Jason Rittereiser suspends congressional campaign; congratulates Kim Schrier

Attor­ney and for­mer pros­e­cu­tor Jason Rit­tereis­er announced moments ago that he is sus­pend­ing his cam­paign for Con­gress after con­clud­ing that his chances of over­tak­ing Kim Schri­er in Wash­ing­ton’s Top Two elec­tion are slim to none.

Here’s the full state­ment released by his campaign.

Today, I have sus­pend­ed my cam­paign for Con­gress in WA-08. Despite mak­ing up ground in the vote total since elec­tion night in this close race, with today’s bal­lot release, it has become clear that the path to vic­to­ry is unlike­ly. As a result, I have reached out to Kim Schri­er to offer my con­grat­u­la­tions, sup­port, and best wish­es in the gen­er­al election.

This race has always been greater than any one indi­vid­ual. The 8th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict will help deter­mine con­trol of the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives. I care deeply about this dis­trict, and as Democ­rats, we must win this seat. The best thing for our par­ty, the dis­trict, and our nation, is to come togeth­er to ensure we take back con­trol of Con­gress and put a check on the Trump Administration.

To the vot­ers in the 8th Dis­trict, we are at a defin­ing moment in Amer­i­ca. We all want a nation that is secure, fam­i­lies that are healthy, a job that is sta­ble, our chil­dren edu­cat­ed, and our envi­ron­ment pro­tect­ed. These val­ues tran­scend polit­i­cal divides and define us not by par­ty but as Amer­i­cans. Please cher­ish the oppor­tu­ni­ty to affect our democ­ra­cy by vot­ing in Novem­ber and send the first Demo­c­rat to Con­gress from our great district.

To our vol­un­teers, I will be for­ev­er grate­ful for your tire­less and ded­i­cat­ed work on our campaign.

It is our shared val­ues and vision for bet­ter days ahead that unit­ed us in our effort to change the tide of pol­i­tics and break through the par­ti­san divide to con­nect with vot­ers in every cor­ner of the 8th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict. Our cam­paign was bet­ter because of your work.

To our sup­port­ers, thank you. My wife, Michelle, and I remain over­whelmed by your encour­age­ment, your gen­eros­i­ty, and your com­mit­ment to us and our cam­paign. Please know that our grat­i­tude is immea­sur­able, and we are for­ev­er thank­ful for your support.

Run­ning for the Unit­ed States Con­gress has been the priv­i­lege of my pro­fes­sion­al life. I am proud of our staff, the cam­paign we built, and the race we ran. We launched our cam­paign cen­tered on liv­ing our val­ues, to stand up for what’s right, and to send the next gen­er­a­tion of lead­ers to Con­gress. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, today, we came up short of our goal. But, there remains much work to be done to return progress to our pol­i­tics and to deliv­er a bet­ter nation for the next generation.

We are just get­ting started.

As of this after­noon, Repub­li­can Dino Rossi had 72,185 votes (43.17% of the vote), while the top Demo­c­ra­t­ic con­tender, Dr. Kim Schri­er, had 31,312 votes (18.73% of the vote). Rit­tereis­er is in third place with 30,196 votes (18.06% of the vote). He trails Schri­er by 1,116 votes after five days of bal­lot counting.

With­in his home coun­ty of Kit­ti­tas, Rit­tereis­er is the top Demo­c­ra­t­ic vote get­ter, with 28.15% of the vote. How­ev­er, Kim Schri­er is the Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date with the most sup­port in every oth­er coun­ty in the dis­trict, and appears set to move on.

Twelve can­di­dates filed for the open seat being vacat­ed by incum­bent Dave Reichert last May. Now just two are left: Dino Rossi and Kim Schri­er. They will be locked in a fierce bat­tle for suprema­cy in Wash­ing­ton’s 8th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict between now and the con­clu­sion of the Novem­ber gen­er­al elec­tion in sev­er­al months.