Washington Elections: New Faces in New Places in Olympia

Posted by Joe Adamack on November 6, 2024

With a lot of attention on the other Washington (D.C.), state voters were not interested in surprises at the state Capitol with all of the statewide races going as expected. Current Attorney General Bob Ferguson is cruising to victory over former Congressman Dave Reichert in the race for governor, and current State Senator Patty Kuderer, D-Bellevue, will handily defeat State Senator Phil Fortunato, R-Auburn, in the race for state Insurance Commissioner.

Other new statewide officials include Nick Brown who will be the new Attorney General and Dave Upthegrove who has won the Commissioner of Public Lands post. In fact, Democrats continue to hold all nine statewide offices with five of them being elected to their respective position for the first time.

In the state Senate and House, Democrats already hold a 29-20 advantage in the state Senate and 58-40 margin in the House, so the question hasn’t been “if” they will retain their majorities but “by how much” they will grow.

Senate notable races to watch:

• 10^th LD: Sen. Ron Muzzall, R-Oak Harbor, is locked in a tight race against Democrat Janet St. Clair, with Muzzall down by a few hundred votes early, and is way too early to call.
• Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, leads Democratic challenger Maria Beltran in the newly redrawn 14th LD that some projected could be a pickup for Democrats. With low turnout and ballots reported so far, it’ll take more time to fully assess but King is off to a strong start.
• 17th LD: As anticipated current Rep. Paul Harris, R-Vancouver, is in a very tight race with Democrat Martha Keethler and with a less than 1 point lead this one will take a few more days and could still be a Democratic pickup.
• 18th LD: Democrat Adrian Cortes, D-Vancouver, is slightly ahead of Republican Brad Benton for a longtime Republican seat but it’s also too early to tell.

House notables:

In the people’s house, multiple seats remain in play and not quite ready to call, but Democrats’ goal of picking up multiple seats is still possible.

• 14th LD: Like the Senate race while Democrats hoped to pick up the district Republicans lead in both newly redrawn district boundaries.
• Open Seat 17th LD: Republican David Stuebe and Democrat Terri Niles are locked up in in a tight race that would be a Democrat pickup, but it’s far too early to tell if that will hold. Similar story in the 18th LD where Democrat John Zingale and Republican John Ley are within one point in the open seat.
• In the 26th LD Democrat Adison Richards has a strong lead over former House Republican Jesse Young, which would be another pickup for Democrats. Richards led after early returns in 2022 as well so this will be another one to watch but a very strong start for Richards (a credit union supervisory committee member).

We will continue to update on these and other races, as well as what that means for the balance of power in the coming days.

Posted in Advocacy on the Move, Washington Advocacy.