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.”

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.