KENNEWICK — Late votes cast in the Nov. 5 general election secured U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse a sixth term in Congress on Thursday, increasing his lead over challenger Jerrod Sessler.
Sessler, a Republican endorsed by President-elect Donald Trump, will need an eleventh-hour miracle if he hopes to overtake the current lead of the sitting GOP congressman.
On election night, Newhouse was ahead by just 3,800 votes, but by Thursday evening his lead had grown to nearly 7,500 more votes than Sessler.
There are still about 81,000 votes left to be counted in the eight counties that make up Washington’s 4th Congressional District, but the trend is not favoring Sessler.
New results posted Thursday evening show Newhouse, a Sunnyside farmer, with 51 percent, or about 100,300 votes, while Sessler, a Prosser businessman, had 47 percent, or 92,900 votes.
Newhouse leads in Benton, Franklin, Yakima, Klickitat, Okanogan and Douglas counties. Sessler leads in just two counties: Grant and Adams.
Of Washington’s 10 U.S. House races, this race was among the closest. While some outlets, including Decision Desk and The Hill, already calling the race for Newhouse, the Associated Press was holding off.
So were the candidates — neither had issued an updated statement on Thursday night.
If Newhouse holds on, the result marks the second failed effort by Trump and MAGA Republicans to oust Newhouse over his vote to impeach the former president for his role in fomenting the Jan. 6, 2021, riots at the U.S. Capitol.
Newhouse and nine other Republicans joined Democrats in passing the articles of impeachment, but they failed to get enough “guilty” votes in the U.S. Senate to oust Trump, who lost the 2020 election to Joe Biden.
Newhouse and U.S. Rep. David Valadao are the last two pro-impeachment Republicans still serving in the U.S. House. Valadao, a moderate dairy farmer, was also on track this week to win reelection in California’s 22nd Congressional District against a Democratic challenger.
Sessler tried ousting Newhouse in 2022, but placed fourth in the top-two primary.
Republicans control Congress, White House
Now, Trump and Newhouse must make amends as Republicans — poised to take full control of the White House, Senate and, possibly, the House — talk of a hefty conservative agenda next year with issues such as extending of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, mass deportations and toughened security at the U.S.-Mexico border, and tariffs on countries such as Iran and China.
Newhouse says he’s willing to let bygones be bygones, to put political rhetoric aside and unite Republicans behind a conservative agenda.
He told the Tri-City Herald Editorial Board last month he would vote for Trump for president, and criticized Republicans, including former Rep. Liz Cheney, who backed Trump’s Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
On the impeachment vote, Newhouse says he felt he “made the right decision at the time.”
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.
During the campaign, Newhouse criticized Sessler’s short time living in Eastern Washington after moving from King County, claiming he doesn’t have a full grasp on the issues affecting rural Americans.
“The challenges that we face in Central Washington I get because they are my challenges as well as my constituents’ challenges, my neighbors’ challenges. I truly think that I can better represent people because of that versus someone who is not from here,” Newhouse said at a news conference on election night. “I listen to people. Maybe we don’t always agree, but they understand that I am open to other ideas and want to understand where they are coming from.”
He’s also criticized Sessler’s previous support of the FairTax Act — a piece of fringe legislation that would replace all federal taxes with a blanket 30 percent sales tax — as well as the vegan diet he briefly adopted and praised in self-published books during a bout with cancer.
Sessler has campaigned on being the “best ally that President Trump has in Washington, D.C.,” if elected, and tightening the purse strings of federal government.
The Navy veteran and former regional circuit race car driver previously called Jan. 6 a “setup,” made frivolous and false claims about the 2020 election, and said he doesn’t believe “devout Muslims” should be allowed to serve in Congress.
Sessler had a commanding lead over Newhouse coming out of the August primary, with fellow MAGA Republican Tiffany Smiley finishing third in the field of eight and not advancing.
About 52 percent of primary votes went to the two Trump-endorsed candidates. Democrats failed to make it past the primary because they split the progressive vote among three candidates.
