Langley Democrat urges party not to endorse sheriff candidate Wasser

Craig Cyr, a Langley council member acting as an Island County Democratic precinct committee officer, emailed fellow party members urging them not to endorse Langley Police Chief Tavier Wasser for Island County sheriff.

The dispute centered on whether Wasser was a bona fide Democrat. Cyr questioned that in the e-mail, while Wasser rejected the accusation and said his values align with the party. He also said he has never backed MAGA ideology and pushed back on references to the constitutional sheriff movement, which Georgetown Law and the Southern Poverty Law Center link to claims that sheriffs can override some state and federal law. Cyr also raised Wasser’s use of the phrase “constitutional sheriff” and said Wasser voted in the 2024 presidential primary as a Republican, a claim Wasser disputed.

Washington’s top-two primary system sends the two highest vote-getters to the general election regardless of party, and the Island County Sheriff's Office mission is to provide unbiased, community-oriented police services.

Wasser filed as a candidate with the Public Disclosure Commission in February 2026. He is a South Whidbey High School alum and a former Island County sheriff’s deputy. Sheriff Rick Felici, first elected eight years ago, is running as an Independent after earlier winning as a Republican, and he has said the office should stay politically neutral because people do not “press one button if they’re a Democrat and another if they’re a Republican” when they call 911.

On June 19, the Island County Deputy Sheriffs Guild and the Island County Corrections Association endorsed him. The corrections association vote was 23-1, and the guild represents 42 commissioned officers. Felici said he has worked in the department since 1994 and had never seen a guild endorsement for sheriff before. He also said plans for a new jail and improvements to the emergency dispatch system were among the reasons he chose not to retire.

Felici defeated Lane Campbell in 2018, and Campbell later ran again four years ago as a constitutional sheriff candidate. Two nonpartisan forums are scheduled in Clinton on July 7 and July 14.