Democrat Adrian Cortes (courtesy of Adrian Cortes campaign)
Democrat Adrian Cortés narrowly defeated Republican Brad Benton Tuesday in a closely watched election for an open seat in the Washington State Senate.
But with a margin of just 172 votes in the results certified by Clark County, a machine recount will be needed to confirm the outcome.
“I am extremely confident that we have achieved a victory in this race,” Cortes said on Tuesday. He said Benton called last week to acknowledge and congratulate him.
Tuesday was the deadline for auditors in Washington’s 39 counties to certify their respective voting tallies.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs will announce the results of the statewide election on December 4, formalizing the victories a new judge at the Supreme Court, four new state administrators including Governor, and several new members in every chamber of the state legislature. This will also bring finality approval of one national initiative and the defeat of three others.
The fierce matchup between Benton and Cortes proved to be the closest race for legislative or national office this year. It will be the only one for which Hobbs will order a recount of ballots.
Cortes bypassed Benton a margin of 50.1% to 49.9%finishing with 42,053 votes to Benton’s 41,881. The winner will succeed retiring Republican Sen. Ann Rivers in the 18th Legislative District.
State law requires a machine recount when the difference between candidates is less than 2,000 votes and also less than half of 1% of the total votes cast for both candidates. A manual recount is mandatory when the difference between the top two candidates is less than 150 votes and also less than a quarter of 1% of the total votes cast for both candidates.
A Republican-held district for more than two decades, Democratic Party leaders entered the year optimistic that they could flip the Senate seat on the 18th with Cortes, a Battle Ground City Council member, as their candidate.
“I’m just grateful that I was chosen by the voters to go to Olympia to protect their interests,” Cortes said.
Meanwhile, Democrats also expanded their House majority with Adison Richards’ defeat of Republican Jesse Young, a former state lawmaker, in the 26th Legislative District. Richards will succeed Rep. Spencer Hutchins, R-Gig Harbor, who did not seek re-election.
Barring any changes, Democrats will outnumber Republicans 59-39 in the House of Representatives and 30-19 in the Senate when the 2025 legislative session begins on Jan. 13.
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A new era
Sal Mungia will soon fill an open seat on the Washington State Supreme Court after results showed he defeated Dave Larson with more than 20,000 votes in what turned out to be the closest statewide game.
Mungia will replace Judge Susan Owens, who is retiring at the end of this year. Washington State Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms and are required to retire at age 75.
The gap between the two candidates has widened since Election Day, but Tuesday’s final vote left Mungia less than 1% ahead of Larson. Given the large vote difference, the race was still out of reach for the recount.
Mungia is a trial court and appellate attorney and has received the support of eight of the nine current justices, Gov. Jay Inslee and other Democratic elected officials across the state. Larson had the support of the Republican Party.
Larson made a last-ditch effort to get voters to resolve the issues with disputed ballots, hoping he could overtake Mungia. On Monday, Larson posted on X that the results showed that people in Washington are opposing partisanship in the judiciary.
“I will not give up my efforts to protect the courts and the communities they serve, and I certainly will not give up on getting partisan politics out of the judiciary,” he said.
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