‘Empty and Bleak and Pathetic’: Baumgartner Mans Washington’s Empty Booth after Ferguson Skips the State Fair

Seattle Red

June 29, 2026

By Jason Rantz

Washington’s official booth at the Great American State Fair sat nearly empty this week, just two borrowed rocking chairs and a bare backdrop, after Gov. Bob Ferguson declined to send the state to the nation’s 250th birthday celebration on the National Mall. Rep. Michael Baumgartner showed up and worked it himself.

The Spokane Republican manned the stripped-down display while Idaho and Arizona drew crowds to lively pavilions. The chairs came from the America250 organization, not the state itself. Baumgartner, who has made a habit of publicly calling out Ferguson's record, treated the bare booth as proof of the governor’s priorities.

Ferguson is one of several Democratic governors who kept their states home. The stated reason was cost. Baumgartner doesn’t buy it.

Read the full article in the Seattle Red.