Woodward scrutinized for attending event

SPOKANE — Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward is facing calls for her resignation after she appeared on stage Sunday night and received a blessing and endorsement from former state Rep. Matt Shea, a controversial figure and religious extremist.

It came as smoke from fires in Medical Lake, Elk and elsewhere shrouded the city. Woodward and City Council candidate Earl Moore joined Shea on stage at the Podium during Sunday’s stop on the Kingdom to the Capitol tour. The religious and conservative political series was organized by self-declared Christian nationalist Sean Feucht and his organization Let Us Worship, as well as Turning Point USA Faith, a recent offshoot of the broader organization founded by right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk.

Placing a hand on Woodward, Shea called on the crowd to join him in prayer as the mayor extended her hands forward.

“I want you to extend your hands right now,” Shea said. “Because we’ve got an enemy we need to fight, and his name is Satan.”

In 2016, Shea led a group of lawmakers to the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge, where Ammon Bundy and other armed protesters were involved in a standoff with federal officials. Shea said they made the trip to help negotiate a peaceful resolution to the standoff; local officials said they had asked the legislators to stay away.

In a statement Monday afternoon through the Woodward reelection campaign, the mayor wrote she was not aware that Shea would be at the event or leading her and the crowd in prayer, and that she did not seek or accept Shea’s support.

“I am opposed to his political views as they are a threat to our democracy, and I regret my public appearance with him,” she wrote. “I was invited to share in prayer with several thousand citizens out of heartfelt concern for fire victims, first responders and our whole community.”

“I was not aware that he would be at the event last night and it only became apparent as I was walking on stage that he would be leading the prayer,” Woodward continued. “I should have made better efforts to learn who would be speaking at the event.”

The Woodward campaign, which originally suggested Woodward would be available for an interview, did not immediately respond to clarify whether an interview would still occur. Shea did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

However, Shea took to Twitter on Monday evening to dispute Woodward’s characterization of events.

“This is an annual event planned months ago to worship Jesus,” Shea wrote. “It wasn’t for ‘fire victims.’ She was invited and she accepted BEFORE the fire started on Friday.

“She is the one that politicized what everyone knows was a worship event,” he added. “We are praying for Nadine.”

Moore initially declined an interview, saying only that she was a “prayer warrior,” and that she did not know Shea would be in attendance. In a text shortly before 2 p.m., Moore added that she was invited by a personal friend.

“I was not standing on a platform of any individual, but there to pray for my city and for unity,” Moore wrote. “I stand strong against hatred of any kind.”

Feucht, who ran unsuccessfully in 2020 for Congress in Northern California as a Republican against Democratic incumbent John Garamendi, is best known for holding outdoor concerts during the COVID-19 pandemic. He held these as a form of protest in response to mask mandates and other pandemic-related restrictions.

Former City Council President Ben Stuckart, who ran for mayor and lost to Woodward in 2019, cursed repeatedly as he responded to Woodward’s assertion that she was not aware Shea would be at the event and rejected that Woodward attended to pray for the victims of the region’s ongoing fires. It was well known that Shea would be in attendance, and the views of Feucht alone should have been enough for the mayor to stay away, Stuckart said.

“It’s just so disgusting,” Stuckart said. “If a Christian white nationalist asks you to stand up on stage and be prayed for, you say … ‘No,’ and you leave the room the moment you figure out that person is there.”

“You don’t go to white Christian nationalist events, put on by Christian nationalists and not expect the Christian nationalists to be there,” he said.

Stuckart called on Woodward to resign, saying she had irreparably damaged her legitimacy and sent a dangerous message to vulnerable and marginalized residents.

Woodward’s opponent in this year’s race for mayor, Lisa Brown, did not echo Stuckart’s calls for Woodward’s resignation, but she did condemn the association and called on voters to take note.

“It’s not just, here’s a difference in policy perspectives,” Brown said. “Shea is calling for armed insurrection with people who have a different perspective than he does — it’s inexcusable to be associated with him in any way at any time.”

Brown said she struggled to believe that Woodward was not aware of the nature of the event she was attending, noting that it had been planned for months in advance and that Woodward embraced Shea as she left the stage.

“I think one would have to be very much out of touch to not understand what was actually happening at the time it was happening,” Brown said. “That is beyond my belief, that she didn’t know what was going on.”

Kitty Klitzke, who faces Moore this November in the race to represent northwest Spokane on the City Council, called Moore’s attendance inappropriate.

“If you’re engaged with this community, you know when you’re showing up to an event with Matt Shea,” Klitzke said.

She noted that Moore has often declined to take a position on policy issues prior to the August primary.

“This is evidence of what someone who refuses to have a position on things will do,” Klitzke said.

Woodward had returned to Spokane on Saturday, cutting short an anniversary celebration with her husband, due to the region’s fires that have displaced thousands, she wrote on Twitter.

Hours after photos and video were publicized showing her on stage Sunday evening, she began posting on social media around 11 p.m. about her activities earlier in the day, showing she had visited fire crews and a Red Cross shelter at Spokane Falls Community College.

“All day yesterday not one fire victim or first responder asked me about my political views,” Woodward wrote in her Monday afternoon statement. “But, they did ask us to pray for them.”