsuccessful bids for higher office this century, Kim Schrier’s Republican opponent Matt Larkin declared this week in an interview with The Herald of Everett that Washington’s minimum wage should be “closer” to the federal hourly minimum of $7.25.

That’s right: Larkin thinks Washington should lower its minimum wage, which is presently $14.49 an hour and due to rise to $15.72 as of January 1st, 2023. (In accordance with two voter approved initiatives, it’s periodically adjusted upwards to account for the cost of living, unlike the federal minimum wage.)

While other local Trump followers, like Loren Culp, have run campaigns in recent years that tried to appeal to working class voters, Larkin appears not to be making any such effort. Instead, he’s handing Democrats a late October gift.

The minimum wage has surfaced before as a key dividing line between candidates for high profile office in Washington State. As mentioned, Republicans like Dino Rossi have paid a political price for siding against working families.

In 2008, Washingtonians had a choice between Democratic Governor Chris Gregoire and Rossi, who had narrowly lost to Gregoire four years prior.

Gregoire campaigned on her support for the minimum wage, while Rossi declared that the minimum wage had never been meant to be a living wage — just an entry wage. Governor Gregoire won reelection without difficulty.

Eight years later, when Governor Jay Inslee was...

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