Manka Dhingra sworn in; Washington State Senate now has a Democratic majority

Con­trol of the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate offi­cial­ly passed into Demo­c­ra­t­ic hands for the first time in five years this after­noon as Senior Deputy Pros­e­cu­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra was sworn in as the state’s newest sen­a­tor, suc­ceed­ing Repub­li­can Dino Rossi, who was appoint­ed to take the place of the late Andy Hill a year ago.

At a cer­e­mo­ny in the King Coun­ty Cour­t­house, sur­round­ed by friends, fam­i­ly, and jubi­lant sup­port­ers, Dhin­gra took the oath of office and now begins her duties as the newest leg­is­la­tor from Wash­ing­ton’s 45th Leg­isla­tive District.

“I’m hum­bled and proud to rep­re­sent the com­mu­ni­ties of the 45^th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict,” Dhin­gra said. “I promise to rep­re­sent each and every one of my con­stituents with integri­ty, hon­esty and a com­mit­ment to solv­ing prob­lems with my colleagues—regardless of their par­ty affil­i­a­tion. We have a lot of work ahead of us. I am con­fi­dent that by work­ing togeth­er we can make progress toward a bet­ter future for our dis­trict, our state and our country.”

Dhin­gra will serve on the Trans­porta­tion, Law and Jus­tice, and Human Ser­vices & Cor­rec­tions Com­mit­tees; she will also serve as vice chair of the lat­ter two.

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The 45th is a sub­ur­ban, increas­ing­ly Demo­c­ra­t­ic dis­trict that includes neigh­bor­hoods in Red­mond, Kirk­land, and Sam­mamish as well as the cities of Wood­inville and Duvall. The fast-grow­ing dis­trict has been rep­re­sent­ed in the state House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives by wide­ly respect­ed Democ­rats Roger Good­man and Lar­ry Springer for more than a decade. Now it has a Demo­c­ra­t­ic state sen­a­tor too.

Read the text of Man­ka Dhin­gra’s elec­tion night vic­to­ry speech. 

Dhin­gra is the sec­ond Demo­c­rat to rep­re­sent the dis­trict in the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate, fol­low­ing Eric Oemig, who served from 2007 to 2011. The term she was just elect­ed to will end on Jan­u­ary 14th, 2019, but she will have oppor­tu­ni­ty to win a full four year term next year dur­ing the 2018 midterms.

Wash­ing­ton’s Leg­is­la­ture failed to pass a cap­i­tal bud­get dur­ing the 2017 reg­u­lar and ensu­ing first three spe­cial ses­sions, so par­tic­i­pat­ing in the com­ple­tion of that unfin­ished busi­ness is like­ly to be one of Dhin­gra’s first tasks as a legislator.

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee has the option of call­ing a spe­cial ses­sion in Decem­ber to pass the cap­i­tal bud­get, but Repub­li­cans would need to pro­vide enough votes to autho­rize the bonds that are nec­es­sary to imple­ment much of the bud­get as writ­ten. A three-fifths vote of the Leg­is­la­ture is need­ed to autho­rize the bonds.