Washington State Republican Party Grays Harbor County State Committeeman Jim Walsh rounds out a six-candidate field in the upcoming election to elect a new state GOP chair to replace the recently resigned ex-chair Kirby Wilbur.

Walsh jumped into the race last week with a brief but pointed statement to Republican state committee members.

“I’m running for WSRP because the Party has lost its way philosophically,” Walsh wrote to the committee.

Implying that the reluctance of Evergreen State voters to elect Republicans stems from the party sending out a watered-down message, Walsh promises a “reboot” to reinforce with the electorate that the Republican Party stands for the values of “individual liberty, lower taxes, transparency and balanced budgets at all levels of government.”

Walsh is running against Whatcom County State Committeewoman and interim-Chair Luanne Van Werven, former television news anchor and executive director of the Simonyi Foundation Susan Hutchison, Clark County Republican Party Operations Director Christian Berrigan, Benton County precinct committee officer Lloyd Becker, and former state Senator Larry Faulk.

The WSRP State Committee will vote to elect the new chair at its Aug. 23-24 meeting in Spokane.