# Beating The Machine. Wildfires And Why Spokane Is Looking More And More Independent. With Danny Tarkenton

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737/beating-the-machine-wildfires-and-why-spokane-is-looking-more-and-more-independent-with-danny-tarkenton
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737/beating-the-machine-wildfires-and-why-spokane-is-looking-more-and-more-independent-with-danny-tarkenton.md
Podcast: [Independent Americans with Paul Rieckhoff](https://stenobird.com/podcast/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff-981737)
Published: 2026-08-19T09:45:00+00:00
Episode link: https://bleav.com/shows/independent-americans-with-paul-rieckhoff/?post_type=gp_podcast_episode&p=630
Audio file: https://pdrl.fm/c39fb6/pscrb.fm/rss/p/mgln.ai/e/1385/injector.simplecastaudio.com/c67dcf2c-bdc6-42d2-91a1-db918b8e8626/episodes/c2ba6f82-6db1-470d-b293-94f13eb07d9a/audio/128/default.mp3?aid=rss_feed&awCollectionId=c67dcf2c-bdc6-42d2-91a1-db918b8e8626&awEpisodeId=c2ba6f82-6db1-470d-b293-94f13eb07d9a&feed=8GTvjwcf
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Duration seconds: 2087

## Resource

Spokane County spent the primary season choking on wildfire smoke — 800 structures gone, 60,000 people displaced, plumes visible from the parade route — and voters still showed up to the ballot box. In the middle of that devastation, Iraq combat veteran and independent candidate Danny Tarkenton did something the two-party machine insists is impossible: she cracked the top two in a county prosecutor race with no billionaire donor, no party infrastructure, and no partisan jersey. She finished a hair behind the Republican incumbent, advanced to the November general, and proved that Washington's open primary is a working model for what right looks like in American democracy.

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