YAKIMA — Yakima County released another round of election results Wednesday afternoon — the first county in Washington’s 4th Congressional District to do so after election night.
Just over 5,000 ballots were counted, and they increased incumbent U.S. Rep Dan Newhouse’s slim lead over Trump-endorsed candidate Jerrod Sessler. They are both Republicans.
As of 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Newhouse led with 88,887 votes, about 50.5% of the vote, to Sessler’s 84,256, or 47.9%.
Newhouse now has a small lead in Yakima County, where Sessler was in front on election night. Sessler is ahead in Adams and Grant counties, with Newhouse leading the rest.
There are still an estimated 26,000 ballots left to count in Yakima County, according to the county auditor’s website. Add in estimates from the other counties that make up the district — Benton, Klickitat, Grant, Douglas, Okanogan and parts of Franklin and Adams — and there’s a rough estimate of 80,000 more ballots to be counted in the 4th District.
On election night, Newhouse and Sessler’s campaigns both remained optimistic that the votes still being counted could shift results their way.
The Associated Press has not declared a winner in the 4th District.
The U.S. House race is one of three in Washington that has not been called by the AP. The other two are the District 3 race between Democrat incumbent Marie Gluesenkamp Perez and Republican Joe Kent and the District 8 race between Democrat incumbent Kim Schrier and Republican Carmen Goers.
