Democrat Adrian Cortes (Courtesy Adrian Cortes campaign)
Democrat Adrian Cortes narrowly defeated Republican Brad Benton on Tuesday in a closely-watched election for an open seat in the Washington state Senate.
But with only a 172-vote margin in results certified by Clark County, a machine recount will be required to confirm the outcome.
“I’m extraordinarily confident that we have secured a victory in this race,” Cortes said Tuesday. He said Benton phoned last week to concede and offer congratulations.
Tuesday marked the deadline for auditors in Washington’s 39 counties to certify their respective vote tallies.
Secretary of State Steve Hobbs will certify the results of the statewide election Dec. 4, formalizing wins for a new state Supreme Court justice, four new statewide executives including governor, and several new members in each chamber of the state Legislature. This will also bring finality to passage of one statewide initiative and defeat of three others.
The fierce duel between Benton and Cortes proved to be the closest race for a legislative or statewide office this year. It will be the only one for which Hobbs will order ballots to be retallied.
Cortes edged Benton by a margin of 50.1% to 49.9%, finishing with 42,053 votes to Benton’s 41,881. The winner will succeed retiring Republican Sen. Ann Rivers in the 18th Legislative District.
State law requires a machine recount when the difference between candidates is less than 2,000 votes and also less than half of 1% of the total votes cast for both candidates. A hand recount is mandated when the difference between the top two candidates is less than 150 votes and also less than one-quarter of 1% of the total votes cast for both candidates.
A Republican-held district for more than two decades, Democratic Party leaders entered the year optimistic they could flip the Senate seat in the 18th with Cortes, a Battle Ground City Council member, as their candidate.
“I’m just grateful to be elected by voters to go up to Olympia to protect their interests,” Cortes said.
Meanwhile, Democrats also expanded their majority in the House with Adison Richards’ defeat of Republican Jesse Young, a former state lawmaker, in the 26th Legislative District. Richards will succeed Rep. Spencer Hutchins, R-Gig Harbor, who did not seek re-election.
Barring any changes, Democrats will outnumber Republicans 59-39 in the House and 30-19 in the Senate when the 2025 legislative session begins Jan. 13.
A new era
Sal Mungia will soon fill an open Washington state Supreme Court seat after results showed him beating Dave Larson by more than 20,000 votes in what turned out to be the closest statewide contest.
Mungia will replace Justice Susan Owens who will retire at the end of the year. Washington State Supreme Court justices serve six-year terms and face mandatory retirement at age 75.
The gap between the two candidates grew since Election Day, but in Tuesday’s final vote tallies, Mungia remained less than 1% ahead of Larson. Given the wide vote gap, the race was still out of recount range.
Mungia is a trial and appellate court lawyer who had the endorsement of eight of the nine current justices, Gov. Jay Inslee and other Democratic elected officials across the state. Larson had the backing of the state Republican Party.
Larson made a last-ditch push to get voters to fix problems with challenged ballots in the hopes that he could catch up to Mungia. On Monday, Larson posted on X that the close results showed that people in Washington are pushing against partisanship in the judiciary.
“I will not give up my efforts to support the trial courts and the communities they serve, and I certainly will not give up trying to get partisan politics out of the judiciary,” he said.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.