92,780 signatures in one week: Let’s Go Washington is on a record-breaking pace to kill income tax

May 27, 2026, 5:10 AM Brian Heywood's Let's Go Washington is chasing a record 700,000 signatures to repeal the state's 9.9% income tax before the July 2 filing deadline.
Seattle Red Let’s Go Washington collected 92,780 signatures in its first week of the income tax repeal campaign, a figure that blew past any comparable week in the group’s history. Founder Brian Heywood said this was something his own team did not see coming. The drive is pushing IP26-645, the initiative to repeal Washington Democrats’ 9.9% income tax on household income above $1 million, signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson in March. The group needs 308,911 valid signatures from registered voters by July 2; election officials recommend turning in at least 380,000 to account for duplicates and rejected entries. Heywood’s internal floor is 400,000, with 700,000 as the number that would break the all-time state record.Announcing the week-one total on X Tuesday, Heywood wrote that “no one believes that Olympia spends wisely the outrageous amounts of money they already take,” and that “most believe the legislature is ignoring the constitution and rammed this through knowing it was unconstitutional. A record-setting first week The comparison to LGW’s previous campaigns makes the current pace clear. When the group ran I-2066 to stop the state’s natural gas ban two years ago, it pulled roughly 65,000 signatures in its entire first week. That drive finished with 546,736 signatures turned in, 533,005 of which were certified by the Secretary of State, making I-2066 the second-highest signature count in Washington initiative history.IP26-645 cleared that same week-one mark by more than 40 percent, before most petition sheets had even arrived in mailboxes. As Seattle Red reported when the drive launched, Washington Democrats buried a “necessity clause” in the income tax legislation to cut off a public referendum, forcing opponents into the harder initiative-to-the-people process with a higher signature threshold. The Washington State Supreme Court then closed the referendum door entirely, leaving IP26-645 as the only route to November. Chasing the state record The 308,911 threshold is the legal minimum to qualify. The 380,000 recommendation from election officials is the practical floor. The 400,000 target is what Heywood considers safe. And 700,000 is the number needed to top the state’s all-time record, set by a 1973 initiative fueled by public anger over legislators raising their own pay, which collected 699,098 signatures. LGW’s consistent history of clearing 400,000 signatures on past initiatives, a track record documented by MyNorthwest, gives Heywood a baseline for what the group can realistically hit. Heywood has argued for months that Washington Democrats passed the income tax with full knowledge it was unconstitutional. The first-week response suggests a lot of voters agree. Petition sheets must be returned by June 28, with the official filing deadline on July 2.Follow Seattle Red on-air at 770 AM, on the Seattle Red app, and streaming audio and video on SeattleRed.com.