Four Republican State Senators announced the formation of the Washington State Freedom Caucus Thursday.

Senator Doug Ericksen said the caucus is focused on protecting people's liberty and freedoms, with top issues being taxation and limiting the governor's emergency authority.

"It's not simply a subset of the Senate Republican Caucus. It's a Freedom Caucus with a freedom agenda and a big tent." stated Ericksen, "There's room in this tent for libertarians, there's room in this tent for moderates, there's room in this tent for … people who are fiscally conservative or socially conservative."

Erickson joins Senators Mike Padden, Phil Fortunato, and Jim McCune as founding members of the Washington State Freedom Caucus.

The caucus is more flexible than the Republican Caucus because of its size and limited focus, according to Senator Fortunato. He added that the formation of the Freedom Caucus is not an indictment of Senate Minority Leader John Braun's performance or leadership. The group said they are still members of the Republican Caucus and are in good standing.

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