Vice President Mike Pence called U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers “one of the most important voices in Washington, D.C.” during a campaign luncheon for the Republican congresswoman Tuesday afternoon at the Spokane Convention Center.

It was Vice President Mike Pence who visited Spokane on Tuesday. But the focus of protesters outside his campaign fundraiser for U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers was his boss.

The largest piece of legislation passed by this Congress was last year’s federal tax bill, which made sweeping changes to both individual and corporate filers. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers says those changes have resulted in a more vibrant economy and is pushing for an extension of individual tax cuts that experts say will continue to swell the debt. Lisa Brown accused the GOP of “gimmicks” to keep the full financial effects of their tax cuts hidden from the American public.

Protesters inflated a giant “Baby Trump” balloon outside the Spokane Convention Center, where Vice President Mike Pence spoke during a campaign fundraiser for Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers. Video courtesy of KHQ.

Vice President Mike Pence urged Eastern Washington voters to retain U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers in a stump speech Tuesday afternoon to push the administration’s economic policies and confirm conservative judges like embattled Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. Video courtesy of KHQ.

The vice president, a former colleague of McMorris Rodgers in the U.S. House of Representatives, will speak at an afternoon fundraiser at the Spokane Convention Center. Tickets to the event were still selling at $125 apiece on Monday afternoon, according to the McMorris Rodgers campaign, which expects more than 1,000 attendees.

A campaign swing to the West will bring Vice President Mike Pence to downtown Spokane on Tuesday to stump for U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers. KHQ's Joe McHale reports.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers protests too much about claims she would vote for Social Security and Medicare cuts. Not only is it utterly credible to believe she might vote for such cuts – which would certainly be, like last year’s failed Trumpcare effort, swaddled in claims that the cuts are not cuts – but she’s already voted to do so. More than once.

The candidates both claimed the other was benefitting from campaign contributions that aren’t traceable. The issue has become heated in a race that has attracted outside attention from leadership groups and other nonprofits that view Eastern Washington as a battleground election in the contest for control of the House of Representatives.

The list of top Republicans coming to Spokane to stump for Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers this fall will include Vice President Mike Pence.

In their first public debate, U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Democratic challenger Lisa Brown lobbed criticism on numerous issues, including health care, tax reform, gun control, the farm bill, the special counsel investigation and “dark money” in campaigns. The debate, hosted by The Spokesman-Review and KHQ, drew more than 500 people to the Bing Crosby Theater on Wednesday evening.

The event, co-hosted by The Spokesman-Review’s Northwest Passages forum and KHQ-TV, will air live on local broadcast television from the Bing Crosby Theater in downtown Spokane. It’ll be the first time McMorris Rodgers and Brown share a stage in pursuit of Eastern Washington’s seat in Congress this November.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, challenger Lisa Brown differ on what to do about the Social Security system.

Sign wars have been fierce in the 5th Congressional District campaign. Both sides are suspicious of an organized effort behind the thefts.

Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers said the role of the federal government is to increase choice and competitiveness in the U.S. health care market, while Democrat Lisa Brown urged a push toward universal coverage in remarks Thursday afternoon to assembled industry heads and education experts in downtown Spokane. The Republican congresswoman appeared via teleconference at the sixth gathering of The State of Reform, a conference that has brought together local lawmakers, health insurance executives and care providers to address critical changes in the industry. Addressing the conference on camera from Washington, D.C., McMorris Rodgers said Republicans had not adequately provided their “full vision” for health care reform in the lead-up to the unsuccessful reform bill last year that would have made sweeping changes to the Affordable Care Act.

A political action committee from Ephrata, targeting Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dan Newhouse, is making some overly simplistic claims about legislation the Republican members of Congress have supported regarding federal spending on veterans and taxes. The ads have yet to show up on traditional broadcast networks, but they’re being shared on social media by political groups opposed to the incumbents in this year’s midterms.

Younger votes tend to sway Democratic, but they’re also the demographic less likely to fill out a ballot by Election Day. Can Lisa Brown and her supporters find enough votes on the region’s campuses to make up a primary deficit? A computer analysis of past elections show that’s a long shot, but it hasn’t stopped young Democrats from get-out-the-vote efforts, and conservatives are making similar pushes at the region’s campuses.