Eliza Billingham photo
Outgoing U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers literally passed the baton to Michael Baumgartner, who will represent Eastern Washington in Congress.
While many were focused on the race for the White House, Inland Northwest contests were also largely decided on Tuesday night.
With at least 31,000 ballots remaining to be counted, Spokane County voter turnout hovered around 56% of registered voters as of Tuesday, which is significantly lower than expected in a presidential election. In 2020, nearly 82% of Spokane County voters turned out, while in 2016, more than 78% turned out. The remaining ballot total will be updated as they're received by mail, and the next vote tally is expected to be released on Wednesday evening.
Here’s a quick rundown of the results so far.
CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT 5
Michael Baumgartner will be Eastern Washington’s next member of the U.S. House after winning 59.79% of the vote as of Tuesday night.
As he took the stage at a watch party hosted by Reps. Mike Volz and Suzanne Schmidt at the Historic Davenport Hotel, the previous state senator and current Spokane County Treasurer was handed an actual baton from outgoing U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, who held the congressional seat for almost 20 years.
“You know, when Seinfeld was the number one show in America and he wanted to leave with everyone wanting more and on a high note, I think that’s how we all feel about our wonderful Cathy McMorris Rodgers,” Baumgartner said..
With his family on stage with him, Baumgartner shared again how he made the decision to run and congratulated everyone who had the courage to campaign, regardless of whether they won. After each of his kids gave shoutouts to friends and their favorite teachers, Baumgartner moved on to some of his biggest concerns.
“Obviously we’re concerned about the debt and the crime and lawless border, and all these things we can make a deal about, but the political divisiveness, the tribalism in America, really weighs heavily on our heart,” he said. “Things are gonna be heated here for awhile, but when we go to bed tonight and wake up the next morning, we are all Americans. I really strongly urge all of us — we wear the Republican logo and I’m a proud Republican conservative — but the Democrats on the other side, they’re our opponents but they’re not our enemies.”
His opponent Carmela Conroy was at a Democratic watch party down the street at Riverside Place. After winning 40% of the vote, Conroy said she was thankful for what her campaign accomplished.
“I’m disappointed with the outcome but grateful for the grassroots movement that developed over the last year,” she said. “I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish and to highlight the issues that are really important to me — restoring our freedoms, addressing affordability, as well as working to find common sense solutions to our shared challenges. Over the course of the campaign, Michael Baumgartner made a number of commitments about being willing to work across the aisle, on behalf of the people of Eastern Washington, and I think that all of us will be keeping an eye out to make sure that he keeps his word.”
SPOKANE COUNTY COMMISSION DISTRICT 5
As of Tuesday night, Spokane County Commissioner Al French was leading the vote tally in his bid for reelection, but only 918 votes separated him from challenger Molly Marshall.
Though the race was still too close to call, after celebrating Baumgartner’s win at the Davenport watch party on Tuesday night, French felt celebratory.
“I feel fantastic,” French said. “I thought I was going to be down, because that’s typically what happens on election night for me in the past, but now I’m up 1,000 [votes] and it only gets better here because my voters are late voters. So the margins will grow from now until certified. So I couldn’t be happier. I’m grateful to the voters that they have enough confidence to allow me to serve them for another four years. I’m humbled by the support, and anxious to get to work for another four years.”
As of Wednesday morning, Marshall still felt very much in the fight.
“We are optimistic and there’s still a log of ballots to be counted,” she said
Marshall has been expecting it to be a close race for her entire campaign.
“It’s not a surprise and not anything that we didn’t expect,” she said.
SPOKANE PROPOSITION 1
In a big win for Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown, city voters passed Proposition 1, which the city nicknamed the “Community Safety Sales Tax.” With more than 58% of the early vote total, the local sales tax in city limits will increase by 0.1% or 10 cents more per $100 purchase.
LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT 3
State Rep. Marcus Riccelli beat out opponent Jim Wilson to take Sen. Andy Billig’s seat representing Spokane in the state Senate. Riccelli took more than 61% of the vote in the early tally released on election night.
Meanwhile, Natasha Hill will take Riccelli’s seat in the state House, besting opponent Tony Kiepe with more than 59% of the vote as of Tuesday night’s count.
SCHOOL LEVIES
Cheney School District
The Cheney School District needed at least 60% of the vote to pass its $72 million construction bond that would help the district deal with the region’s explosive population growth. Currently, the proposition is set to fail even though it has garnered 59.24% of the vote. That could change as more ballots are counted.
Coeur d’Alene School District
Voters in Coeur d’Alene have approved a two-year $50 million replacement levy for the Coeur d’Alene School District with 61% of the vote as of Tuesday night.
Deer Park School District
The Deer Park School District’s $55.1 million construction bond also failed to pass with less than 51% of the vote. Though it garnered a simple majority, the district’s bond was bound by a 60% requirement.
Lakeland Joint School District
The Lakeland Joint School District, which includes Rathdrum, Twin Lakes and Spirit Lake, asked voters to approve a two-year $19 million replacement levy, but it appeared it was rejected by a narrow 300-vote margin. With only 49% of the vote on Tuesday night, the levy has failed.
Orchard Prairie School District
Like every other school bond on the Spokane County ballots, Orchard Prairie School District failed to reach the vote tally it needed to pass its $6.2 million construction bond. As of Tuesday night, it had garnered about 54% of the vote, but needed 60% to pass.
West Valley School District
When the West Valley School District construction bond failed to reach the 60% vote threshold earlier this year, district officials decided to pivot to respond to the message that voters had sent. This time, the district decided to run a three-year $12 million capital improvement levy that would improve school security and address some of the district’s most pressing issues like necessary roof repairs at West Valley High School.
That pivot paid off for the district as the bond — which received 57% of the early vote — only needed a simple majority to pass. Voters in the district will see an estimated levy rate of $1 for every $1,000 in assessed value on their property.
LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT 7
Andrew Engell will fill the seat of outgoing state Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber, who lost her bid for the U.S. House in the primary. Engel defeated his opponent Soo Ing-Moody with nearly 63% of the early vote.
Attorney Hunter Abell defeated his opponent Paul “Rocky” Dean with nearly 70% of the vote in the race for retiring state Rep. Joel Kretz’ seat in the state House.
LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT 4
For the first time in more than a decade, the 4th Legislative District, which includes Spokane Valley, Colbert, Green Bluff, Liberty Lake and Millwood, will have a new face in the state Senate.
After a single term as a state representative in the 4th District, Leonard Christian will take the Senate seat being vacated by outgoing state Sen. Mike Padden. Christian secured the seat over his opponent Miguel Valencia with nearly 64% of the vote as of Tuesday night’s count.
Former Spokane County Treasurer and last year’s failed Spokane Valley City Council hopeful Rob Chase will return to the state Legislature after defeating his opponent Ted Cummings with 63% of the vote so far.
Chase previously served in the same seat when he was elected to the state House in 2020, but he lost his reelection bid in 2022 to Christian.
Incumbent state Rep. Suzanne Schmidt will return to Olympia in the district’s other seat in the House after defeating her opponent Kristopher Pockell with more than 68% of the vote as of Tuesday night.
KOOTENAI COUNTY SHERIFF
Kootenai County Sheriff Bob Norris will serve another term in the county’s top law enforcement position after securing more than two-thirds of the vote compared to his three opponents Justin Nagel, Dan Wilson and Kyle Woodward. Wilson took about 22% of the vote, while Nagel and Woodward took about 4% each.
NORTH IDAHO COLLEGE BOARD OF TRUSTEES
With two members of North Idaho College’s Board of Trustees choosing not to run for reelection, it was guaranteed that there would be some new faces on the board after the election. After last night’s election, it seems that there will be three new faces.
In the position held by outgoing Trustee Todd Banducci, Rick Durbin took a 3,600 vote lead over his opponent William Lyons.
Similarly, in the position held by outgoing Trustee Mike Waggoner, Mary Havercroft bested her opponent Michael Angiletta by nearly 2,000 votes.
In the only race with an incumbent, the tally was more decisive. Trustee Greg Mackenzie lost his bid for re-election by more than 9,000 votes to Eve Knudtsen, who secured 55% of the total tally.
All three candidates leading the race were endorsed by Save NIC, a nonprofit advocating for the college amid its accreditation woes. The three candidates who weren’t elected were endorsed by the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.
LEGISLATIVE DISTRICT 6
Incumbent state Reps. Mike Volz and Jenny Graham were expected to win re-election in Legislative District 6, covering north and western parts of Spokane County, and they did.
Preliminary counts showed each incumbent taking more than 60% of the vote over their less experienced opponents Steven McCray II and Michaela Kelso.
SPOKANE SUPERIOR COURT
All Spokane County Superior Court judges were up for re-election this year, but only two faced challengers for their positions.
As of Tuesday, Marla Polin will keep her position as the judge in position 8, winning about 54% of the vote.
But it appears that Judge Timothy Fennessy will be replaced by Andrew Van Winkle, previously a senior staff attorney for the Court of Appeals who took almost 52% of the vote and had about 6,000 more votes than Fennessy for judge position 11.
Fennessy won the position by challenging an incumbent in 2016. Now, Van Winkle is set to be the youngest superior court judge on the local bench.
