Susan Hutchison

Hutchison was born Susan Sylvester at Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, California, the daughter of Elaine (née Winderling) and George Sylvester.[6] Her father was a pilot in the U.S. Air Force. A 1949 West Point graduate, he flew transports, then became a fighter pilot in the mid-1960s and commanded an F-4 squadron in South Vietnam at Da Nang.[7][8] As a military daughter and the second of three children,[9] she was raised in various locations and attended Niceville High School in the panhandle of Florida and transferred in 1970 to Annandale High School in Annandale, Virginia, a suburb southwest of Washington, D.C. After graduation in 1972,[10] she enrolled at the University of Florida in Gainesville and earned a bachelor's degree in journalism, graduating early in 1975.[11][12]

Hutchison began her journalism career writing a daily sports article for the Florida Alligator student newspaper. Upon graduation in 1975, she was hired by an affiliate of the American Broadcasting Company. In 1978, she was hired as the weekend sports anchor and producer for KITV news in Honolulu, Hawaii.[7] She became the weekend news anchor, and then the weekday evening news anchor and producer.[7] After being spotted by a Seattle television executive, Hutchison was hired in January 1981 as a TV news anchor for the CBS affiliate in Seattle, KIRO-TV.[7] She worked as the evening anchor for more than 20 years, earning five Emmy Awards.[7]

In 2003, Hutchison was hired as the Executive Director of the Charles and Lisa Simonyi Fund for Arts and Sciences.[13][14] For ten years, the foundation provided $100 million in grants for projects in arts, science, and education.[15]

Hutchison has served as Trustee of the following boards: Finance Chair, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars appointed by George W. Bush; Chair, Young Life International, Vice Chairman, All-Star Orchestra (current), Vice President (present) and Chair, Seattle Symphony, and has served on the following boards: Smithsonian Institution National Air and Space Museum, Seattle Art Museum, Seattle Children's Hospital Foundation, Discovery Institute, and Salvation Army.[15] She also has been a spokesperson for the American Leprosy Mission, Northwest Medical Teams, Job Corps, and March of Dimes, and has emceed charitable auctions, fundraising events and dinners.[16][17]

Her civic involvement includes the Governor's A+ Commission on Education, National Collegiate Athletic Association Committee on Compliance, the King County Independent Task Force on Elections, and the Chancellor's Advisory Council for Seattle Community Colleges. She received the Washington Policy Center's Champion of Freedom award and the Seattle Mayor's Good Neighbor award. The Washington State Republican Party named her Chairman Emeritus, the only such designation in its history.

In 2005, Hutchison was one of ten people appointed by King County Executive Ron Sims to the King County Independent Task Force on Elections, commissioned to make recommendations to improve the election process after the contested gubernatorial election of 2004.[18]

When Sims stepped down in April 2009, Hutchison announced her candidacy for the non-partisan office of King County Executive.[19] Hutchison won the primary election with 37% of the vote and finished second in the general election against Dow Constantine, with 224,467 votes (41% of the vote).[20][21][22]

In 2013, Hutchison became the Chair of the Washington State Republican Party.[23][24] As Chair of the WSRP, she described Republicans as a “patchwork quilt of opinions” in need of unity and strong leadership.[25][26] During her term as Chair, the GOP gained six seats in the State House of Representatives[27] and the number of State Senators caucusing with the Republicans went up to 26, the highest total since 1949.[28][29] She resigned on 5 February 2018 amid speculation that she would take a position with the administration of President Donald Trump.[30] Hutchison was the unsuccessful Republican nominee for the U.S. Senate in the 2018 election, losing to incumbent Democrat Maria Cantwell.[31] Hutchison received 1,282,804 votes.[32] During the campaign, she debated Cantwell twice, emphasizing “18 reasons” to vote for Hutchison in 2018.[33][34][35]

In 1976, she married high school classmate Andy Hutchison, an executive for the Boeing Company. He is a retired Marine Corps colonel and a 1976 graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy. They have two sons who graduated from Seattle public schools. Her father, George H. Sylvester (1927–2015), retired from the U.S. Air Force in 1981 as a lieutenant general.[9][8][36]

• Appearances on C-SPAN