Senator Manka Dhingra reelected over the strident opposition of The Seattle Times

Sen­a­tor Man­ka Dhin­gra (D‑45th Dis­trict) is win­ning elec­tion to the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate for the third con­sec­u­tive time, Elec­tion Night returns show.

In the first count, Dhin­gra had 63.04% of the vote, while Repub­li­can chal­lenger Ryi­ka Hooshan­gi had 36.8% of the vote. Hooshan­gi is per­form­ing a lit­tle bet­ter than she did in August when she first appeared on the bal­lot with Dhin­gra, but is still well under forty per­cent and not a com­pet­i­tive candidate.

Hooshan­gi, a Sam­mamish Water Plateau Dis­trict board­mem­ber, pre­vi­ous­ly ran unsuc­cess­ful­ly for Sam­mamish City Coun­cil in 2019 and decid­ed to chal­lenge Dhin­gra for the Sen­ate last spring with John Braun’s encouragement.

One of two Deputy Major­i­ty Lead­ers in the Sen­ate, Sen­a­tor Dhin­gra chairs the body’s Law & Jus­tice Com­mit­tee and has worked tire­less­ly to strength­en pub­lic safe­ty and advance police reform in Wash­ing­ton State. Her first vic­to­ry came five years ago when she eas­i­ly won a spe­cial elec­tion to deter­mine who would serve out the remain­der of the late Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor Andy Hill’s term.

That vic­to­ry flipped the Sen­ate to Demo­c­ra­t­ic con­trol, end­ing Mark Schoesler’s abil­i­ty to bury good leg­is­la­tion enact­ed by the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives and putting an end to five years of end­less spe­cial ses­sions and gridlock.

After a very suc­cess­ful first ses­sion in the Leg­is­la­ture, Sen­a­tor Dhin­gra won reelec­tion in 2018 by an even big­ger mar­gin, hand­i­ly dis­patch­ing Repub­li­can chal­lenger Dale Fonk, the chair of the 45th LD Repub­li­cans. That same year, she helped form the board of NPI’s sib­ling, the North­west Pro­gres­sive Foun­da­tion.

Four years lat­er, it’s clear that Sen­a­tor Dhin­gra still has a strong con­nec­tion with her con­stituents. Though The Seat­tle Times repeat­ed­ly instruct­ed vot­ers to replace Dhin­gra with Hooshan­gi, and although the Wash­ing­ton State Repub­li­can Par­ty sent mul­ti­ple attack mail­ers mak­ing absurd state­ments like ‘Man­ka Dhin­ga is Fail­ing our Chil­dren,” vot­ers are demon­strat­ing tonight that they are hap­py with Sen­a­tor Dhin­gra’s work and want her to con­tin­ue rep­re­sent­ing them.

Seat­tle Times own­er Frank Blethen and his edi­to­r­i­al board were clear­ly enchant­ed with Hooshan­gi, whose I’m a rea­son­able Repub­li­can pitch (despite belong­ing to a par­ty that tried to stop the law­ful trans­fer of pow­er in 2021!) won her not only an endorse­ment, but repeat­ed men­tions in fol­low-up editorials.

But vot­ers in the 45th weren’t. The 45th is a solid­ly Demo­c­ra­t­ic dis­trict now, not a swing dis­trict, and its elec­torate wants strong, pro­gres­sive representation.

Despite hav­ing the advan­tage of a lot more mon­ey than Dale Fonk had four years ago, plus inde­pen­dent expen­di­ture cam­paigns work­ing for her and against Sen­a­tor Dhin­gra, Ryi­ka Hooshan­gi was unable to put the dis­trict in play.

Next cycle, it will have been ten years since Repub­li­cans last won a leg­isla­tive elec­tion in the 45th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict. Rep­re­sen­ta­tives Roger Good­man and Lar­ry Springer are also eas­i­ly pre­vail­ing in tonight’s ini­tial results. The duo have worked togeth­er in the House for the bet­ter part of twen­ty years. Springer was first elect­ed in 2004; Good­man was first elect­ed in 2006. Each suc­cess­ful­ly sur­vived the 2010 and 2014 midterms, which were good cycles for Republicans.

This year, they faced only token oppo­si­tion, as the num­bers show.

Springer has 71.98% and Good­man has 69.09% of the ini­tial vote.