Ex-Spokane mayor demands $10M from city after backlash over extremist prayer rally

Nadine Woodward appeared on stage with Christian extremists Sean Feucht and Matt Shea. She says criticism of that event destroyed her reputation.

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The former mayor of Spokane, Washington is suing her own city for $10 million because people had the audacity to criticize her for sharing a stage with a Christian Nationalist and a domestic terrorist (two different people, in this case).

It’s all part of a complaint that’s been dragging on for nearly three years.

Back in August of 2023, Christian Nationalist and COVID super-spreader Sean Feucht staged a worship event in Spokane, Washington that was attended by city council candidate Jessica Yaeger, failed candidate Natalie Poulson, and then-Mayor Nadine Woodward. All three women received prayers on stage from Feucht and former state lawmaker Matt Shea.

Matt Shea and Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward (screenshot via Twitter)

“We’ve got an enemy we need to fight. His name is Satan,” Shea proclaimed. “Father God, we pray a blessing over the leaders you have chosen for this time. … Give them courage, your courage, to stand on the foundation—the rock of Jesus Christ. Give them, right now Lord, unwavering ability to speak the truth into the darkness, and no matter what anybody says around them, they will glorify, honor, and praise you in every single thing they do.”

“I’ve had the privilege to pray over many mayors and many governors and even the president,” Feucht then declared. “But not every city in the world has a prophetic history like Spokane. … I pray God that you would give this mayor and her family and her team and the pastors in this region, God, that you give them revelatory wisdom and insight on how to steward what you want to do in this region.”

Right Wing Watch pointed out that Feucht and Shea have a working relationship. Earlier that year, Feucht accepted an award from Shea on behalf of his On Fire Ministries. This particular event was a reunion of sorts.

But since Shea’s name was invoked, it’s worth mentioning why he was no longer a politician.

In 2018, after nearly a decade in office, the Spokesman-Review published a four-page document in which Shea discussed the “Biblical Basis for War.” One section listed a penalty for men guilty of breaking “biblical law”: “If they do not yield — kill all males.”

Shea quickly insisted the line was being taken out of context. Somehow. Still, the document led to him losing his role as chair of the state’s Republican caucus. In 2019, he was exposed for being part of a chat room in which he and his buddies discussed violently attacking their political enemies. He was also found to be part of a group that planned and participated in acts of domestic terrorism. He also proposed the creation of a 51st state just for Christians. And he was fined nearly $4,700 for dumping oil at the State Capitol, effectively vandalizing historic masonry, because he didn’t like how The Satanic Temple was protesting outside. Oh, and he’s a fan of white nationalists.

Republicans pushed for Shea to resign, but he never did. Instead, in mid-2020, he simply chose not to run for re-election. Perhaps he saw the writing on the wall that he would’ve been voted out and decided to quit instead.

But by 2023, like clockwork, he was running a ministry and wrapping himself in even more Jesus so he could keep pretending he’s a martyr for the cause.

That’s the guy Mayor Woodward decided to cozy up to on stage. As if Feucht wasn’t bad enough.

Hours after the event, facing immediate criticism, Mayor Woodward claimed the event had been “politicized” in a statement that deflected from her own actions. (This portion of her statement was buried underneath a larger statement about wildfires.)

… I am deeply disturbed that Matt Shea chose to politicize a gathering of thousands of citizens who joined together yesterday to pray for fire victims and first responders. I attended the event with one purpose only and that was to join with fellow citizens to begin the healing process.

Shea didn’t politicize the event. The event, like everything Feucht did, was political. It was a celebration of Christian Nationalism, and the mayor was all too happy to join in. How could you possibly go to any event with either of those two guys, then act surprised when they both did they very things they’re famous for?

The Leopards Eating People’s Faces Party only ever has one item on the agenda.

A second statement came out hours later:

“I did not seek, nor do I accept any support from Matt Shea. I am opposed to his political views as they are a threat to our democracy, and I regret my public appearance with him. I was invited to share in prayer with several thousand citizens out of heartfelt concern for fire victims, first responders and our whole community. I was not aware that he would be at the event last night and it only became apparent as I was walking on stage that he would be leading the prayer. I should have made better efforts to learn who would be speaking at the event.

There will be plenty of time to discuss political positions during the rest of this campaign. Now, as our region is hurting and our focus is on friends, neighbors, loved ones and the response effort, is not the time. All day yesterday not one fire victim or first responder asked me about my political views. But they did ask us to pray for them.”

If she saw him on stage, why didn’t she have the courage to condemn him there? Why not just leave? How do you show up to an event hosted by Shea’s ministry and not realize he might be there? Why was she okay with Sean Feucht being there?!

Her statements never answered any of those obvious questions and they were just the culmination of a slew of idiotic decisions that any politician of a big city could have avoided with an ounce of common sense. Furthermore, for someone who insisted she was deeply concerned about wildfires, the last thing that would help the people in her community was a prayer rally. If she wanted to thank first responders, she could have visited a fire department. She chose not to.

It didn’t help that the one person who insisted Woodward knew exactly what she was doing was Matt Shea himself:

This is an annual event planned months ago to worship Jesus. https://letusworship.us It wasn’t for “fire victims.” She was invited and she accepted BEFORE the fires started on Friday. However, we of course wanted to pray last night for all those who have lost everything and be there for them and also pray for our leaders. Praying for leaders, especially during a crisis, isn’t political it is Biblical. She is the one that politicized what everyone knows was a worship event. We are praying for Nadine.

I don’t say this often, but the Christian terrorist was right.

Woodward was lying. Which became a problem for her since she was running for re-election.

Ben Stuckart, a former Spokane City Council President who lost the 2019 mayoral race against Woodward, rightly pounced on her flimsy excuse:

“It’s just so disgusting,” Stuckart said. “If a Christian white nationalist asks you to stand up on stage and be prayed for, you say … ‘No,’ and you leave the room the moment you figure out that person is there.”

“You don’t go to white Christian nationalist events, put on by Christian nationalists and not expect the Christian nationalists to be there,” he said.

Stuckart called on Woodward to resign, saying she had irreparably damaged her legitimacy and sent a dangerous message to vulnerable and marginalized residents.

Woodward’s main opponent in the mayoral race, Lisa Brown, didn’t call on her to resign, but shared in the condemnation, saying Woodward “should be disavowing Matt Shea, an anti-woman anti-LGBTQ extremist, associated w political violence.”

They had a point. If you don’t have the courage to denounce white Christian Nationalism and two of the harmful movement’s leading proponents, then you have no business running a big city. The best-case situation for Woodward was that she prioritized public prayer over the people praying alongside her, but even that decision would be utterly pointless during an emergency. A better leader would’ve left the God-talk to everyone else while she took action. Instead, Woodward chose to pray with people who have spent their careers physical hurting or threatening the people around them. That’s where Jesus led her.

It created a problem for the elected officials closest to her, because they sure as hell didn’t want to be associated with any of this. So that September, the City Council passed a resolution denouncing Woodward’s actions that “associated her with former Washington State Representative and alleged domestic terrorist, Matt Shea, and known anti-LGBTQ extremist Sean Feucht.” It was a 4-3 vote. (You can read the full resolution on page 429 here.)

When the mayoral election took place that November, Woodward lost to Lisa Brown 48% to 37% (with other candidates picking up the rest of the votes). Brown remains the mayor of Spokane to this day while Woodward has spent the past few years on a vengeance tour (when she’s not selling real estate).

What does that look like in practice? Well, in mid-2024, she filed a claim—a predecessor to a lawsuit—against the city over that resolution, insisting it was an illegal attack on her free speech and an attempt to interfere with the election she eventually lost. She demanded they (a.k.a. the taxpayers) hand over $1.4 million to make up for it.

“A four member majority of the Spokane City Council, in violation of the state and federal constitution, ‘condemned’ speech by Woodward which speech is protected by the state and federal constitutions. The City Council did so with the intent of interfering with the then-upcoming mayoral election and promoting the candidacy of Woodward’s opponent,” she wrote in the claim. “The council’s violations of speech and association rights and election interference.”

According to the document, Woodward is prepared to settle with the city for $1.4 million.

The city never responded to that claim. So now Woodward is trying to wring even more cash from Spokane. (Or, as her lawyer explained to me, “I reviewed her earlier effort, and I revised her claims to what they should be, with proper damages given the number and the nature of the violations.”)

To that end, they just filed an amended claim demanding $10 million from the city because those council members supposedly destroyed her reputation:

Woodward says the city and the council members violated her constitutional rights with that resolution that that the actions “irreparably damaged and continues to damage Woodward in her professional and personal reputation.”

The claim says the city’s action “resulted in harassment..by the media, estrangement from her social group, supporters and neighbors, and loss of business and professional opportunities.”

It never seems to have occurred to her that, maybe, no one wants to be her friend or colleague because she’s going to prayer rallies hosted by the worst people, and that’s not the fault of anyone who points it out and condemns her for it. Anyone who willingly attends a Sean Feucht event, and anyone who receives prayers from a domestic terrorist, is already setting themselves up for criticism. The resolution simply put a city stamp on what many people in the community were already saying.

(For what it’s worth, Sean Feucht filed a lawsuit against the city for the same basic reasons, and a judge dismissed the case in 2025, saying there was no legal merit to it. Because of course there isn’t.)

Woodward says in the claim that she wants the resolution to be declared unconstitutional and vacated. As if anyone would even remember it if she didn’t keep drawing attention to it herself.

In the claim, Woodward asserts that the city’s actions “imposed a scarlet letter on [her], which took over the election cycle.”

“The legislative action required [Woodward] to divert all available resources and time to defending and defusing character assassination.”

The claim says Woodward “continues to suffer ongoing injury, including vitriol, backlash and threats, all of which has caused [Woodward] fear of physical harm.”

If Woodward didn’t want to be associated with Christian extremists, all she had to do was denounce Christian extremism, and Sean Feucht, and Matt Shea, and everything they stand for, and admit she was completely delusional to think her prayers were going to make a damn bit of difference in response to wildfires. And she should have done it all in real time instead of issuing a half-hearted apology to some of that only after she got caught.

Demanding millions of dollars because she doesn’t know how the Streisand effect works—and keeping this story front and center instead of moving on after her election loss—is like blaming your camera for an ugly selfie. Your anger is aimed in the wrong direction.

Woodward says the resolution violated her free speech rights, but no one was ever stopping her from attending the rally or participating in it. She’s mad because people didn’t like what she was doing and called her out on it. She’s upset that there are consequences to her actions. The Constitution doesn’t owe her praise no matter what ridiculous things she does. She fucked around; now she’s finding out.

Her lawyer didn’t make things any better by trying to equate free speech with consequences for that speech:

Neither federal nor state constitutions allow the legislature to punish its mayor for showing up and listening to whatever political or religious views are being discussed in our community, whether the mayor agrees with those views or not. That is the mayor’s job," [Mary] Schultz told KREM 2. "Legislative bodies simply cannot legislate speech, and that is exactly what the City Council did."

Again, they didn’t “legislate speech.” They didn’t even punish her. More importantly, she didn’t merely show up and listen. That makes it sound like she was randomly inside the building when a prayer circle just arose out of nowhere. The truth is she actively participated in an event run by extremists. The council members said they didn’t stand by what their mayor did, and they wanted the city to know she wasn’t speaking on their behalf. They didn’t prevent her from doing anything. She just mad because it turns out the people of Spokane aren’t fond of religious extremism and don’t want leaders who are.

For now, while a draft lawsuit has been written up, it hasn’t been formally filed. And if she wants to avoid further embarrassment, she’d be wise to just let this thing die instead of drawing more attention to her poor decision-making.

(Portions of this article were published earlier)

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