Michael Baumgartner

Early life, education, and career

Baumgartner was born in Pullman. His mother is a kindergarten teacher and his father was a professor of Forestry and Natural Resource Sciences. After graduating from Pullman High School, he attended Washington State University. He graduated in 1999 with a degree in economics with minors in French and mathematics. In 2002, he earned a master's degree in public administration from Harvard University.

After graduating from Harvard, Baumgartner, a Catholic, volunteered on a Gonzaga Jesuit mission to Mozambique and studied forests in Siberia.

During the Iraq War, he served as an economics officer in the Office of Joint Strategic Planning & Assessment (JSPA) at the United States Embassy in Baghdad, helping the Iraqi government as part of the Baghdad Security Plan. In 2008, he spent 7 months working as a civilian contractor in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan.

After leaving Iraq, Baumgartner worked as a civilian contractor in Helmand Province, Afghanistan, where he encouraged poppy farmers to grow food instead, in an effort to combat the opioid epidemic. He met his wife Eleanor Mayne, a journalist studying counternarcotics in Helmand Province, and the two were married in 2010.

Washington State Senate

Elections

In 2010, Baumgartner returned to Eastern Washington and was planning a trip with his future wife Eleanor “to see if we actually like each other," when he was approached by Cathy McMorris Rodgers' Chief of Staff and future Spokane Mayor David Condon, who recruited him to run against incumbent Democratic State Senator and Majority Whip Chris Marr for the Washington State Senate 6th Legislative District seat. On August 17, 2010, in the state primary election, Baumgartner defeated Marr with 53% of the vote. In the November election, he officially defeated Marr with 54% of the vote. The election battle between Marr and Baumgartner is considered the most hotly contested and expensive state legislative races in Washington state history.

Tenure

In the state senate, Baumgartner represented parts of the City of Spokane, Airway Heights, and Cheney including Eastern Washington University.

In 2012, he was named one of the National Federation of Independent Business's Guardians of Business, the highest award they offer, in recognition of his votes that side "100 Percent" with small businesses. The Association of Washington Business awarded him their 'Cornerstone Award' also, in recognition of his support for employers, economic development, and business-related issues in the Washington State Legislature.

During his tenure, Baumgartner pushed to improve infrastructure in Eastern Washington, including securing the $900 million funding needed to complete the north–south corridor route first proposed sixty years ago, being the sole local Republican to support the major transportation package, helping lead successful efforts to build a new medical school in Spokane which addressed physician shortages in underserved and rural areas of Eastern Washington, which contributed to boosting healthcare economy jobs growth. The medical school, which was directed to be spearheaded by Washington State University, was originally blocked due to a 100-year old law that had given the University of Washington a monopoly on training doctors in the state. Baumgartner lead efforts to repeal the law, ultimately being successful in 2015.

Baumgartner considered public education a top priority during his tenure and led efforts to halt increases and reduce tuition for public universities by 20% in Washington State in 2015, including the University of Washington and Washington State University. It is currently the largest successful tuition reduction in the country's history. He has consistently fought for charter schools, which received significant opposition from the Washington State teachers' union Washington Education Association.

In 2016, he intervened in the expulsion of an American Samoan student, Robert Barber, from Washington State University. Barber had been only one credit short of a college degree when he was accused of involvement in a brawl. Baumgartner told a meeting of WSU regents: "If you don't fix this, I goddamn will." Barber was reinstated to the student body, and was later found innocent of all criminal charges.

During the 2016 presidential election primaries, Baumgartner chaired Scott Walker's campaign for president in the state of Washington.

Committee assignments

In 2011 and 2012, Baumgartner was the ranking minority member of the Economic Development Trade & Innovation Committee, served on the Ways & Means Committee, and the Higher Education & Workforce Development Committee.

In 2013, two Democrats joined with the 23 Republicans to form the Majority Coalition Caucus. With the new coalition, Baumgartner was named Vice-Chairman of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, and was also assigned to the Senate Trade and Economic Development Committee, the Higher Education Committee, and the Human Services and Corrections Committee.

2012 U.S. Senate election

In October 2011, Baumgartner decided to challenge incumbent U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA). Cantwell was running for her third term. Washington uses a "top-two" nonpartisan blanket primary system, in which the top two candidates of any party in the primary election advance to the general election. Cantwell and Baumgartner finished first and second, respectively, and competed in the general election.

Baumgartner has formally endorsed Washington Initiative 502 to legalize, regulate and tax marijuana for adults 21 and over, making him the first and only candidate for statewide office in Washington state to do so, and taking a position that wasn't popular in his party.

In the November general election, Cantwell defeated Baumgartner. Cantwell received over 60% of the vote, to Baumgarter's near-40%.

Spokane County Treasurer

In 2018, Baumgartner opted not to run for reelection to the State Senate. Instead, he chose to run for Spokane County Treasurer. He won the November election and took office in January 2019. He was unopposed for reelection in 2022.

U.S. House of Representatives

Elections

On February 26, 2024, shortly after incumbent Congresswoman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers announced she would not seek re-election, Baumgartner announced he would run for Washington's 5th congressional district. While no public polling was conducted, Baumgartner was largely seen as the early favorite for the Republican nomination. On August 6, 2024, Baumgartner won the primary for the open seat, placing first, with Democrat Carmela Conroy placing second. He received 28.4% of the vote to Conroy's 19.5%

On November 5, 2024, Baumgartner officially won the race for the district with over 60% of the vote. Notably, he outperformed predecessor Cathy McMorris Rogers' result in 2022, despite not being an incumbent. He was the best performing Republican out of any candidate in the state, both federally and statewide.

Tenure

In 2025, Baumgartner founded the bipartisan Congressional College Sports Caucus. He introduced the "Restore College Sports Act" with the aim of dissolving the National Collegiate Athletic Association and replacing it with the "American College Sports Association," which would be overseen by the federal government.

In March 2025, Baumgartner joined Jim Jordan and Tom McClintock in a letter challenging Washington Attorney General Nick Brown and the state sanctuary law, which restricts local police from enforcing federal immigration policy. The letter follows accusations from the attorney general against Adams County sheriff's office for unlawful imprisonment based solely on immigration status.

In June 2026, Baumgartner introduced the Power and Water for Families Act, which would force data centers and other high-load facilities to cover the full cost of the power and water systems needed to serve them in an effort to ensure that such projects do not increase electricity rates.

Committee assignments

For the 119th Congress:

Committee on Education and Workforce

Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions

Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development (Vice Chair)

Committee on Foreign Affairs

Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa

Subcommittee on South and Central Asia

Committee on the Judiciary

Subcommittee on the Administrative State, Regulatory Reform, and Antitrust

Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, Artificial Intelligence, and the Internet

Caucus memberships

Source:

Congressional Western Caucus

Republican Study Committee

Republican Main Street Partnership

Personal life

Baumgartner and his wife Eleanor have three sons and two daughters. In early 2018, they lost their fifth baby after suffering a late miscarriage.

Baumgartner maintained a close friendship with Washington State University football coach Mike Leach throughout his life. Leach and Baumgartner taught a course together at WSU titled "Leadership Lessons in Insurgent Warfare & Football Strategy," designed to "explore strategy and tactics common in both Guerilla Warfare and college football to provide a backdrop for critical thinking."

Electoral history