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Carmela Conroy
Carmela Conroy (Democratic Party) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Washington's 5th Congressional District. She declared candidacy for the primary scheduled on August 4, 2026.
Biography
Carmela Conroy was born in Spokane, Washington. She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Washington. She earned a graduate degree from the U.S. Naval War College and a law degree from the University of Washington School of Law. Her career experience includes working as a public servant, U.S. Foreign Service Officer, national security professional, deputy prosecuting attorney, fast food service worker, child care worker, event planner, and teacher. She has been affiliated with League of Women Voters, Friends of the Bluff, Spokane Preservation Advocates, and American Foreign Service Association.[1]
Elections
2026
See also: Washington's 5th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on August 4, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. General election candidates will be added here following the primary.
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House Washington District 5
Incumbent Michael Baumgartner, Carmela Conroy, Ann Marie Danimus, and Anthony Jensen are running in the primary for U.S. House Washington District 5 on August 4, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Michael Baumgartner (R) | |
 | Carmela Conroy (D) | |
 | Ann Marie Danimus (D) | |
| Anthony Jensen (R) | ||
| ||||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2024
See also: Washington's 5th Congressional District election, 2024
Washington's 5th Congressional District election, 2024 (August 6 top-two primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House Washington District 5
Michael Baumgartner defeated Carmela Conroy in the general election for U.S. House Washington District 5 on November 5, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Michael Baumgartner (R) | 60.6 | 240,619 |
| Carmela Conroy (D) | 39.3 | 156,074 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 593 | ||
| Total votes: 397,286 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House Washington District 5
The following candidates ran in the primary for U.S. House Washington District 5 on August 6, 2024.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Michael Baumgartner (R) | 27.5 | 55,859 |
| ✔ | | Carmela Conroy (D) | 18.3 | 37,227 |
 | Jacquelin Maycumber (R) | 13.6 | 27,717 | |
 | Bernadine Bank (D) | 11.9 | 24,111 | |
 | Brian Dansel (R) | 10.8 | 21,983 | |
| Ann Marie Danimus (D) | 5.6 | 11,306 | |
 | Jonathan Bingle (R) | 3.7 | 7,510 | |
 | Rene' Holaday (R) | 3.0 | 6,180 | |
 | Rick Flynn (R) | 2.4 | 4,822 | |
 | Matthew Welde (D) | 2.1 | 4,183 | |
 | Bobbi Bennett-Wolcott (D) | 1.1 | 2,336 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 175 | ||
| Total votes: 203,409 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R)
- John Guenther (R)
- Jody Spurgeon (R)
- Terri Cooper (R)
Endorsements
Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Conroy in this election.
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Carmela Conroy has not yet completed Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey. Send a message to Carmela Conroy asking her to fill out the survey. If you are Carmela Conroy, click here to fill out Ballotpedia's 2026 Candidate Connection survey.
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2024
Video for Ballotpedia
| Video submitted to Ballotpedia Released May 21, 2024 |
Carmela Conroy completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2024. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Conroy's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
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Rooted in the hard work and resilience of her family, Carmela paid her way through college and law school, returning home to serve as a deputy prosecutor for Spokane County. For four years she sought justice for the survivors of violence and sexual assault. She left home again to join the U.S. Foreign Service.
Carmela negotiated access to foreign ports for U.S. Navy ships, bilateral trade agreements, and militia disarmament. Through her service Carmela built connections with veterans, active-duty military personnel, and other national security professionals. Our nation faces complex challenges both at home and abroad, and Carmela has the experience to address them.
Dysfunction and partisan extremism in Congress have left critical issues unaddressed, from agricultural policy to national security to the well-being of our communities. As a representative, Carmela will prioritize the needs of Eastern Washington, advocating for agricultural support, affordable healthcare, and economic opportunities for working families.
By investing in rural infrastructure, clean energy, and economic diversification, Carmela will work to strengthen our local economy. Carmela will defend our rights and uphold our individual freedoms, including the right to reproductive healthcare.- Most families across Eastern Washington are struggling to keep up; even veterans are struggling with housing and food insecurity. Housing prices have skyrocketed. Child care and health care are incredibly expensive. Regular folks need a break, not corporate special interests. Carmela will get us that break. Her grandpa worked on the Grand Coulee Dam as a union cement mason. Her dad was a union railroader with the Great Northern (later BNSF) Railroad. As a dues-paying union member of the U.S. Foreign Service, Carmela will negotiate to address costs across our district, including universal access to health care, building out rural broadband, and keeping public funds in public schools.
- For the first time in American history, the U.S. Supreme Court withdrew its recognition of a Constitutional right to privacy by overturning Roe vs. Wade. Extremists politicians are using this as an excuse to interfere with peoples' most intimate decisions. Other states have passed laws restricting travel, speech, and reproductive health treatment. Clinics in those states are closing, health professionals relocating, and women crossing into Eastern Washington for routine, urgent, and even emergency care. Our next Representative will either vote for a total nationwide abortion ban, or fight to codify our basic human rights. Carmela treasures freedom from government interference, and will fight for it.
- Our international standing is threatened by Iran and Russia and their proxies, and our democracy by domestic extremists. Some politicians hold our government hostage for partisan advantage, regardless of its cost to service members, seniors, and children. Congressional partisan extremists fight for the sake of fighting. They won’t negotiate in good faith to fulfill their Constitutional duty of passing a budget. As a result, farm families struggle without the predictability of an Agricultural Bill; children are going to bed hungry; our partners in Israel and Ukraine lack the means to defend themselves. Carmela solved problems and promoted our interests for nearly 30 years; let's send her to Congress to get it working again.
The drafters had been revolutionaries. They learned that a confederacy was too weak to survive and formed a democratic union with the power to raise revenue. About 80 years later, Americans fought confederates who would have destroyed the union to retain chattel slavery. About 80 years after that, Americans entered WWII to stop genocidal subjugation by aggressors who considered themselves "master races."
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Kearns Goodwin
Knowledge
Curiosity
Serve the specific needs of the people of Washington's 5th Congressional District.
Food insecurity on the rise;
Infant and maternal mortality rates much higher than other wealthy countries, especially for people of color;
Leading cause of death among American children now gun violence, and men in Eastern Washington are more likely than the national average to commit suicide with a gun; yet Congress has prohibited the CDC from studying gun deaths;
DoD report that only 20% of American youth are fit for government service;
Behavioral health care is unavailable to most;
Majority of Americans over age 65 have not one natural tooth left in their heads;
A friend whose OBGYN refused to investigate her abdominal pain, telling her to wait for a month or so. The pain intensified until she sought urgent care, when it was discovered that she had an ectopic pregnancy that could have killed her had she not ignored her own OBGYN.
National Education Association/Washington Education Association
House Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Adam Smith
City of Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown
Spokane City Council President Betsy Wilkerson
Judiciary (Subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement)
GAO
Tax fairness
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
Campaign website
Conroy’s campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
“In our community, we see, firsthand, the value of hard work and the importance of neighbors supporting one another. The divisive politics of the other Washington doesn’t reflect our values, yet they affect us deeply. Far-right extremists in Congress are upending international order, failing families and farmers, and threatening our freedoms. I’ll prioritize everyday Washingtonians.” – Carmela As a third generation eastern Washingtonian, Carmela Conroy has a sense of duty and determination to serve her community. Carmela’s grandfather was a union mason on the Grand Coulee Dam and her father was a union railroad worker with the Great Northern Railroad, later part of the BNSF. Carmela is a dues-paying member of the union representing U.S. Foreign Service personnel. Rooted in the hard work and resilience of her family, Carmela paid her way through college and law school, returning home to serve as a deputy prosecutor for Spokane County. From her work in criminal justice to her service abroad, Carmela has built connections with veterans, active-duty military personnel, and professionals in national security. Our nation faces complex challenges both at home and abroad. The dysfunction and partisan extremism in Congress have left critical issues unaddressed, from agricultural policy to national security to the well-being of our communities. As a representative, Carmela will prioritize the needs of Eastern Washington, advocating for agricultural support, affordable healthcare, and economic opportunities for working families. By investing in rural infrastructure, clean energy, and economic diversification, Carmela will work to strengthen our local economy. The upcoming election carries profound significance for our fundamental freedoms, including the right to reproductive healthcare. Carmela will defend our rights and uphold our individual freedoms. She has the experience and the deep roots in our community to represent the values and concerns of hardworking families and farmers in Washington’s 5th Congressional District. With your support we can build a brighter future for Eastern Washington. [2] |
” |
| —Carmela Conroy’s campaign website (2024)[3] | ||
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
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Candidate U.S. House Washington District 5 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on June 17, 2024
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Conroy for Congress, “Home,” accessed July 20, 2024
