Voters in Northwest Washington will send a full slate of incumbents back to the state Legislature come January.
In the 39th Legislative District, which encompasses portions of Skagit and Snohomish counties, Republican Sen. Keith Wagoner, a two-term incumbent, has fended off a challenge from Navy veteran John Snow, a Democrat. Wagoner hails from Skagit County, having grown up in a forested area of Alger, and now lives in Sedro-Woolley.
In the race for the District 39 House, incumbent Rep. Sam Low, from Lake Stevens, beat challenger Robert Sutherland, from Snohomish, for the Position 1 seat.
“It’s been an honor to represent east Skagit and Snohomish Counties for the past two years. I have worked with residents and elected officials to prioritize local issues in Olympia,” Low said in a statement on Tuesday night. “I am proud to be re-elected to bring common sense and pragmatism back to Olympia.”
The race for Position 2 featured Rep. Carolyn Eslick, from Sultan, and newcomer Jackie Huey, from Snohomish. Eslick, who has been in office since her appointment in 2018, will continue to hold the seat.
These results include votes tallied from Snohomish and Skagit county.
District 40 encompasses San Juan County and portions of Whatcom and Skagit counties including Anacortes, Burlington and parts of Bellingham.
Voters saw a rematch for the Washington State Senate District 40 four-year term between Democrat Liz Lovelett of Anacortes and Republican Charles Carrell of Sedro-Woolley. In 2020, Lovelett defeated Carrell 69.5% to 30.4% in the general election.
In 2024, Lovelett received more than 72% of the vote. She said she’s looking forward to welcoming a lot of new members into the Senate and getting back to work immediately.
“I’m so honored and humbled to have once again received overwhelming support to continue representing my community in the Senate,” Lovelett said.
In the state house, District 40 Position 1 is represented by Democrat Debra Lekanoff and Position 2 is represented by Democrat Alex Ramel. Both representatives ran unopposed to hold their seats.
The 42nd Legislative District includes all of Whatcom County except for south Bellingham.
Incumbent District 42 Representatives Alicia Rule and Joe Timmons, both Democrats, faced Republican challengers in the general election. Real estate agent Ray Pelletti sought to unseat Rule, while previous Whatcom County Council and state legislative candidate Kamal Bhachu aimed to beat out Timmons for his seat in the Legislature.
“I’m feeling pretty satisfied with the way we ran the campaign,” Bhachu said. “We didn’t sling any mud at each other.”
Timmons and Rule are leading with 53% and 55% of the vote, respectively.
Rule, Ramel and Timmons all agreed the Legislature has work to do. “I’m glad we can jump right in,” said Rule on Tuesday night.
Timmons said he’s looking forward to working on public education and housing. “We’ve done a lot to try and increase our housing supply and now I think we have more work we need to do to protect renters,” he said.
Julia Tellman writes about civic issues and anything else that happens to cross her desk; contact her at juliatellman@cascadiadaily.com.
