Washington’s third largest county appears on track to make a big change in its executive department. With 110,799 ballots tabulated so far, decorated law enforcement veteran Susanna Johnson has a solid lead over right wing incumbent Adam Fortney in her bid to become the new top cop in Snohomish County.
It’s an encouraging initial result that progressive activists across Snohomish County have been energetically working to get for more than three years.
Johnson’s lead must hold up in the late ballots for Fortney to be shown the door, but her campaign team and supporters are optimistic that she’ll prevail.
Election Night returns: Snohomish County sheriff
Susanna Johnson Other | 56,675 votes | 52.25% | |
Adam Fortney Other | 51,680 votes | 47.64% |
A big crowd of Johnson supporters and volunteers gathered in downtown Snohomish (the city!) to await the Election Night tally and enjoy refreshments together. The atmosphere was bright and lively both before and after the announcement of the first tabulation. People reminisced about their experiences doorbelling, phonebanking, and writing letters to the editor for Johnson.
Johnson herself stepped to the microphone to read the first numbers aloud to the room, eliciting applause and cheers. Big smiles and many hugs followed.
Over the course of the last four years, Fortney has become one of the most prominent right wing elected officials in Washington. He made waves early on by re-hiring deputies his predecessor had terminated for misconduct and ordering the removal of devices used for measuring officers’ driving from police cars.
Not long after that, Fortney began denouncing Governor Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 emergency directives and declaring that he wouldn’t enforce them.
Fortney is a regular at events organized by the Washington State Republican Party and right wing organizations. (The state party made a $15,000 donation to Fortney last month.) Fortney has also organized events of his own to promote the ultra MAGA agenda of fear and division. For one of his campaign fundraisers this past summer, he brought militant extremist Mark Lamb to Snohomish County.
Under Fortney, the Snohomish County sheriff’s office lost its hard-earned accreditation, awarded by the Washington Council of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs.
Johnson campaigned for the job with the support of all of Fortney’s living predecessors and respected law enforcement professionals like Sue Rahr, a former King County Sheriff. Johnson even had the support of ex-Congressman Dave Reichert for a while, though Reichert switched his allegiance to Fortney after deciding to run for Governor of Washington State as a Republican.
Johnson opened her election night party to the media; most Seattle television stations sent camera crews. Fortney, on the other hand, did not.
The Herald on Everett made repeated unsuccessful efforts to reach Fortney.
“On Tuesday night, a call to Fortney went to a voice mailbox that was full,” The Herald’s Jordan Hansen reported. “He did not respond to an email request for comment and had not posted on his frequently updated campaign Facebook page as of 9 PM.” Speaking of that Facebook page, the most recent post on it, as of press time, was a noisy, slightly blurry photo that showed Fortney sitting alone and holding a phone, captioned Taking a second before the crazy 🙂
One Fortney supporter, Jessica Wolf, wrote: “Hoping these early indicators aren’t a reflection of the outcome. Going to bed hopeful your numbers continue to climb throughout the evening. You have made so much positive impact for our county! We’re so incredibly grateful for all your service thus far. We believe in you!!!”
Fortney has yet to respond.
If Fortney loses, Johnson will take over for him once 2024 arrives.
The 2023 general election is due to be certified on November 28th.