Challenger Varisha Khan overtakes incumbent Hank Myers in Redmond City Council race

This is turn­ing out to be quite the dra­ma-filled local elec­tion year!

Less than an hour ago, a Red­mond City Coun­cil race that did­n’t look all that com­pet­i­tive on Elec­tion Night saw a lead change. In the con­test for Red­mond City Coun­cil Posi­tion #1, chal­lenger Var­isha Khan is now lead­ing entrenched incum­bent Hank Myers… by a mere nine­teen votes.

Khan is a young Mus­lim woman who is mak­ing her first run for elect­ed office. She has been active in pro­gres­sive pol­i­tics for sev­er­al years, work­ing with OneAm­er­i­ca and serv­ing as a del­e­gate for Bernie Sanders to the 2016 Demo­c­ra­t­ic Nation­al Con­ven­tion. She was also cho­sen to serve as the Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial elec­tor for Wash­ing­ton’s 1st Con­gres­sion­al Dis­trict in 2016. In that role, she helped make his­to­ry by cast­ing a vote for Hillary Clin­ton in the Elec­toral College.

“I bring the per­spec­tive as the daugh­ter of par­ents who chose many years ago to make Red­mond their home, and I’m also some­one who has again cho­sen Red­mond as a home for my own fam­i­ly,” Khan wrote in a mes­sage to vot­ers pub­lished on her cam­paign web­site. “At a time when Red­mond is chang­ing and grow­ing so quick­ly, it is so impor­tant for our city coun­cil to have the per­spec­tive of some­one who under­stands why peo­ple want to live and work here. I chose Red­mond and I hope you will choose me for Red­mond City Council!”

Myers is a Repub­li­can who pre­vi­ous­ly ran for the Wash­ing­ton State House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives sev­en years ago and got trounced by now-Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor Cyrus Habib. He has served sev­er­al terms on the Red­mond City Coun­cil and was backed in his reelec­tion by promi­nent devel­op­ment inter­ests in Redmond.

Dur­ing his time on the Red­mond City Coun­cil, Myers has con­sis­tent­ly opposed any and all efforts to take posi­tions against destruc­tive right wing ini­tia­tives such as those spon­sored by Tim Eyman. Myers has also reg­u­lar­ly espoused right wing talk­ing points on issues like trans­porta­tion from his seat on the dais.

Red­mond (NPI’s home­town) is one of Wash­ing­ton State’s most pro­gres­sive cities and Demo­c­ra­t­ic activists on the East­side have long argued that it deserves more diverse and effec­tive rep­re­sen­ta­tion. After fail­ing to recruit any­one to run against Myers the last time his posi­tion was con­test­ed, Demo­c­ra­t­ic and pro­gres­sive activists jumped at the oppor­tu­ni­ty to back a cred­i­ble chal­lenger to Myers.

On Elec­tion Night, as men­tioned, Myers appeared to be cruis­ing to reelec­tion, with 55% of the vote… a seem­ing­ly deci­sive ten point lead.

But the late bal­lots have con­sis­tent­ly gone against Myers. His share of the vote has dwin­dled with each pass­ing day. And as of tonight, he’s los­ing.

After King Coun­ty report­ed its sec­ond bal­lot drop of the day, Khan found her­self in first place. She leads with 6,508 votes (49.94%), while Myers has 6,489 votes (49.80%). There are thir­ty-four write-in votes.

What an incred­i­ble come­back. While Seat­tle’s Kshama Sawant is known for late inning wins, it’s a feat very few oth­er can­di­dates ever pull off.

Khan’s work to get out the vote down the stretch appears to have paid off hand­some­ly. Regard­less of the final out­come, she has made this race as com­pet­i­tive as it could pos­si­bly be. This race could eas­i­ly end up in a recount, with the win­ner not known for cer­tain until after the elec­tion is certified.