Bellevue—”Our main point of interest in this primary election is voter turnout,” says WAGOP Chairman Rep. Jim Walsh. “It’s been on a downward trend for the last few cycles. While voter turnout is still low, there were some promising signs that the decline is stabilizing, and November may see stronger voter participation. The voter turnout number here in Washington tells me that the people don’t trust establishment WA Democrats’ mismanagement of budgets, tax policy, public safety, and public lands. But they’re still waiting to be convinced that common-sense Republicans have the answers to fix the WA Democrats’ failures. The WAGOP is focused on convincing them that we do. And we will.”
Key Results
In the State Supreme Court races, WAGOP’s recommended candidates did well. In all four of the Court races on the primary ballot, WAGOP’s recommendations are advancing to the general election. Scott Edwards, David Stevens, Dave Larson, Todd Bloom. Four for four.
Many eyes are focused on Washington’s 3rd Congressional District race, where Republican John Braun and the Democrat incumbent are neck and neck.
In other congressional races, WAGOP is excited by the performance of Amanda McKinney in the 4th District and Mike Baumgartner in the 5th. The 8th District could also be interesting, with another vulnerable Democrat incumbent.
All these results are just first-night numbers. With Washington’s all-mail-in voting system, we won’t have more certain numbers until later this week.
As we’ve seen repeatedly in recent years, results—especially in King County—can change dramatically in the days after the election. Still, WAGOP is excited to boost voter turnout in this year’s General Election in November, with three popular initiatives, five State Supreme Court races and John Braun’s congressional run on the ballot.
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