Early returns in the 2024 election signal gains for democrats in Olympia, initiative losses, and republicans holding ground in the newest legislative district.
On November sixth The Impact hosted a panel interview on the early election takeaways with democratic political consultant Sandeep Kaushik of Sound View Strategies and republican political consultant Justin Matheson of Axiom Strategies.
A couple of the key takeaways for Kaushik, who worked to help defeat the initiatives, are the overall democratic gains in Olympia and the lop-sided defeat of three ballot measures.
For Matheson, notable aspects of the election included the impact of ballot box fires on late voting, voter confusion about the initiatives, and republican wins in the newly redrawn 14th Legislative District in the Yakima Valley, which was amended by a federal judge after a lawsuit and expected to favor democrats.
- Kaushik Direct Link “If anything, as the rest of the country turned red or got redder, Washington State got bluer.”
- Kaushik on the initiatives Direct Link “All of those went down in flames. We beat them. We beat them handily. And I think you know, o I think that is a ratification of the direction that democratic majorities have taken in Olympia, in recent years.”
- Matheson on late voting over ballot box concerns Direct Link “What we found out, and especially looking at some of the annexes, is long lines of people trying to drop ballots off. And in Pierce County, for example, at one point there was literally like 400 people trying to drop ballots off. And a common, when we were talking to folks, a common reason, like, why are you waiting so long? Why are you dropping off? And they were scared to put their ballots in the ballot boxes because of the fires, especially down there in Vancouver. That’s where the fires were. So people were worried about tampering with that and they were waiting until the last minute to vote.”
- Matheson on republican wins in state legislative races in the redrawn 14th LD: Direct Link: “Because nationwide we saw that, you know, essentially Trump was taking forty-five percent the Latino vote so that, that might have had an impact, positive impact to hold those seats.”
- Kaushik on republican wins in state legislative races in the redrawn 14th LD Direct Link: “There is a shift going on nationally. I think that we, I, you know, we can talk more about what happened nationally, but . . I think it’s a real topic of concern for the democratic party going forward