SEATTLE (AP) - The Latest on Washington state elections (all times local):
8:31 p.m.
Republican Dino Rossi has conceded the race for Washington open 8th District U.S. House seat to Democrat Kim Schrier.
The district, which hadn’t elected a Democrat since its creation in 1980, sprawls from Seattle’s far eastern suburbs to central Washington.
The Associated Press has not yet called the race.
On his Facebook page Rossi said Wednesday he believed his campaign “ran the best that we could have run this year” and he looked forward to returning to family life.
Rossi was a state lawmaker who had previously run for governor and U.S. Senate.
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8:20 p.m.
Kim Schrier has won an open House seat in Washington state, becoming the first Democrat to win in the sprawling 8th District that stretches from Seattle’s eastern suburbs to central Washington farm country.
Schrier, a 50-year-old pediatrician, beat Republican Dino Rossi, a former state lawmaker who has run for governor and U.S. Senate in past elections.
Millions of dollars of outside money has poured in to the race in the 8th District, which was one of two dozen districts nationwide held by the GOP but whose voters chose Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election.
Republican Rep. David Reichert is retiring from a seat he’s held since 2005. The district created after the 1980 census had never been represented by a Democrat.
7:16 p.m.
How tight a grip Democrats will have on the Washington state Legislature remains to be seen after the second round of election returns.
Democrats, who currently hold a two-seat advantage in the House, stayed on track Wednesday to pick up additional seats with their candidates still leading in about a half-dozen closely-watched contests.
Democrat Debra Entenman had a more than 2,300 vote lead over Republican Rep. Mark Hargrove of Covington in the 47th District. Other important House races remained within tighter margins.
Several key Senate races remained within 1 percentage point in Wednesday returns, making it unclear who would prevail until more votes are counted.
In one race where Democrats looked to gain a seat, Republican Sen. Mark Miloscia of Federal Way trailed by more than 2,200 votes against Democratic challenger Claire Wilson in the 26th District.
Before Tuesday, Democrats held a one-seat Senate majority.
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6:53 p.m.
Republican incumbent U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler has won re-election to a southwest Washington U.S. House seat.
Herrera Beutler defeated Democrat Carolyn Long, a political science professor at Washington State University’s campus in Vancouver.
Herrera Beutler was first elected to the 3rd Congressional District in 2010 and will serve her fifth term in Congress. She had faced a tough race against Long after the August primary, where she captured 42 percent of the vote on a crowded ballot of seven total candidates.
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4:28 p.m.
Voters in Washington state have approved a measure that would block local governments from imposing new taxes on soda or grocery items.
The American Beverage Association pushed the initiative as part of a nationwide campaign to slow the expansion of soda taxes.
Under Initiative 1634, cities and counties in Washington will be prohibited from taxing soda or food products. The measure doesn’t prevent the state Legislature from doing so. Seattle’s soda tax remains in effect but couldn’t be expanded.
The Coca-Cola Co., PepsiCo, Inc. and Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, Inc. and others poured more than $20 million in support. Opponents raised about $33,000.
Proponents said the tax hurts small businesses and working people. Opponents said it prevents local governments from raising money and allows corporate interests to create state policy.
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4:17 p.m.
Voters have rejected a ballot measure that would have made Washington the first U.S. state to impose a carbon tax to fight climate change.
The fight over whether to make polluters pay for their carbon emissions was closely watched nationwide.
It was the state’s costliest initiative fight with oil companies and other opponents pouring more than $31 million to defeat it - twice the $15 million raised by supporters.
Under Initiative 1631, large emitters such as fuel producers and natural gas plants would have paid an escalating fee on fossil-fuel emissions starting at $15 per metric ton in 2020.
Money raised from the fee would have funded a wide range of programs aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
Voters rejected a carbon tax in 2016.
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4:10 p.m.
A spokesman for Senate leadership says that that the chamber’s Facilities and Operations Committee will hold a meeting Thursday to discuss hiring an outside investigator to investigate a 2007 rape allegation made against Republican Sen. Joe Fain, who held a slim lead over his Democratic opponent, Mona Das, in his re-election bid. Aaron Wasser, communications director for the Senate Democrats, said the decision was made earlier to hire the investigator if Fain was ahead or tied on election night. Fain was ahead by less than 100 votes in updated ballot totals Wednesday. If he ultimately loses, the investigator won’t be hired, Wasser said.
In September, Candace Faber tweeted that Fain raped her the night she graduated from Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Fain, who denied the allegation, was not in office at the time at the time of the alleged assault. Faber said she was inspired to publicly speak out as she watched the televised allegations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
Fain, 37, was first elected to the Washington state Senate in 2010, three years after the alleged incident. He is a moderate Republican from the Seattle suburb of Auburn and currently the state Senate minority floor leader.
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11:36 a.m.
Democrats hope to pick up a U.S. House seat in Washington state as more ballots are counted in the 8th District.
Dr. Kim Schrier, the Democratic candidate, leads Republican Dino Rossi in early returns in the district that stretches from Seattle’s far eastern suburbs across the Cascade Mountains. Schrier was doing well in populous King County.
Currently there are six Democrats and four Republicans in the state’s House delegation.
Another targeted Republican incumbent, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, was leading her Democratic challenger, Carolyn Long, in southwestern Washington in the 3rd District.
More results will be posted statewide Wednesday afternoon.
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