Politics & Government

Medina's DelBene Leads 1st District Democrats in Early Returns

Republican John Koster has 47 percent of the votes, followed by Suzan DelBene with 23 percent and Darcy Burner with 13 percent.

Update, 9:10 p.m.: The Seattle Times and KUOW sent out tweets saying Burner has conceded the race to DelBene.

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Original story: Medina resident Suzan DelBene is leading Democrats in early voting returns for the 1st District Congressional race, according to preliminary results released by the Washington Secretary of State's office.

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Among Democrats, DelBene has 23 percent of the votes, followed by Darcy Burner with 13 percent, Steve Hobbs with 8 percent, Laura Ruderman with 4 percent, and Darshan Rauniyar with 2 percent. Republican John Koster was bringing in 47 percent of the votes and Independent Larry Ishmael had earned 2 percent.

The top two candidates—regardless of party affiliation—will advance to the general election this November.

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In King County, 14,688 ballots had been counted as of 8 p.m. Tuesday. The county has more than 72,000 voters.

Washington's new 1st District is one of the state's largest and most politically diverse districts, stretching from Redmond to the Canadian border and including both tech-savvy suburbs and large expanses of farmland.

Darcy Burner, who lives in Ames Lake, attended a primary night party at in downtown Redmond. Minutes before the first round of results were released, Burner said she was "cautiously optimistic" and thought the race has been fair and civil thus far.

"It's actually been a very fun campaign," she said.

Meanwhile, as of 8 p.m. Tuesday, Sen. Maria Cantwell, a Democrat, had gathered 52 percent of the vote. Her challenger likely will be Republican state Sen. Michael Baumgartner who had pulled in 32 percent of the ballots counted. 

Patch will post updated election results as they are released.

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