Clyde Shavers prevails in 10th LD House race; recount not expected to change results

This week, the count­ing phase of the 2022 midterm elec­tion in Wash­ing­ton came to an end, and the final results con­firmed that Democ­rats have suc­ceed­ed in enlarg­ing their major­i­ty in the state House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives by one seat with chal­lenger Clyde Shavers’ vic­to­ry over Repub­li­can incum­bent Greg Gilday.

Gil­day is one of two Repub­li­cans cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ing the 10th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict, which includes all of Island Coun­ty, south­west Skag­it Coun­ty, and a slice of north­east Sno­homish Coun­ty. The oth­er is Sen­a­tor Ron Muzzall.

The dis­tric­t’s oth­er House seat has been held for sev­er­al cycles by Demo­c­rat Dave Paul, who won reelec­tion by a rea­son­ably com­fort­able margin.

In the con­test with Gil­day, Shavers received a nar­row major­i­ty of the vote (51.91%) in the ini­tial round of Washington’s two-part gen­er­al elec­tion sys­tem, sur­pass­ing Gil­day, who received 47.94% of the vote.

Shavers seemed head­ed for vic­to­ry last month too. But his prospects took a hit when Gil­day’s cam­paign pub­lished a let­ter from Shavers’ father alleg­ing that he embell­ished his resume. Despite Repub­li­can attempts to exploit the alle­ga­tions for polit­i­cal gain, Shavers won. The results indi­cate that vot­ers were accept­ing of Shavers’ apol­o­gy and believe in his abil­i­ty to rep­re­sent the dis­trict in Olympia.

In a vic­to­ry state­ment pub­lished on his web­site, Shavers remarked: “I believe that vot­ers from all walks of life came togeth­er to reject today’s divi­sive pol­i­tics and to build toward a kinder, more com­pas­sion­ate future. We saw that hope and faith is stronger than neg­a­tiv­i­ty and tear­ing oth­ers down.”

“I look for­ward to ful­ly ded­i­cat­ing myself to the peo­ple of the 10th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict – to the fam­i­lies strug­gling to make ends meet, vet­er­ans con­tin­u­ing to serve their com­mu­ni­ty, farm­ers and farm­work­ers feed­ing us and the world, teach­ers and admin­is­tra­tors inspir­ing our chil­dren, and pub­lic safe­ty and health­care work­ers pro­tect­ing us each and every day.”

“Your sup­port through­out this cam­paign has been unpar­al­leled,” Shavers told his sup­port­ers. “Thank you so much for all that you offered – your time, your dona­tions, and your words of encour­age­ment. Our hard work paid off.”

“I want to con­grat­u­late Rep­re­sen­ta­tive-elect Clyde Shavers on his win and know he will do an excel­lent job serv­ing the 10th Dis­trict in Olympia,” said Wash­ing­ton State Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty Chair Tina Pod­lodows­ki.

“Clyde has been a ded­i­cat­ed life­long pub­lic ser­vant who has worked to make peo­ples’ lives bet­ter in both his own com­mu­ni­ty and across the world. Wash­ing­ton Democ­rats con­tact­ed 48,000 vot­ers in the 10th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict and were proud to play a crit­i­cal role in win­ning this very close election.”

“We are excit­ed that Clyde will join a leg­is­la­ture with an expand­ed Demo­c­ra­t­ic major­i­ty, and one that is the most diverse in our state’s history.”

Shavers’ final lead at cer­ti­fi­ca­tion was just 211 votes.

While this key leg­isla­tive race has been con­sid­ered too close to call through the count­ing peri­od, there are no out­stand­ing bal­lots left to count.

Shavers won Island Coun­ty with 53.5% (a dif­fer­ence of near­ly 3,100) and Skag­it Coun­ty with 56.5% (a dif­fer­ence of near­ly 1,200). Gil­day won Sno­homish Coun­ty with 59.2% of the vote (a dif­fer­ence of about 4,150).

Although the out­come is not expect­ed to change, the con­test now heads to a machine recount. Under state law, a recount is manda­to­ry if the dif­fer­ence between two can­di­dates is few­er than 2,000 votes and less than .5%.

Shavers’s 50.1% is only .2 per­cent­age points ahead of Gilday’s 49.9% and only 211 votes sep­a­rate the can­di­dates, so a recount is necessary.

The recount will be a machine count and it should not take long to complete.

The Skag­it Coun­ty Can­vass­ing Board has already sched­uled a spe­cial meet­ing for this com­ing Mon­day to set a date and time for the recount.

Island Coun­ty plans to recount bal­lots in this race on Mon­day, Decem­ber 12th.

“The machine recount for Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict #10, Posi­tion 1 race will take place in the Elec­tions Office begin­ning at 9:00 a.m. on Mon­day, Decem­ber 12th,” a notice pub­lished by Island Coun­ty Elec­tions explained. “This recount is expect­ed to be com­plet­ed in one day and will be cer­ti­fied by the Can­vass­ing Board at their meet­ing on Tues­day, Decem­ber 13th, 2022 at 9:00 a.m. The recounts will take place in the Elec­tions Office at 400 N. Main St. in Coupeville.”

Sno­homish Coun­ty Elec­tions has also cho­sen the 12th as its recount day.

Gil­day’s defeat leaves the Repub­li­can cau­cus with just forty mem­bers. There are nine­ty-eight seats in the Wash­ing­ton State House of Representatives.

Democ­rats have held a major­i­ty in the cham­ber since the turn of the century.

The clos­est Repub­li­cans have come to a major­i­ty in recent cycles was in the 2014 and 2016 elec­tions, when they were able to win forty-eight seats.

In 2018, Democ­rats won fifty-sev­en seats, a feat they repeat­ed in 2020. Hav­ing now won fifty-eight seats in what was sup­posed to be a “red wave” year, the par­ty has showed that it is well posi­tioned to con­tin­ue its elec­toral dom­i­nance in leg­isla­tive elec­tions. It can do well in midterms regard­less of whether a Repub­li­can or Demo­c­rat is in the White House as well as in pres­i­den­tial years.