Last night’s election in Washington State is a big deal.
Washington has an undeserved reputation as being as blue as Massachusetts. This is not true, and I’m going to show you why, by going back in history.
Presidential elections
If you look at the 1980s, Reagan won Washington State twice.
Al Gore was the first Democratic Presidential candidate to win a majority of the vote in Washington State since President Johnson in 1964.
Washington voted for Nixon in 1960.
Washington has only very recently become an almost certainty for Presidential candidates.
Governor
Washington has been voting more and more for Democratic governors over the last 15 years, but this wasn’t always the case. Governor Gregoire won by only 133 votes in 2004. This was a large reversal since Governor Locke won with 58% of the vote in 2000. Washington has the potential to swing Republican quickly with little warning.
Legislature
Republicans controlled the Washington State Senate from 2013-2017. They could potentially win it again still, there are a handful of swing districts that determine the majority in the Senate.
Executive offices
Right now is the first time Democrats have controlled all executive offices in Washington since the 1962 election.
Overall political party strength
Right now is the first time where Democrats have controlled all of the executive offices, both chambers of the state legislature, had a majority of representatives from the state, both Senators, and voted for the Democratic President in the preceding Presidential election since the 1944 election.
Washington is less Democratic than people usually think it is, and last night’s performance by Democrats is historically unprecedented in our modern party system.