KENNEWICK — Rep. Dan Newhouse will return for a sixth term in Congress representing the 4th District in Central Washington if his relatively small lead in the initial Tuesday vote count holds.
The race drew national attention as two Trump-backed candidates tried to oust Newhouse — one of only two pro-impeachment Republicans left in the House.
Newhouse said Tuesday night in a news media briefing by telephone after a Sunnyside watch party that although it was too early to declare victory he was cautiously optimistic.
“The way things have been going this evening look favorable, but there are a lot of votes left to count,” he said.
If Newhouse returns to Washington D.C., he will be joined by Michael Baumgartner representing the 5th District. Baumgartner, also a Republican, would replace retiring Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., who endorsed him in the election.
Tuesday night Newhouse had 82,990 votes, or 50%, and his challenger, Jerrod Sessler, also a Republican, had 79,161 votes, or 48%.
Newhouse was leading in Benton and Franklin counties Tuesday night, with about 52% of the ballots in Benton County to Sessler’s 47%, and 50% of the ballots in Franklin County to Sessler’s 48%.
He was trailing Sessler in his home county of Yakima with 48% of the vote compared to Sessler’s 49%.
Democrat Cherissa Boyd mounted a write-in campaign in the general election but those votes must be hand counted and write-in votes amounted to only about 2% of ballots in Tuesday’s count.
Sessler had a commanding lead over Newhouse coming out of the primary, with fellow MAGA Republican Tiffany Smiley finishing third in the field of eight and not advancing. About 52% of primary votes went to the two Trump-endorsed candidates.
In the 5th District vote count Tuesday night, Baumgartner had about 164,626 votes, or 60%. His opponent, Carmela Conroy, a Democrat, had 110,352 votes or 40%.
Newhouse vs. Sessler
Newhouse was leading the vote count Tuesday night to serve another two-year term, which would bring his representation of the 4th Congressional District to 12 years.
The district stretches from The Canadian border to the Oregon state line, including Benton, Yakima, Grant, Douglas, Klickitat and Okanogan counties and part of Franklin and Adams counties. Newhouse was leading in Benton, Franklin, Okanogan, Douglas and Klickitat counties.
Newhouse campaigned on his record of working to retain the four lower Snake River dams in Eastern Washington, advocating for strong budgets for the environmental cleanup of the Hanford nuclear site, where 13,000 people work, and helping farmers, including through improved access to legal migrant workers.
He comes from a well-known family that has farmed in the Yakima area for three generations and served in the Washington state House from 2003 to 2009 and then as the state Department of Agriculture director until 2013.
In Congress, he has been the chairman of the conservative Congressional Western Caucus since 2021.
Newhouse was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection.
He said Tuesday night that he did not regret his impeachment vote.
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson stumped for Newhouse at a private fundraising event in Pasco in October.
Sessler got a final push before the election on Thursday, when GOP Trump joined him for a short telephone rally and called Newhouse a liberal.
Sessler, a businessman and former race car driver on a regional circuit, moved to Eastern Washington from King County in recent years and bought land near Prosser. Records show he first voted in Benton County in 2019.
He has said he decided to run for Congress after Jan. 6, 2021, saying the election was stolen from Trump, that the left set up the breach of the Capitol and that police incited the violence there.
In the 2022 election, he failed to advance past the primary on a ballot that included seven Republicans.
Baumgartner vs. Conroy
Baumgartner, the Spokane County treasurer, and a Washington state senator from 2011-18, said he passed balanced budgets and helped bring a new Washington State University medical school to Spokane as a state senator.
On the federal level he wants to protect the lower Snake River dams and ensure quality healthcare for rural communities and veterans. He also wants maximum tax breaks for seniors and veterans, he said.
He wants the federal government to embrace new generations of nuclear technology to ensure America is not held hostage by foreign governments, he said in campaign material. He called Gov. Jay Inslee’s carbon tax, one of the governor’s most damaging policies.
Conroy, a retired U.S. foreign service officer who lives in Spokane, says extremism by some in both the Republican and Democrat parties is contributing to the dysfunction that puts the United States’ democracy at risk.
She campaigned on protection abortion rights, making childcare and housing affordable, investing in the trades and the timely passage of a federal Farm Bill to help farmers.
