5th District Democrats celebrate as early returns put Bill Ramos and Lisa Callan ahead

At an elec­tion night watch par­ty for Demo­c­ra­t­ic state House hope­fuls Bill Ramos and Lisa Callan in Issaquah, a cheer erupt­ed as the ini­tial elec­tion results appeared on the big screen. The num­bers showed both can­di­dates with a major­i­ty of the vote.

Ramos, an Issaquah City Coun­cilmem­ber, has 53.64% to Repub­li­can Chad Magen­danz’s 46.36%, while Callan, an Issaquah school board mem­ber, has 52.92%. Oppo­nent (and incum­bent) Paul Graves has 45.67%. A third can­di­date, Ryan Dean Bur­kett, has 1.42% of the vote and will not be going on to November.

Callan and Ramos were joined at the Rogue Issaquah Brew­house by a large con­tin­gent of fam­i­ly, friends and volunteers.

The night began with casu­al con­ver­sa­tion and warm greet­ings as guests took an occa­sion­al peek at the devel­op­ments in Ohio’s 12th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict, where Demo­c­rat Dan­ny O’Con­nor remains locked in a fierce bat­tle with his Repub­li­can oppo­nent Troy Balder­son in a spe­cial election.

Both cam­paign man­agers took time out to rec­og­nize some of the most active callers and door-knock­ers for their vital efforts over the past sev­er­al weeks.

Min­utes after the bal­lot drop box­es closed, the first results were post­ed and it was clear both can­di­dates were going to fin­ish the night in first place.

Ramos and Callan gath­ered with their cam­paign man­agers at the front of the hall, smil­ing and pos­ing for cel­e­bra­to­ry pictures.

Hap­py phone calls were made and there were plen­ty of hugs to go around.

As the can­di­dates took a moment to thank their guests and sup­port­ers, Callan made a point of high­light­ing the vol­un­teers who fueled both cam­paigns, knock­ing on over 31,000 doors and mak­ing more than 3,000 calls to voters.

As she put it, vol­un­teers formed the “back­bone of this campaign.”

“It’s absolute­ly all about vot­er con­tact,” she added. “Peo­ple are engaged, they’re lis­ten­ing, and they like what they hear.”

Ramos also focused on vol­un­teer efforts and how they reached more than 30,000 donors so far. “And we’ll reach 30,000 more in the next nine­ty days,” he pledged. “The work pays off. It’s the work that does it.”

The evening con­tin­ued with food, drink and joy­ful con­ver­sa­tion as guests stayed to vis­it, cel­e­brate, and watch the rest of the results roll in across the state, with cheers for every Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date lead­ing and win­ning tonight.