MOSES LAKE — Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Bryant stayed the course with his message of bringing good family-wage jobs to Washington and education reform during a stop in Moses Lake on Tuesday.

The former Port of Seattle commissioner met with supporters, taking questions from voters, before teaming up with volunteers to man a call center at the Grant County International Airport to remind voters to turn in their ballots for the August primary.

“We will be calling voters in this area and reminding them to vote. When you look at who elected (incumbent) Jay Inslee governor, it’s the Republicans because they didn’t vote,” said Bryant, who was born in Morton and grew up on the Olympic Peninsula. “(Republican) Rob McKenna lost by 94,000 votes. We’ve identified about 107,000 people that would have voted for Rob, but didn’t turn in their ballot. Overwhelmingly, there’s a huge number of those people in central and eastern Washington. People have said that they’re not voting because King County is going to decide the election, but it’s people not voting that are deciding the election.”

Gov. Inslee is running for re-election to a second term in office. Under Washington's nonpartisan blanket primary law, all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party. In the primary, which will be held on Aug. 2, voters will vote for any candidate, regardless of party affiliation. The top two finishers will advance to the general election in November, even if a candidate manages to receive a majority of the votes cast in the primary election.

“We’re going to be on the phone, calling people reminding them it’s important to turn in their ballot. We’ve been doing that all across Washington state,” said Bryant, who declared his candidacy 16 months ago. “People in central Washington think their vote doesn’t matter because there’s so many people living on the coast. But two-thirds of the state is outside of King County. If people voted in the same percentage as King County, people in central and eastern Washington would have a much bigger voice.”

Bryant said as the chairman of BCI, a firm that helps farmers and agricultural companies export their crops, he has built a company that operates on both sides of the mountains. On the westside, traffic, education and unemployment are the key issues. Here in the Columbia Basin, jobs and education are at the forefront.

“From my time in the Port of Seattle, I have worked in both ag and the industry,” he said. “Here, you have this tech center base. You have high-value manufacturing. You have traditional family businesses and I think that’s what makes this such a vibrant area because of the diversity in the economy.

“But even so, Washington state has the ninth highest unemployment in the country. The people need a governor that will help attract middle class jobs to this community.”

One way, Bryant said, is to reinvent the last two years of the current high school educational system to develop a workforce that can address needs without a bachelor’s degree or college background.

“If you want to go to the university, great we’ll design classes to prepare you. If you want to go to a community college, let’s have Running Start available across Washington state,” he said. “But if you don’t want to go to college, that’s OK. Let’s have pre-apprenticeship programs their junior and senior year for kids to graduate with not only a diploma, but a certificate that allows them to get a family-wage job.”