Washington, U.S. Senate

Voters in Washington elected one member to the U.S. Senate in the election on November 6, 2018.

The election filled the Class 1 Senate seat held by Maria Cantwell (D). She was first elected in 2000 and sought re-election in 2018.

Washington utilizes a top-two primary system, which allows all candidates to run and all voters to vote but only moves the top two vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, to the general election.

Campaign finance

The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.

Name	Party	Receipts*	Disbursements**	Cash on hand	Date
Maria Cantwell	Democratic Party	$9,399,421	$9,635,913	$569,893	As of December 31, 2018
Susan Hutchison	Republican Party	$1,933,256	$1,933,256	$0	As of December 31, 2018
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2018. * According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." ** According to the FEC, a disbursement "is a purchase, payment, distribution, loan, advance, deposit or gift of money or anything of value to influence a federal election," plus other kinds of payments not made to influence a federal election.

Election history

2016

rated Washington's U.S. Senate race as safely Democratic. Incumbent Patty Murray (D) won re-election in 2016. She defeated Chris Vance (R) in the general election on November 8, 2016. Murray and Vance defeated 15 other candidates to win the primary on August 2, 2016. In Washington, all candidates run in the same primary and the two candidates who receive the most votes, regardless of party affiliation, advance to the general election.

U.S. Senate, Washington General Election, 2016

Party	Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Patty Murray Incumbent	59%	1,913,979
	Republican	Chris Vance	41%	1,329,338
Total Votes			3,243,317
Source: Washington Secretary of State

U.S. Senate, Washington Primary, 2016

Party	Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Patty Murray Incumbent	53.8%	745,421
	Republican	Chris Vance	27.5%	381,004
	Republican	Eric John Makus	4.2%	57,825
	Democratic	Phil Cornell	3.4%	46,460
	Republican	Scott Nazarino	3%	41,542
	Libertarian	Mike Luke	1.5%	20,988
	Democratic	Mohammad Said	1%	13,362
	Conservative	Donna Rae Lands	0.8%	11,472
	Independent	Ted Cummings	0.8%	11,028
	Human Rights	Sam Wright	0.8%	10,751
	Republican	Uncle Mover	0.6%	8,569
	System Reboot Party	Jeremy Teuton	0.6%	7,991
	Democratic	Thor Amundson	0.6%	7,906
	Independent	Chuck Jackson	0.5%	6,318
	Lincoln Caucus	Pano Churchill	0.4%	5,150
	Independent	Zach Haller	0.4%	5,092
	Standupamerica	Alex Tsimerman	0.3%	4,117
Total Votes			1,384,996
Source: Washington Secretary of State

2012

Maria Cantwell won re-election to the United States Senate in 2012.

U.S. Senate, Washington, General Election, 2012

Party	Candidate	Vote %	Votes
	Democratic	Maria Cantwell Incumbent	60.5%	1,855,493
	Republican	Michael Baumgartner	39.5%	1,213,924
Total Votes			3,069,417
Source: Washington Secretary of State "Official Election Results, 2012 General Election"

Demographics

Demographic data for Washington

	Washington	U.S.
Total population:	7,160,290	316,515,021
Land area (sq mi):	66,456	3,531,905
Gender
Female:	50.1%	50.8%
Race and ethnicity**
White:	77.8%	73.6%
Black/African American:	3.6%	12.6%
Asian:	7.7%	5.1%
Native American:	1.3%	0.8%
Pacific Islander:	0.6%	0.2%
Two or more:	5.2%	3%
Hispanic/Latino:	12%	17.1%
Education
High school graduation rate:	90.4%	86.7%
College graduation rate:	32.9%	29.8%
Income
Median household income:	$61,062	$53,889
Persons below poverty level:	14.4%	11.3%
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, "American Community Survey" (5-year estimates 2010-2015) for more information on the 2020 census and here for more on its impact on the redistricting process in Washington.

As of July 2016, Washington's three largest cities were Seattle (pop. est. 724,745), Spokane (pop. est. 217,108), and Tacoma (pop. est. 213,418).