NPI's Cascadia Advocate

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

Friday, May 15th, 2020

WA Filing Week 2020: A look at who filed in key races as of Friday afternoon

Wash­ing­ton State’s 2020 Fil­ing Week has come to an end, and that means this elec­tion cycle’s list of aspir­ing office seek­ers will soon become final.

Up until 4 PM today, the Sec­re­tary of State and coun­ty elec­tions offi­cials were accept­ing for­mal dec­la­ra­tions of can­di­da­cy from Wash­ing­to­ni­ans who have decid­ed they want to run for office at fed­er­al, state, and local lev­els. Can­di­da­cies for precinct com­mit­tee offi­cer were also being accept­ed at the major par­ty lev­el by elec­tions offi­cials on behalf of the Demo­c­ra­t­ic and Repub­li­can parties.

This is a pres­i­den­tial year, which means we will be fill­ing all ten of our U.S. House posi­tions, all nine of our statewide exec­u­tive posi­tions, most of our state leg­isla­tive posi­tions, and sev­er­al of our State Supreme Court posi­tions, plus a large num­ber of local posi­tions, espe­cial­ly in Pierce County.

This post is the tenth and final in a series of Fil­ing Week reports we have been bring­ing you at reg­u­lar inter­vals. It is no longer pos­si­ble to file for office this year, but can­di­dates with sec­ond thoughts may with­draw through Monday.

U.S. House

The Unit­ed States House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives is the larg­er of the two cham­bers of Con­gress estab­lished by the Unit­ed States Con­sti­tu­tion. Mem­bers of the House serve two year terms and must face the vot­ers each elec­tion cycle. Since the 2010–2011 redis­trict­ing process, Wash­ing­ton has had ten seats in the House.

Can­di­dates who have filed since this morning:

1st Con­gres­sion­al District

  • Justin Smoak (states no par­ty preference)

2nd Con­gres­sion­al District

  • Trump Repub­li­can Tim Uy

3rd Con­gres­sion­al District

  • Demo­c­rat Davy Ray
  • Demo­c­rat Devin C. Gray

4th Con­gres­sion­al District

  • Repub­li­can Sare­na Sloot
  • Inde­pen­dent Evan Jones

5th Con­gres­sion­al District

  • Demo­c­rat Dave Wilson

6th Con­gres­sion­al District

  • Repub­li­can Stephan Brodhead

7th Con­gres­sion­al District

  • Inde­pen­dent Rick Lewis

9th Con­gres­sion­al District

  • Repub­li­can Joshua Campbell

10th Con­gres­sion­al District

  • Repub­li­can Ralph Johnson
  • Repub­li­can Gor­don Allen Ross
  • Inde­pen­dent Todd Buckley

Executive Department

Wash­ing­ton State’s exec­u­tive depart­ment con­sists of nine statewide direct­ly elect­ed posi­tions head­ed by a gov­er­nor. All posi­tions are for four-year terms, filled in pres­i­den­tial years. Each posi­tion is inde­pen­dent­ly elect­ed and thus has its own port­fo­lio of respon­si­bil­i­ties. Key man­age­ment posi­tions with­in the exec­u­tive branch that are not direct­ly elect­ed are filled by guber­na­to­r­i­al appointment.

Can­di­dates who have filed since this morning:

Gov­er­nor

  • Demo­c­rat Omari Tahur Garrett
  • Repub­li­can Raul Garcia
  • Pre-2016 Repub­li­can Nate Herzog
  • Cas­ca­dia Labour David Voltz
  • Green Liz Hallock
  • Cameron M. Vassey (states no par­ty preference)
  • Bri­an R. Weed (states no par­ty preference)

Lieu­tenant Governor

  • Demo­c­rat Dan­ny Heck
  • Demo­c­rat Michelle Jasmer
  • Demo­c­rat James R. Rafferty
  • Lib­er­tar­i­an Jared Frerichs
  • Lib­er­tar­i­an Matt Seymour

Com­mis­sion­er of Pub­lic Lands

  • Demo­c­rat Frank Wallbrown
  • Repub­li­can Maryam Abasbarzy
  • Repub­li­can Cameron Whitney
  • Lib­er­tar­i­an Kelsey Reyes

Sec­re­tary of State

  • Pro­gres­sive Gen­try Lange

Super­in­ten­dent of Pub­lic Instruction

  • David Spring
  • Den­nis Wick

State Supreme Court

The most impor­tant judi­cial body in Wash­ing­ton State is its State Supreme Court, which, like its fed­er­al equiv­a­lent, has nine mem­bers. How­ev­er, unlike the Unit­ed States Supreme Court, some­times referred to as SCOTUS for short, mem­bers of the State Supreme Court are direct­ly elect­ed by the vot­ers for six-year terms.

No new can­di­dates have filed since this morning.

Key legislative races

The Wash­ing­ton State Leg­is­la­ture, like the Unit­ed States Con­gress, is a bicam­er­al body with a House and Sen­ate. Mem­bers of the state House serve two year terms, just like their fed­er­al coun­ter­parts, while mem­bers of the state Sen­ate serve four year terms. Present­ly, Wash­ing­ton has forty-nine leg­isla­tive dis­tricts, with each dis­trict elect­ing two rep­re­sen­ta­tives and one senator.

Can­di­dates who have filed since this morning:

1st Leg­isla­tive District

  • State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive — Posi­tion #1
    • Repub­li­can Adam Bartholomew
  • State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive — Posi­tion #2
    • Repub­li­can Jeb Brewer

5th Leg­isla­tive District

  • State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive — Posi­tion #1
    • Uni­ty Restora­tion Cyrus Krohn

10th Leg­isla­tive District

  • State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive — Posi­tion #2
    • Pro­gres­sive Tay­lor Zimmerman

17th Leg­isla­tive District

  • State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive — Posi­tion #2
    • Repub­li­can Bri­an White

18th Leg­isla­tive District

  • State Sen­a­tor
    • Repub­li­can John Ley

19th Leg­isla­tive District

  • State Sen­a­tor
    • Repub­li­can Wes Cormier

25th Leg­isla­tive District

  • State Sen­a­tor
    • Repub­li­can Emmett Smith

Pierce County positions

Pierce is Wash­ing­ton’s sec­ond largest coun­ty by pop­u­la­tion. Unlike its north­ern neigh­bor King and oth­er home rule coun­ties in Wash­ing­ton State with char­ters, Pierce elects its coun­ty-lev­el posi­tions in even-num­bered years (when turnout is high­er), as opposed to odd-num­bered years (when turnout is typ­i­cal­ly lower).

Can­di­dates who have filed since this morning:

Coun­ty Council

  • Dis­trict #3
    • Repub­li­can Joe Zaichkin

Sher­iff

  • Cyn­die Fajardo

See the complete list of everyone who has filed

Want to see a com­pre­hen­sive list of all can­di­date fil­ings at the state lev­el? You can do so at the Sec­re­tary of State’s web­site. You may also browse our archive of Fil­ing Week reports to see who filed for office at oth­er inter­vals.

Edi­tor’s note: Fil­ing Week has now come to an end, but we’ll have one more post­mortem post next week with a list of can­di­dates who decid­ed to withdraw. 

Adjacent posts

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