Filing Week 2021 is in the books!
Since Monday morning of this week, the Secretary of State and county elections officials have been accepting formal declarations of candidacy from Washingtonians who have decided they want to run for office at the local level.
As of this evening, candidate filing has closed. There will be a special candidate filing period next week for positions subject to election that didn’t attract any candidates during the regular five day filing window we just held.
This is an odd numbered year, which means that cities and charter counties like King and Snohomish will have legislative and executive positions on the ballot, along with some judicial positions. School districts, ports, and other local governments across the state will also be holding elections this year.
This post is the last in a series of reports that began on Monday. We’ll have one more Filing Week report next week to recap the candidate withdrawals.
Browse candidate filings by county
Counties are listed in order of population, not alphabetically
Notable filings
- Seattle: City Attorney Pete Holmes now has two opponents: public defender Nicole Thomas-Kennedy and Republican Ann Davison, who unsuccessfully ran for Lieutenant Governor last year. The mayoral race, meanwhile, now has a total of fifteen candidates.
- King County Council: The Republican councilmembers (Kathy Lambert, Pete von Reichbauer, and Reagan Dunn) each drew multiple opponents, while the Democratic councilmembers (Rod Dembowski, Dave Upthegrove) only drew one opponent each. Voters will need to winnow the field in Positions #3, #7, and #9 for the general election.
- Seattle Port Commission (King County): Incumbent Commissioner Ryan Calkins has drawn an opponent, Norman Z. Sigler. The other incumbent Commissioners Peter Steinbrueck and Stephanie Bowman already had one opponent each. Because no one else filed for Port in any of the three races, we already know what the general election matchups will be.
- Redmond: Incumbent Councilmember Tanika Padhye did not file for reelection, guaranteeing that at least one new councilmember will be joining Redmond’s legislative branch at the end of this year. Vying to succeed Padhye are Melissa Stuart, who filed on Monday, Dennis Ellis, and Jackson Fields, son of Councilmember Steve Fields.
- Bellevue: NPI supporter Ruth Lipscomb has entered the race for Position #4, challenging Jared Nieuwenhuis, while Carlota Wilhite has withdrawn. Nieuwenhuis is one of the council’s most right wing members.
Several jurisdictions ended up without any contested races at all. Carnation, Enumclaw, Hunts Point, and Covington are a few examples.
Similarly, there won’t be any contested judicial races in King County this year, as none of the judgeships drew more than one candidate.
Upcoming deadlines and important dates
Filing Week is over. Here are the next three filing-related important deadlines:
- Monday, May 24th, 2021 is the candidate withdrawal deadline
- Tuesday, May 25th, 2021 is the last day for Secretary of State to certify candidates to County Auditors.
- Friday, May 28th, 2021 is the date when candidate statements and photographs for the state voters’ pamphlet are due.
The Top Two election will begin in July, with ballots expected to land around July 16th. Voting will conclude on Tuesday, August 3rd at 8 PM.