NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate provides the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Tuesday, August 7th, 2018

Shannon Hader concedes in the 8th CD after early returns put her in fourth place

Over fifty sup­port­ers packed Geaux Brew­ing in Auburn tonight to watch elec­tion results come in at the con­clu­sion of Wash­ing­ton’s 2018 Top Two elec­tion with the hope that Shan­non Had­er would claim one of the top two spots in WA-08.

Had­er and her cam­paign staff worked almost up until a quar­ter to the hour call­ing con­stituents to ensure that bal­lots had been turned in.

Ini­tial results showed that Repub­li­can Dino Rossi had 43% of the vote.

In sec­ond place was pedi­a­tri­cian Kim Schri­er with 18.82%, and in third place was attor­ney and for­mer pros­e­cu­tor Jason Rit­tere­si­er with 17.56%.

Had­er trailed in fourth place with just 12.5%. She joined the par­ty after these ear­ly elec­tion results rolled in, with many applause and cheers from the crowd.

When speak­ing with a vol­un­teer who knew and respect­ed all three can­di­dates, he said Had­er was the one who tru­ly knew all the issues at their core.

“She’s the strongest can­di­date I’ve seen in years,” he told NPI.

The vol­un­teer also not­ed that when can­vass­ing, con­stituents seemed to iden­ti­fy with Hader’s mes­sage and he thought most would be like­ly Had­er voters.

At about 8:45 PM, Auburn May­or Nan­cy Backus took the stage.

“We know 100% why we are here tonight, because every one of us in this room have the best can­di­date for the 8th con­gres­sion­al dis­trict,” Backus said.

“Had­er and this team worked their ass­es off for us [the 8th Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict]. And I am proud to sup­port, and I will always sup­port, Shan­non Had­er, because she is the answer to what we need in the 8th Con­gres­sion­al District.”

Shannon Hader at her Election Night party

Had­er applauds her cam­paign staff and vol­un­teers for their hard work and support.

Had­er then took the stage.

She thanked every­one for show­ing up tonight to the elec­tion par­ty and espe­cial­ly thanked those who con­tin­u­ous­ly showed up dur­ing the campaign.

“What a priv­i­lege it is to see every­one in this room,” Had­er said.

“Every­body here has con­tributed to an amaz­ing cam­paign. It’s been a lux­u­ry to see peo­ple throw their hours and mon­ey and time behind me and this movement.”

She then pro­ceed­ed to call the results.

“We came up a lit­tle short tonight,” she said.

“But we be should be enor­mous­ly proud of being part of this incred­i­ble move­ment. [One] that we will con­tin­ue on into the gen­er­al elec­tion to flip this dis­trict blue.”

She not­ed that it was peo­ple who care about their home­towns, their state, and their coun­try, that were here tonight and helped her along the cam­paign trail. She added that those who vot­ed for her, and pre­sum­ably for any Demo­c­rat in the race, were peo­ple who want an end to the “divi­sive pol­i­tics that plague our nation.”

She com­mend­ed those who had jumped in with both feet into her cam­paign and stat­ed that “tomor­row is a new day.” She urged those in the audi­ence to “think about tomor­row, where we come togeth­er and get behind the win­ner tonight.”

(If cur­rent results hold, that would be Dr. Kim Schrier.)

She closed by say­ing “Put that same sup­port you so gen­er­ous­ly offered me dur­ing the pri­ma­ry and put it behind the Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­date to flip this dis­trict and beat Dino Rossi in Novem­ber.” The crowd cheered.

“It’s going to take all of us,” she finished.

Before leav­ing she added that she expressed thanks for how many of her friends were in the crowd cheer­ing her on. She had friends from all walks of life, includ­ing mid­dle school and high school, cheer­ing her on this evening.

“It was a lux­u­ry in this cam­paign to meet so many new peo­ple,” Had­er said, before walk­ing into the crowd to give hugs and offer per­son­al thank-yous.

Com­bined, the three main Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lengers to Rossi have almost 50% of the vote… more than Rossi’s 43%. That says some­thing about this dis­tric­t’s polit­i­cal evo­lu­tion. Two years ago, Dave Reichert won reelec­tion with 60% of the vote.

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One Comment

  1. Darn, I was hop­ing Had­er would pre­vail. Well, guess I’ll be sup­port­ing Kim Schrier. 

    # by Molly Weatherford :: August 29th, 2018 at 9:51 PM
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