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WA State: "Newcastle First!" candidates for city council are rebranded MAGA [1]

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Date: 2025-09-14

Newcastle is a small, affluent suburb of about 13,000 people near Seattle, Washington. The city voted 70% for Biden and Harris, but undercover MAGA candidates keep winning local races in the odd years, thanks to the lack of news coverage and voter turnout.

This year, we have four such candidates on the ballot, under the banner “Newcastle First.”

Sarah Goodman: A Microsoft PM with connections to creationist think tanks

A Microsoft PM with connections to creationist think tanks Kevin Kirkaldie: A real estate guy with a 30 year background in marketing and no website

A real estate guy with a 30 year background in marketing and no website Maggie Lo: A corporate accountant who learned responsible budget cuts from her work at Boeing.

A corporate accountant who learned responsible budget cuts from her work at Boeing. Jim Quigg: An HOA president who doesn’t want you to afford a home

“Newcastle First” is an obvious dog whistle for Trump’s “America First” nationalist platform, which in itself was a dog whistle for the same slogan popularized by the KKK and Nazi apologists. If you don’t see the connection, it’s because you weren’t supposed to: The entire purpose of a dog whistle is to alert the base without alerting the general public, like a hidden codeword or inside joke. The average Trump voter won’t associate “America First” with white supremacy, but the average white supremacist definitely will. That’s what makes it a good dog whistle.

Their agenda of “Small, safe, quiet” is a reinforces the same fear mongering and xenophobia that caused their appointed security guard to shoot and kill an innocent teenager last year. The guard is now facing murder charges, but the “Newcastle First” movement still refuse to condemn or address his actions. Instead, the MAGA Mayor Rob Clark issued a blanket statement for calling for sympthy “to those involved,” which would also include the shooter as a person involved with the shooting.

I really didn’t want to make this account, or else I would have made it sooner. But then I saw children being groomed with “Newcastle First” helium balloons without knowing the implications. The movement is backed by powerful conservatives like Steve Buri. Newcastle residents may recognize Buri as the former mayor if they recognize him at all, but MAGA will recognize Buri as the longtime president of the Discovery Institute, a group known for trying to brainwash children by forcing creationism into public schools with the longterm goal of undermining the the very concept of science itself to push an authoritarian theocracy. We still see this in Newcastle today, like when the current MAGA Mayor and members of the Planning Commission recently issued public statements dismissing the concept of science as an SJW conspiracy.

Why does a city full of tech workers keep electing leaders who hate science? Because no one told them. Buri never mentioned his single biggest accomplishment the voters pamphlet, but the evangelicals already knew. And the same is true for the current “Newcastle First” candidate, who try to evade any discussion on their actual positions. They will dodge any direct question regarding Trump and claim it doesn’t matter because the positions are “non-partisan.”

In 2024, the conservative majority faced scandal after scandal after revealing their their colors, and the three conservatives up for re-election have all decided to quit after only one term rather than face the public. “Newcastle First” is a lazy rebrand, new names to sell the same old product, like when “Chuck-E-Cheese” calls itself “Pasqually's Pizza” on DoorDash. That is why Sarah Goodman boasts her endorsement from former Mayor Buri, but not from current Mayor Clark: Because Clark is now recognized as MAGA by everyone, but Buri is recognized as MAGA by fellow MAGA, and Goodman only wants MAGA to know where she really stands.

Newcastle conservatives don’t win elections by being popular, they win by staying hidden. That’s why I decided to create this account, because I’m tired of the deception. In 2023, conservatives lost two seats by 300-500 votes, and won two seats by 16 and 76 votes.

There is a lot at stake in this upcoming election, as conservatives seem dead set on driving us off a fiscal cliff, while pushing a MAGA agenda on equal rights and housing. Democracy only works if people actually know who they’re voting for, and the conservatives are doing everything in their power to prevent that.

In the upcoming election, we have four candidates who are proudly endorsed by the democratic party and fighting the good fight for democracy: Andy Jacobs, Chris Villasenor, Paul Charbonneau, and Karin Blakley. Any amount of help or support would make a huge difference.

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