Former allies, Patty Murray and Tiffany Smiley face off for US Senate
Patty Murray, D- Wash., speaks during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee hearing on the federal coronavirus response on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Thursday, March 18, 2021. - Anna Moneymaker/Pool/Abaca Press/TNS

SEATTLE — Sen. Patty Murray was locked in her office in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 when she said she decided to run for a sixth term. If she wins she would be among the longest serving senators in U.S. history. "I remember that overwhelming feeling that our democracy was under attack, that there were people who wanted to use brute force to overturn the peaceful transfer of power," Murray, a Democrat, said in an interview. "And that I couldn't go home and quit being a fighting voice." The seeds of Tiffany Smiley's run for U.S. Senate, her first campaign for any office, were planted 17 years ago...