Election Night indicates Washington State will see a blue tsunami, even if other states won’t

Sus­pense and sav­age polit­i­cal war­fare over the out­come of the 2020 pres­i­den­tial race may take days or even weeks, but a blue wave crashed ashore in this Wash­ing­ton min­utes after the 8 PM dead­line for return­ing ballots.

Our days as a “pur­ple” state are clear­ly in the past.

Incum­bent Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee was tak­ing six­ty per­cent of the vote in his bid for a third term, with chal­lenger Loren Culp held under forty per­cent in returns released Tues­day night. The Democ­rats’ thir­ty-six-year grip on the governor’s office has been extend­ed for four more years.

The vic­to­ries of Inslee and Joe Biden were sus­tained by 500,000 vote mar­gins in pop­u­lous King Coun­ty, but pro­gres­sives are win­ning all over the place.

Pro­gres­sive Demo­c­ra­t­ic can­di­dates are ahead in three much-watched State Sen­ate races. Repub­li­can-held House seats are in jeop­ardy from What­com Coun­ty to Clark Coun­ty, and Island Coun­ty in between.

Only one Demo­c­rat in the Legislature’s upper cham­ber – State Sen­a­tor Dean Takko in the 19th Dis­trict of South­west Wash­ing­ton – is on the ropes.

The reli­gious right and Repub­li­cans forced a ref­er­en­dum on the Legislature’s sex edu­ca­tion plan, only to have near­ly six­ty per­cent of vot­ers approv­ing it.

State Super­in­ten­dent of Pub­lic Instruc­tion Chris Reyk­dal came storm­ing back in the gen­er­al elec­tion, after a weak Top Two elec­tion showing.

The political/religious right has tak­en its cause to the vot­ers three times in the past eleven years. It forced a 2009 vote on domes­tic part­ner­ships. It took the Legislature’s 2012 approval of mar­riage equal­i­ty to the vot­ers. It resist­ed sex edu­ca­tion in the Leg­is­la­ture this year, mak­ing it a fall cam­paign issue.

The result? Three ring­ing rejections.

One of the two Repub­li­cans left in statewide office, State Trea­sur­er Duane David­son, has like­ly been unseat­ed by Demo­c­ra­t­ic State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Mike Pelic­ciot­ti. The oth­er, Sec­re­tary of State Kim Wyman, is hang­ing on with 51.4% per­cent of the vote to an office Repub­li­cans have held since 1964.

The vot­ers are endors­ing two of Gov­er­nor Inslee’s appointees to the State Supreme Court, includ­ing the high court’s first Native Amer­i­can jus­tice, Raquel Mon­toya-Lewis, and the first black female jus­tice, G. Helen Whitener.

Years of Tim Eyman tantrums, deliv­ered when­ev­er the Supremes over­turn one of his bad­ly writ­ten ini­tia­tives, have not shak­en sup­port for the nation’s most diverse Supreme Court, which is most­ly women (sev­en of nine jus­tices are female).

Are we dif­fer­ent from the rest of the country?

Dif­fer­ences are undeniable.

Much of Mid­dle Amer­i­ca remains polit­i­cal­ly and social­ly con­ser­v­a­tive, which is why many of its tal­ent­ed young peo­ple head West. The “Left Coast” dri­ves the nation’s tech­nol­o­gy econ­o­my. It is home to the country’s most diverse pop­u­la­tions. The West’s largest employ­ers have embraced social tol­er­ance. Wash­ing­ton, Ore­gon and Cal­i­for­nia have formed a legal/political bul­wark against Trumpism.

It is so from the Mex­i­can bor­der to the 49th Par­al­lel. Ear­ly results from this elec­tion are sus­tain­ing the new blue col­oration of California’s Orange Coun­ty, once a seedbed of Amer­i­can con­ser­vatism. Oregon’s U.S. Rep. Peter DeFazio was alleged­ly in polit­i­cal trou­ble. He’s won in a walk, along with Sen­a­tor Jeff Merkley.

Once a home to par­tial­ly pro­gres­sive Repub­li­cans, sym­bol­ized by the late Sen­a­tor Mark Hat­field, Ore­gon has now elect­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic gov­er­nors for thir­ty-four years.

Wash­ing­ton, D.C., has expe­ri­enced the dead­lock of democracy.

Wash­ing­ton State will see a more pro­gres­sive Leg­is­la­ture con­vene in Jan­u­ary. Like­ly gone is State Sen­a­tor Steve O’Ban of the 28th Dis­trict in Pierce Coun­ty, a social con­ser­v­a­tive who has spe­cial­ized in bait­ing Sound Transit.

The state’s “blue-green” coali­tion of labor and envi­ron­men­tal­ists drew a bead on 5tatte Sen­a­tor Mark Mul­let, a pro-busi­ness Demo­c­rat who posed a major obsta­cle to pro­gres­sive tax reform and cli­mate leg­is­la­tion. He is trail­ing emer­gency room nurse Ingrid Ander­son by near­ly 1,000 votes.

Gov­er­nor Inslee has sought to play on a larg­er stage, with his short-lived run for the Demo­c­ra­t­ic pres­i­den­tial nom­i­na­tion. Instead, the 2020 elec­tion has offered oppor­tu­ni­ty at home, to make Wash­ing­ton a lab­o­ra­to­ry and model.

The Gov­er­nor seems poised to at last achieve his cli­mate initiatives.

He has hes­i­tat­ed in the past, but now has the oppor­tu­ni­ty for push­ing to reform the most unjust tax sys­tem in the nation, includ­ing the levy­ing of a cap­i­tal gains tax, which enjoys robust statewide sup­port accord­ing to NPI’s research.

The “Left Coast” has like-mind­ed lead­ers, from Cal­i­for­nia Gov­er­nor Gavin New­som to British Colum­bia Pre­mier John Hor­gan, reelect­ed last month by vot­ers in Canada’s “province on the Pacif­ic.” They can coop­er­ate toward such goals as bring­ing high-speed rail to the Inter­state 5 corridor.

Seat­tle, Port­land and San Fran­cis­co were demo­nized by Trump and his media lack­eys on Fox, long before racial jus­tice demon­stra­tors hit the streets.

Why? Part of the rea­son is that we’ve resist­ed right-wing takeovers of state courts, leg­is­la­tures and Governor’s offices else­where in the country.

We’ve expand­ed oppor­tu­ni­ties to vote.

We’ve reject­ed nativism and cel­e­brat­ed what Amer­i­ca has come to look like.

Let us con­tin­ue down this path.