8-8-2018

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — Preliminary results are out for Whatcom County’s 2018 election primary and while the race for U.S. Senator has two clear frontrunners, many other races are a little murkier.

Democrat incumbent Sen. Maria Cantwell will move on to the November ballot along with former state Republican Party Chair Susan Hutchison, as both currently have thousands of votes over their other competitors.

The other federal races involving Whatcom County voters show both Democrat incumbents leading their races by a wide margin.

1st District Representative Suzan DelBene leads with 60% of the vote and will likely face Jeffrey Beeler, who has 25%, in the general election.

It’s a little tougher to gauge who 2nd District Representative Rick Larsen will be up against in November.

Collin Richard Carlson (Democrat), Gary Franco (Independent), Uncle Mover (Moderate GOP) and Brian Luke (Libertarian) all share between 7-8% of the vote.

Meanwhile, in the races for the Washington State Legislature, incumbent Republican Senator Doug Ericksen is leading with 45.8%, but it’s not clear which of his Democrat challengers, Pinky Vargas and Tim Ballew II, will move forward with only a few points separating them.

Democrat Debra Lekanoff looks likely to make it on the November ballot for 40th District Representative, while Republican Michael Petrish and fellow Democrats Rud Browne and Alex Ramel battle it out to grab the other spot.

Local Republican incumbent Representatives are slightly behind their Democratic challengers, but are both moving forward.

Luanne Van Werven will face off against Justin Boneau, as they both boxed out their third opponent who received a mere 5% of the vote.

Vincent Buys has only one challenger, but Sharon Shewmake has a small lead over Buys with just over 52%.

In local government, Carol Frazey is leading the County Council At-Large race with 42.5% and Mike Peetoom is her closest competitor, but with more votes to be counted, Aaron Thomas and Eric Bostrom can’t be ruled out yet.

The Court of Appeals seat has three clear leaders, Cecily Hazelrigg-Hernandez, Tom Seguine and Lisa Keeler, all with very close shares of the vote.

And while only two men are running for the County Prosecutor role, Eric Richey has a healthy 58% of the vote over James Erb.

Full results for Whatcom County are here, and for Washington State are here.