With the Evergreen State heading into the holidays, Let’s Go Washington founder Brian Heywood says his organization is not only on pace to qualify two major initiatives for the ballot, but is closing in on the kind of overwhelming signature totals he believes will send Olympia an unmistakable message. Heywood joined The Ari Hoffman Show on Talk Radio 570 KVI to provide a signature-gathering update, warn about organized disruptions targeting petition efforts, and outline what comes next as the initiatives near turn-in.
DEVELOPING: Let's Go Washington's Brian Heywood announces that the initiatives to keep boys out of girls' sports and to protect parental rights WILL LIKELY QUALIFY FOR THE BALLOT
The goal isn’t simply qualifying. The goal is to “blow the numbers away.” Get those signatures in! pic.twitter.com/FqZPkn1q8k
— Ari Hoffman 🎗 (@thehoffather) December 24, 2025
Heywood told KVI the signature collection is already well beyond the minimum needed to qualify once verification begins. “For the two initiatives that we’re sponsoring, we are actually in a really good place,” he said. According to Heywood, the initiative focused on protecting girls’ sports has reached roughly 365,000 signatures, while the parents’ rights initiative is around 335,000. And he says the totals are still rising daily. “On Tuesday, we probably got another 20,000 that are gonna be coming in,” he explained, adding that he’d also received notice from the post office about additional boxes of petitions. “We’ve got another 15,000 there,” he said. “It looks like that’s gonna be our pace for the next several days, about 10 to 20,000 signatures in per day from the mail that’s coming back.”
Based on those numbers, Heywood said qualification is not in doubt. “We will absolutely, no doubt about it, have both—girls’ sports and the parents’ rights—both of them will qualify,” he told the show. Still, he stressed that hitting the minimum is not the objective. “I don’t wanna just qualify,” Heywood said. “I wanna blow the numbers away.”
Hoffman asked what those targets look like in practice, noting that signature drives always lose some count during verification due to illegible handwriting, incorrect information, and duplicate signers. Heywood agreed and broke down the ranges. “It’s more complex than this, but it’s roughly 309,000 signatures that you need,” he said, describing the minimum number required to qualify. But Heywood emphasized that collecting beyond that is essential. “We want about 380,000 is the number,” he explained. “And my goal is to get over 400,000 on each of these.”
Hoffman also pointed out that in previous cycles, Let’s Go Washington had already demonstrated it could beat those benchmarks. He asked Heywood how many signatures were collected the last time a parental rights measure was run. “About 450,000,” Heywood replied. Hoffman said he’d been challenging supporters from the start to aim for even more. The reason, he argued, is that the legislature previously passed the initiative and then later weakened it through changes that critics say undermined the original intent. The message this time, Hoffman said, is simple: “Don’t do this to us again.” Heywood sounded confident that the public response is strong enough to do more than just scrape by. “Absolutely,” he said. “I believe we’re gonna be over 400,000 on both of these.”
The conversation turned to the concern of getting petitions back on time. Heywood said it’s becoming too late to rely on the mail, urging supporters not to wait. “It’s sort of getting late to mail them,” he said. “So we’re asking people to bring them in.” He directed listeners to Let’s Go Washington’s website, where people can find drop-off locations across Washington. “We’ve got a bunch of drop-off locations on our website, letsgowah.com,” Heywood said. “You can find locations all around the state.” And for those who can’t get to a drop-off location, he said the organization can help. “Let us know if you need someone to pick them up,” Heywood explained. “We’ve got a Pony Express that can go out and pick them up as well.”
Hoffman then offered a personal example that illustrated why some supporters are hesitant to trust USPS. He said he didn’t trust the mail enough to send in the signature sheets gathered at KVI, so he carried them himself—through TSA—while traveling to Phoenix for Turning Point USA’s AmericaFest. Hoffman said he sealed the petitions, put them in his laptop case, and delivered them to a bill supporter, Steve Gordon, rather than risk them getting lost. It prompted a moment of humor, but also underscored the urgency. As Hoffman put it, he trusted TSA more than the mail.
Heywood then described what he believes is an active campaign to disrupt signature gathering, including harassment and alleged assaults at petition locations. Heywood pointed to an opposition effort he said is tied to teachers union funding, a group known as Washington Families for Freedom. Hoffman quipped that “Washington Families for Fascism” might be a better label, and Heywood encouraged him to use it. “Please do,” Heywood laughed.
Heywood said his team has monitored the group’s organizing and even had people observing their communications. He described what he says they’re encouraging online: “First of all, report any place that’s collecting signatures, and then sign up to be on these shifts. We’re gonna go and basically talk, you know, talk and try to persuade people not to sign.” But he insisted that what’s happening in the real world is far more aggressive. “What we’ve seen,” Heywood said, “people don’t come and just talk. They come and they assault. They steal our pens. They steal our initiative sheets. They disrupt.” He described it as illegal conduct and said law enforcement has been uncertain how to respond. “When you interrupt someone that’s gathering signatures, that’s a misdemeanor here in the state,” he told KVI. “And the police aren’t sure quite how to handle that.”
Hoffman pressed the political leadership angle, asking why state officials weren’t condemning the harassment or taking stronger action. “Where’s Bob Ferguson? Where’s Nick Brown? Where’s Steve Hobbs? Where’s any of them calling this stuff out?” Hoffman asked, referencing incidents Heywood’s group says include arrests, alleged assaults, and threats. Heywood’s answer was blunt: “Nowhere.”
Heywood also told KVI that the political class seems more focused on national ambitions than on Washington state’s internal issues. “Bob has got an unhealthy obsession with the other Washington,” Heywood said, suggesting Ferguson and others are preoccupied with D.C. politics. “If they would spend time here in this Washington, we might be able to get some stuff done, but they’re so focused on the other Washington that I don’t even know if they know what state they’re in.”
Despite the resistance, Heywood said support for the initiatives—especially the girls’ sports measure—has crossed party lines. “The real high awareness is on the girls’ sports,” he said. “That has people pissed off.” He argued that it’s not simply a conservative issue, and said opposition comes from what he described as “a very loud, angry minority.” Heywood claimed that even among people on the left, there is discomfort with policies allowing biologically male athletes to compete in female sports categories. “This is not a partisan issue,” he said. “People that are on the left, in the middle and on the left, do not agree with Olympia on letting boys into girls sports.”
Heywood also addressed what he called misinformation surrounding the measure, particularly claims that it would require invasive exams for student athletes. “They’re saying, ‘Oh, there’s gonna be this invasive exam,’” he told the show. He responded by pointing out that Washington already requires medical exams for students participating in sports. Hoffman echoed that point and clarified what those exams are. He described them as routine physicals required for safety and liability, not anything “gross” or invasive. Heywood added that the situation becomes even more complicated under current policy. “This is a safety issue,” he said, noting that medical standards for exams differ by sex and that confusion can create risk for both students and medical providers. He argued the loudest critics are projecting their own “gross overactive imagination,” rather than describing the reality of how student sports participation works.
Hoffman then raised a lingering fear from the previous election cycle: whether state officials could manipulate ballot titles or wording in a way that tilts public perception. Heywood said the “messing has already been done,” explaining that the Attorney General writes the ballot title and that it was determined months ago. “The title was decided way back in May,” he said. “It’s a patently wrong system, but the Attorney General writes the wording for the title. That’s already… it is what it is.”
Still, he warned that the legislature could attempt a strategic move after the petitions are submitted. Heywood said it’s possible lawmakers might pass the initiatives outright in January to keep them off the November ballot—not because they believe in the policy, but because they fear political fallout. “They do polling,” Heywood said. “They don’t wanna do anything on it, but the polling’s gonna say, ‘Oh, crap. If we have these on the ballot in November, this is gonna hurt us.’” He added that “it’s not a zero possibility that they pass it just to get it off the ballot,” even while leaving open the possibility that lawmakers could later attempt to rewrite or weaken the laws again.
The campaign is already planning a formal turn-in event. Let’s Go Washington announced Tuesday that it will submit signatures for both initiatives at a public gathering on Friday, January 2, 2026 at 3:30 p.m. at the Secretary of State’s Office in Tumwater. The group says both initiatives—IL26-001 and IL26-638—have more than enough signatures to qualify. The event is expected to include local girls’ sports activists, parents’ rights advocates, Heywood himself, and other supporters.
As the clock winds down, Heywood’s message to Washingtonians who have petitions at home is urgent: do not wait, and do not assume the mail will take care of it. “Bring them in,” he told listeners. “Let us know if you need someone to pick them up.” And as he reiterated throughout the interview, the goal isn’t simply qualifying. The goal, in Heywood’s words, is to “blow the numbers away.”
