The 50 is a four-year multimedia project in which the Fulcrum visits different communities across all 50 states to learn what motivated them to vote in the 2024 presidential election and see how the Donald Trump administration is meeting those concerns and hopes.
Washington State has historically fluctuated between Republican and Democratic preferences. While it was considered a Republican-leaning swing state until the 1980s, the political landscape shifted significantly in the following decades. Since 1988, the Democratic Party has won every presidential election in Washington, consistently achieving victory by double-digit margins since 2008.
As expected, Kamala Harris comfortably won the state in the 2024 presidential election. While Donald Trump improved his margin in all fifty states, Washington had the smallest swing to the right.
Soon after returning to the White House, Trump quickly eliminated environmental safeguards on more than half of the nation’s national forests, opening up 59% of the land for logging, including Washington.
- YouTubeyoutu.be
With its majestic mountains, lush forests, and rugged coastline, Washington State is renowned for its stunning natural beauty. This makes it a beloved destination for nature enthusiasts and outdoor adventurers alike.
Green spaces, such as national parks and urban forests, are an important part of Washington State residents' culture. They offer substantial benefits for physical and mental health while also contributing to environmental well-being.
An infrastructure project in Bellevue to update essential wastewater systems is designed to improve habitats for fish and wildlife and increase access to natural areas for people of all abilities.
“The Coal Creek sewer upgrade is a large capacity-driven upgrade project. We are upsizing the pipes to accommodate increased demand," said Scott Mingus, Project Manager with King County. The current sewer line, installed in the 1960s, crosses under the creek in multiple locations, generally following the creek with multiple maintenance holes.
Salmon-Safehas recognized the design of King County's Wastewater Treatment Division project for its dual focus on minimizing environmental impact and enhancing local ecosystems.
"We're really in an urban forest. This is a great example of how we can continue to restore nature, but also have highly engineered and functioning stormwater and wastewater systems coming through, and it not being a detriment to the aquatic life or the habitat here," said Ella Sandquist, Director of Salmon-Safe Puget Sound.
Effective community communication is vital for the success of an enterprise as large and ambitious as the Coal Creek Sewer Upgrade Project. It helps build trust, ensures project transparency, and fosters buy-in from stakeholders.
"Our first introduction is to say, 'Here's the services we provide. Here's the incredible value for you and the environment. Here's the project we have and the problem we're starting to solve," said Monica Van der Vieren, Community Services Project Lead with King County. "And we do that early, so that we can start to hear community values."
Collaboration with governments is crucial for addressing projects that can significantly impact environmental outcomes. Bellevue's Mayor Lynne Robinsonsaid partnerships allow for broader, more impactful solutions to complex problems.
"Looking at all the opportunities that you have. We have all these lists of things we'd like to get done if we could, and pulling everybody together so that we can work together and get it done. We're trying to undo some of the things we did wrong when we didn't understand," said Robinson.
Environmental organizations like the Issaquah Alps Trails Club are crucial in raising awareness about environmental issues, empowering individuals and communities to take action, and driving systemic change by influencing policies and corporate practices.
Kelly Jiang, president of the Club, said the organization's work involves both inside and outside work. "So, the inside game is talking with legislators, working with agency staff on what are some shared goals. The outside game is activism," she said. "Some of the most important achievements have been about working together to find denser solutions that pair denser development with open space."
Green spaces improve air quality, moderate temperatures, and reduce noise pollution while providing opportunities for recreation, social interaction, and stress relief.
"I think it's important for my health to get fresh air, to disconnect from stress, from work, and to remember what this area was like before all the humans got here," said Alejandro, a resident of Bellevue.
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Editor's Note: Hugo Balta is the executive editor of the Fulcrum and a board member of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund, the parent organization of The Fulcrum. He is the publisher of the Latino News Network and a trainer with the Solutions Journalism Network.
image of U.S. President Donald Trump is displayed on a digital billboard in Times Square in New York on April 8, 2026.
Trump is stuck between two realities. Neither serves the American people
Normally, I worry that events may overtake a column. But not so with the Iran war.
I don’t worry about running afoul of a headline or Truth Social post from the president because what is said about the situation is no longer very relevant to the reality.
On April 8, Nick Catoggio, my Dispatch colleague, dubbed an earlier stoppage with Iran “Schrödinger’s ceasefire.” This was a reference to the famous thought experiment by the physicist Erwin Schrödinger, who was trying to explain the weirdness of “superpositionality” in quantum physics. A cat in a box is both dead and alive at the same time until you open the box. Schrödinger meant to illustrate the absurdity of the idea that particles aren’t any one thing, but a “cloud of probabilities.”
The Trump administration is stuck in a word cloud of probabilities of his own making. The war is over. The war is on. The war isn’t a war. We have a deal, but we don’t have a deal, but we’re about to have a deal. We destroyed Iran’s military. No, we left it intact. We want regime change. No we don’t. We already accomplished it. We “obliterated” Iran’s nuclear program a year ago. We had to go to war in February to prevent nuclear war. The Strait of Hormuz is open, closed, or something in-between. No deal without “unconditional surrender.” Let’s make a deal!
This everything-all-at-once vibe can be disorienting, particularly since most Americans didn’t have a war with Iran on their bingo cards until the shooting had already started. President Trump didn’t prepare the country or consult with Congress beforehand because he thought it would all be a smashing success in a matter of weeks.
The miscalculation that started it all: killing Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and much of Iran’s senior leadership, on the first day of the war. To “the great proud people of Iran, I say tonight that the hour of your freedom is at hand,” Trump announced on Feb. 28. “When we are finished, take over your government. It will be yours to take. This will be probably your only chance for generations.”
I support regime change in Iran and shed no tears for Khamenei or his goons. But when you start a war by killing the regime’s top leaders, it’s not unreasonable for the remaining ones to conclude that you really intend regime change.
Khamenei was a murderous fanatic, but he was a fairly cautious one. He liked to threaten closing the Strait of Hormuz or attacking our regional allies, but he was reluctant to actually do it, fearing it would invite a regime change war. The mullahs and IRGC goons believed, not unreasonably, that if they lost their grip on power, they’d be lynched by the Iranian people they’ve brutalized for decades.
By starting with a regime change war, Trump removed any reason for the regime not to go for broke. When you have nothing to lose — particularly when you are a millenarian religious fanatic — a Persian Alamo strategy makes a lot of sense.
So Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz and attacked its neighbors.
But it turns out this wasn’t the Alamo. In the contest of wills, Trump blinked. The Iranian regime’s tolerance for punishment proved — so far — to be greater than Trump’s and that of our gulf allies. Militarily we could finish the job, but that would require ground troops and much greater economic turmoil. In a conflict Trump launched unilaterally without the prior support of Congress, NATO or the American people, Trump doesn’t have the political capital for that.
But that’s only half the problem. Trump wants the war over, but he doesn’t want to pay — militarily, economically, politically — what that would cost. So he wants to make a deal that ends it. But there is no deal available that wouldn’t come at an equally undesirable cost. Any deal that looks like what President Obama struck with the Iranians would be too embarrassing to bear. But the Iranians are convinced that they can get just such a deal, and they’re willing to drag things out as long as it takes.
The result: Trump’s in a box of his own making. He thinks he can talk his way out by simply asserting a reality that doesn’t exist. When the financial markets get nervous, he announces a breakthrough that is, at best, a possibility. When the Iranians agree to a deal that looks similar to one Obama might negotiate, Trump goes back to his threats.
It can’t go on forever. But I’m sure it’ll last until long after this column is forgotten.
Jonah Goldberg is editor-in-chief of The Dispatch and the host of The Remnant podcast. His Twitter handle is @JonahDispatch.