The 2022 United States Senate election in Washington was held on November 8, 2022, to elect a member of the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

to represent the

state State most commonly refers to: * State (polity), a centralized political organization that regulates law and society within a territory **Sovereign state, a sovereign polity in international law, commonly referred to as a country **Nation state, a ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

. Murray had won election to a fifth term in

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

with 59% of the vote. Because Washington has a blanket primary system, parties did not nominate their own candidates to run in the general election. Instead, every candidate appeared on the same ballot, regardless of their party affiliation. The top two candidates in the August 2

nonpartisan blanket primary A nonpartisan primary, top-two primary, or jungle primary is a primary election in which all candidates for the same elected office run against each other at once, regardless of political party. This distinguishes them from partisan primaries, w ...

then advanced to the general election. Murray received 52.2% of the primary vote and advanced to face Republican Tiffany Smiley. Although Washington has been a reliably

blue state Starting with the 2000 United States presidential election, the terms "red state" and "blue state" have referred to US states whose voters vote predominantly for one party—the Republican Party in red states and the Democratic Party in bl ...

for over 30 years, many polls showed that Murray only had a narrow lead over Smiley, and some polls had Smiley within the

margin of error The margin of error is a statistic expressing the amount of random sampling error in the results of a Statistical survey, survey. The larger the margin of error, the less confidence one should have that a poll result would reflect the result of ...

. A couple of late polls had the two candidates tied; such polls caused most pundits to downgrade their forecast from "safe Democratic" to "likely Democratic", and Republicans believed that Smiley had a chance of pulling off an upset. Despite the predictions of a close race, Murray defeated Smiley and won re-election to a sixth term by a 14.5-point margin. Although this was a significantly larger margin of victory for Murray than what was expected, it was fairly consistent with Washington's partisan lean. Smiley conceded the following day. Despite her loss, she made significant gains in several counties, particularly in the Southwestern and Eastern parts of the state. Following the election, Murray was elected president pro tempore for the

118th Congress The 118th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, composed of the United States Senate and the United States House of Representatives. It convened in Washington, D.C., on January ...

, becoming the first woman to hold the role.

Primary election

Democratic candidates

Advanced to general

Patty Murray Patricia Lynn Murray (, October 11, 1950) is an American politician serving in her sixth term as a United States senator from Washington (state), Washington, beginning her tenure in 1993, and is the state's Seniority in the United States Senate, ...

, incumbent U.S. Senator and Assistant Democratic Leader

Eliminated in primary

*Pano Churchill, candidate for U.S. Senate in

*Sam Cusmir *Ravin Pierre, aerospace engineer and data scientist *Mohammed Said, physician and perennial candidate *Bryan Solstin, aerospace engineer and software developer

Withdrawn before primary

*David Ishii *Nicolaust Sleister *Robert Kirby

Republican candidates

Advanced to general

*Tiffany Smiley, nurse

Eliminated in primary

*John Guenther, state employee *Bill Hirt, perennial candidate

Withdrawn before primary

*Bob Hagglund, IT professional *Isaac Holyk, CEO of a software development Company

Third party and independent candidates

Eliminated in primary

* Thor Amundson (independent), candidate for U.S. Senate in

and

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

and governor in

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

* Jon Butler (no party preference) * Henry Clay Dennison ( Socialist Workers), perennial candidate * Dan Phan Doan (no party preference) * Martin D. Hash (no party preference) * Chuck Jackson (independent), candidate for U.S. Senate in

2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...

and

* Leon Lawson (Trump Republican), candidate for governor in

* Naz Paul (independent), real estate developer * Dave Saulibio (JFK Republican), U.S. Army veteran, candidate for

Washington's 5th congressional district Washington's 5th congressional district encompasses the Eastern Washington counties of Ferry County, Washington, Ferry, Stevens County, Washington, Stevens, Pend Oreille County, Washington, Pend Oreille, Lincoln County, Washington, Lincoln, Spok ...

and

Washington's 8th congressional district Washington's 8th congressional district is a district for the United States House of Representatives located in western Washington State. It includes the eastern portions of King County, Washington, King, Pierce County, Washington, Pierce, and S ...

Withdrawn before primary

*Mfumu Metamorphosis Mpiana *Larry Hussey

Endorsements

Results

General election

Debates

Two debates were held, the first on October 23 at

Gonzaga University Gonzaga University (GU) ( ) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in Spokane, Washington, United States. It is Higher education accreditation in the United States, accredited by the Northwest Commission on Colleges ...

. The second was town hall-style forum on October 30 in the

KIRO-TV KIRO-TV (channel 7) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with CBS and Telemundo. Owned by Cox Media Group, the station maintains studios on Third Avenue in the Belltown, Seattle, Belltown section of Downtown ...

studio in

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

. Murray's campaign declined an invitation to a scheduled debate on October 25 at

Seattle University Seattle University (Seattle U or SU) is a private Jesuit university in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the largest independent university in the Northwestern United States, with over 7,500 students enrolled in undergraduate and grad ...

Predictions

Post-primary endorsements

Polling

Aggregate polls
Graphical summary
Patty Murray vs. generic Republican
Patty Murray vs. generic opponent

Results

By county

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican *

Grays Harbor Grays Harbor is an estuarine bay located north of the mouth of the Columbia River, on the southwest Pacific coast of Washington state, in the United States. It is a ria, which formed at the end of the last ice age, when sea levels flooded the ...

(largest city:

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

) * Mason (largest city:

Shelton Shelton may refer to: Places United Kingdom *Shelton, North Bedfordshire, in the parish of Dean and Shelton, Bedfordshire * Lower Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire * Upper Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedf ...

) *

Pacific The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean, or, depending on the definition, to Antarctica in the south, and is bounded by the cont ...

(largest city:

Raymond Raymond is a male given name of Germanic origin. It was borrowed into English from French (older French spellings were Reimund and Raimund, whereas the modern English and French spellings are identical). It originated as the Germanic ᚱᚨᚷ� ...

) * Whitman (largest city: Pullman)

By congressional district

Murray won seven of ten congressional districts, with the remaining three going to Smiley, including one that elected a Democrat.

Notes

Partisan clients

References

External links

Official campaign websites
Patty Murray (D) for Senate

Tiffany Smiley (R) for Senate
{{Washington elections, state=collapsed

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Primary election

Democratic candidates

Advanced to general

Eliminated in primary

Withdrawn before primary

Republican candidates

Advanced to general

Eliminated in primary

Withdrawn before primary

Third party and independent candidates

Eliminated in primary

Withdrawn before primary

Endorsements

Results

General election

Debates

Predictions

Post-primary endorsements

Polling

Results

By county

By congressional district

See also

Notes

References

External links