Despite losing six seats to the Democrats, the Republicans will maintain control of the Senate with 239 seats to the Democrats’ 193 seats. Consistent with the Presidential and Senate election outcomes, this is viewed as a very strong performance for the Republicans, who broadly feared losing more than 15 seats going into Tuesday evening.
Democrats flipped seven seats that were previously held by Republicans, while Republicans flipped two seats that were previously held by Democrats. Of the eighteen districts that were considered a toss-up by the New York Times going into Tuesday, Republicans won thirteen.
Of note for Washington residents, the Seattle seat held by retiring Congressman Jim McDermott for the last twenty-eight years was won by State Senator Pramila Jayapal. Jayapal will be the first Indian-American woman elected to the U.S. Congress. She moved to the United States in 1982 at the age of 16 to attend college, and worked as a civil rights advocate and Washington state senator prior to running for Congress. She won with the support from 136,547 Seattle voters compared to opponent, fellow Democrat Brady Pinero Walkinshaw’s 102,341 votes.
Elsewhere in Washington state, voters have elected their respective incumbents to continue to represent them in Congress. Here’s a look at the margins.
- CD 1 – Suzan Delbene (D) with 57.19% of votes
- CD 2 – Rick Larsen (D) with 65.15% of votes
- CD 3 – Jaime Herrera Beutler (R) with 58.83% of votes
- CD 4 – Dan Newhouse (R) with 57.84% of votes
- CD 5 – Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R) with 58.32% of votes
- CD 6 – Derek Kilmer (D) with 62.25% of votes
- CD 7 – Pramila Jayapal (D) with 57.16% of votes
- CD 8 – Dave Reichert (D) with 58.38% of votes
- CD 9 – Adam Smith (D) with 74.33% of votes
- CD 10 – Denny Heck (D) with 59.53% of votes