YAKIMA — Incumbent Dan Newhouse declared victory in his re-election campaign against Trump-backed challenger Jerrod Sessler on Monday morning.
Newhouse led with 127,559 votes, or 51.7%, to Sessler’s 115,050 votes, or 46.6%, as of Monday morning. Newhouse’s lead has increased to more than 12,000 votes since election night, when he led by around 3,800.
“I’m incredibly honored to have the support from the people of Central Washington. The results from this election show the people want a results-driven leader who understands the unique challenges facing Central Washington,” Newhouse said in a news release.
Newhouse thanked the people in the 4th Congressional District, who he has represented in Congress since 2015. He said he would focus on protecting the Lower Snake River dams, cleaning up the Hanford Site and on foreign policy around China.
“I will not let you down,” he said.
Sessler said he was not conceding the election and would continue to watch the results. He said he plans to run for the seat again in the future.
“Because of characters like Dan Newhouse, a vacuum for great leadership will continue to exist in the government long into the future. My resolve was concrete in the past. Now it is as tough as steel,” Sessler said in a statement.
It was a closely contested race between two Republican candidates in a historically conservative district. Sessler won an eight-candidate primary election and leaned into his endorsement from President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump won almost 160,000 votes, or 60%, in counties in the district, but Sessler was not able to capture that momentum. In those same counties, Sessler had about 115,000 votes, or 47%.
Newhouse pointed to his record and experience in his reelection campaign.
The Seattle Times called the race in Newhouse’s favor Friday. The Associated Press has not called the race, estimating that around 84% of ballots have been counted. Information from elections offices in counties across the district indicate that there could be around 45,000 ballots left to count. Sessler would need at least 64% of the estimated total remaining to edge ahead at this point.
Yakima and Grant counties account for 35,000 of those uncounted ballots together. Yakima County will release more results Monday afternoon. Grant County is scheduled to release another round of results Tuesday evening.
Yakima County had an estimated 20,000 ballots left to count as of Monday morning, according to the county’s elections website, and turnout was at 51.5% with 68,416 ballots counted so far.
