Breaking down Democrats' gains in the Legislature

Plus the AG-elect's executive team and a big budget hole.

In a major year for Republicans nationally, Washington state was an outlier as voters appear to have swung further left since the 2020 election. The precinct-level data is still being processed and will paint a clearer picture of voting demographics and trends in the weeks to come, but one clear takeaway is that Democrats were largely victorious from the top of the ballot on down. 

Democrats captured every major executive office in the statehouse and, if current margins hold, appear to have flipped two previously Republican seats in the Legislature, growing their caucuses by one in the House and Senate heading into the 2025 session. Barring any major, unforeseen changes, the 2024 election will be the biggest year for Democrats in Washington since 2006, one Democratic operative said.

While the Democratic caucus gets more progressive, Washington Republicans seem to be at a crossroads between traditional conservatism and MAGA radicalism, with each branch claiming a handful of victories. 

However, a close read of the results shows that even in purple and sometimes blue legislative districts, incumbent moderate Republicans with deep community roots held on to their seats, while elsewhere reliably Republican seats were ceded to Democrats. 

Hundreds of thousands of dollars of outside spending from Republican and Democratic groups tried to influence the outcomes of these competitive races, with mixed results.