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Hobbs: 20–30% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% >90% Anderson: 30–40% 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80% 80–90% Tie: 40–50% 50% No data | |||||||||||||||||
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Elections in Washington |
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The 2022 Washington Secretary of State special election was held on November 8, 2022. Incumbent Kim Wyman, a Republican, resigned from the office on November 19, 2021, to become the senior election security lead for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency in the Biden administration's Department of Homeland Security.[1] Washington governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, announced he would appoint state senator Steve Hobbs as her replacement, the first Democrat to hold the office in more than fifty years.[2]
In the primary election, Hobbs easily took first place. The race for the second spot in the general election was a close three-way battle between state senator Keith Wagoner and technician Bob Hagglund, both Republicans, and Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson, an Independent. After a week of tabulation, Anderson was declared the winner, with the three candidates separated by just over 14,000 votes—less than 1% of the total.[3] Brad Klippert, a Republican state representative, ran a write-in campaign in the general election.
Hobbs narrowly won the general election with 49.8% of the vote, over 7% less than the vote share won by Patty Murray in the concurrent Senate race. This marked the first time since 1960 that a Democrat was elected Washington Secretary of State.