Democrat Nick Brown is poised to be Washington’s next attorney general.
He was leading Republican Pete Serrano by a wide margin in results Tuesday. Brown had received 56.3% of the vote while Serrano received 43.7%. Vote counting will continue in the days ahead.
Brown would take over for Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who defeated Republican former congressman Dave Reichert in the governor’s race on Tuesday.
As attorney general, Brown would be the state’s top lawyer, representing the state government when it is sued, counseling lawmakers and leading the state’s consumer protection office.
Brown is the former U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Washington, a position he resigned from to run for office.
Before that, he served as general counsel to Gov. Jay Inslee from 2013 to 2017. As Inslee’s counsel, he helped write the administration’s opposition to a federal ban on travel from predominantly Muslim countries imposed by then-President Donald Trump’s administration. He also oversaw work that led to Inslee issuing a moratorium on the use of the death penalty.
Brown, who’s an Army veteran, was a partner at Pacifica Law Group in Seattle where he was working part-time through the election.
Serrano helped establish the Silent Majority Foundation, a group that has repeatedly and unsuccessfully sued to overturn state gun restrictions, including on semiautomatic firearms and large-capacity magazines. The group also fought to block COVID-related mandates and sought clarity on the use of executive powers by Gov. Jay Inslee during the pandemic.
Serrano is also the mayor of Pasco, where he was first elected to the city council in 2018. Previously, he was an environmental lawyer for the U.S. Department of Energy at the Hanford nuclear cleanup site and then for Energy Northwest, an agency that operates four electric generating facilities in the region.
Throughout the campaign, Brown and Serrano viewed the role of attorney general differently. Brown wants to use the office as a vehicle for change, similar to Ferguson who sued the Trump administration almost 100 times and went after large corporations in court. Ferguson also pushed heavily for state legislation creating stricter gun laws.
Serrano, on the other hand, thought Ferguson went too far in advocating for new policies. He also criticized Ferguson’s use of the Consumer Protection Division for “political gain.”
Public safety was the top priority for both candidates throughout the election.
Brown wants to continue upholding the state’s gun laws while making more investments in substance abuse treatment and holding illegal drug traffickers accountable.
In contrast, Serrano does not agree with Washington’s gun laws, though he said more should be done to protect youth from gun violence. To address the rise in fentanyl deaths, he said he wants to see harsher penalties for distributors, along with more treatment for those suffering from addiction. He said the state’s current drug laws are too lenient.
As of Nov. 1, Brown had raised $2.2 million and spent $2.1 million. Serrano had raised $460,600 and spent $383,800.
