Help us improve in just 2 minutes—share your thoughts in our reader survey.
Joe Cotta
Joe Cotta (Republican Party) ran for election to the Washington House of Representatives to represent District 8-Position 2. He lost in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Cotta completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. Click here to read the survey answers.
Biography
Joe Cotta earned a bachelor's degree from the California State University, Fresno in 2001 and a graduate degree from the University of California, Davis in 2012.[1]
Elections
2022
See also: Washington House of Representatives elections, 2022
General election
General election for Washington House of Representatives District 8-Position 2
April Connors defeated Joe Cotta in the general election for Washington House of Representatives District 8-Position 2 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | April Connors (R)  | 55.0 | 29,176 |
 | Joe Cotta (R) | 43.1 | 22,880 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 1.9 | 993 | ||
| Total votes: 53,049 | |||
| = 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 Washington House of Representatives District 8-Position 2
April Connors and Joe Cotta defeated John Christenson and Larry Stanley in the primary for Washington House of Representatives District 8-Position 2 on August 2, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | April Connors (R) | 34.2 | 12,715 |
| ✔ | | Joe Cotta (R) | 32.9 | 12,235 |
| John Christenson (D) | 30.8 | 11,445 | ||
 | Larry Stanley (Alliance Party) | 2.0 | 752 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 66 | ||
| Total votes: 37,213 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Joe Cotta completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2022. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Cotta's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
I have a BS Plant Science from CSU Fresno and an MS in Horticulture from UC Davis.
I attend Calvary Chapel Tri-cities, where I have been active in jail ministry, substance abuse recovery, orphan, youth, and adult ministries requiring weekly bible teaching for the last 12 years.
I am running to empower our law enforcement to protect our communities, restore individual liberties, and protect our small businesses and farms. I believe you should be able to choose your child’s educational environment, what goes into you and your family’s bodies, and have confidence in our election system. Government programs are inefficient compared to free enterprise. We need tax relief, not government subsidy. I value our constitutional rights to free speech, to bear arms, and our right to life. Loving your neighbor means fighting to protect and defend your neighbor’s liberty. I will honor God with my legislative responsibilities.
- I am running to restore individual liberties. Our religious, medical, election, educational and 2nd amendment liberties are all under attack. I am running to restore individual liberties after seeing several neighbors be put on unpaid leave, lose their jobs, or lose medical care, due to standing up for their medical freedom. I was also refused medical treatment for not revealing my vaccination status, but I did not give up my rights, despite the discouragement of losing the care. “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.” -John Knox This statement is put into action by understanding that loving our neighbor means fighting to protect and defend our neighbor’s liberty.
- I believe in reinstating trust to our law enforcement officers. The “Use of force” and “pursuit” laws have had a devastating effect on our safety. Homicide, overdose death, and car theft have dramatically increased, since these laws were enacted on July 25, 2021. My friends are getting their cars ripped off while others are leaving the state, due to the concern for our safety. We must restore power to our law enforcement entities to keep our citizens safe from crime. Laws must be enforced, order must be maintained, and criminals must be held accountable for their actions. I’m running to restore a system of human dignity and prosperity. I will work hard for district 8 and honor God in my commitment to protect and empower our community.
- Our farmers and other business owners want and deserve a level playing field. Over regulation from the government is crippling our farms and businesses. We need and must provide foreign and domestic policies that encourage free market principles, to allow the hard work of farming and other businesses to be rewarded. Our food supply must flourish. Inheritance taxes, regulations, exorbitant minimum wage, mandatory agriculture overtime pay, excessive rules and mandates are placing an incredibly heavy burden on our farmers and business owners and must be balanced to encourage the prosperity of our farmers/business owners and their employees. When the farms do not prosper, the entire economy suffers.
By serving Washington state, and the 8th district, I will protect and defend our liberties. I will fight to bring back good principles, freedom, and law and order. I believe you should be able to choose your child’s educational environment, what goes into you and your family’s bodies, and live in a safe and protected community.
I oppose Critical Race Theory, Comprehensive Sex education, mandatory vaccinations, and mandatory masks in our schools.
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.
See also
2022 Elections
External links
|
Candidate Washington House of Representatives District 8-Position 2 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ Information submitted to Ballotpedia through the Candidate Connection survey on July 2, 2022
