Joel Pritchard

Who was Joel Pritchard?

Joel McFee Pritchard was a Republican politician from Washington. He served in the U.S. House of Representatives and as the 14th Lieutenant Governor of Washington.

Pritchard was born in Seattle, Washington to Frank, Sr. and Jean Pritchard on May 5, 1925. He attended public schools as a child and attended Marietta College from 1946 to 1947. At the rank of Sergeant, he served in the United States Army from 1944 to 1946 and was president of the Griffin Envelope Company in Seattle from 1948 to 1971. He was a delegate to the Republican National Convention in 1956 that renominated Dwight D. Eisenhower for the presidency. He was elected to the Washington House of Representatives representing Washington's thirty-sixth district in 1958 where he served from 1959 to 1967, being reelected in 1960, 1962 and 1964. In the state house, he worked closely with future U.S. Senators Daniel J. Evans and Slade Gorton. In 1966, he was elected to the Washington State Senate where he served a single term from 1967 to 1971. In 1970, Pritchard ran for the U.S. House of Representatives to represent Washington's first district, challenging nine-term incumbent Thomas Pelly in the Republican primary. Pelly was renominated, but by a smaller margin than anyone expected.