Democrat pulls ahead in tight Washington House race

Democrats could now gain 10 seats in the Washington state House as a Republican incumbent fell behind Thursday, over a week after ballot tallying began.

Rep. Cyndy Jacobsen, R-Puyallup, was up by 109 votes when the first batch of ballots dropped on election night. But Democrat Jenn Marie Strickling jumped ahead of Jacobsen for the first time on Thursday by 82 votes. 

Strickling has 28,480 votes to Jacobsen’s 28,398. Going into Thursday’s ballot drop, Strickling had trailed by four votes.

The counting will likely continue up until the election is set to be certified Nov. 23, as the campaigns and election officials seek to reach voters with mismatched or missing signatures who need to cure their ballots so they can be counted. More votes are expected to be counted Tuesday.

“We’re going to continue being patient while every single vote is counted over the next few weeks,” Strickling wrote on Facebook after the latest vote tally.

Pierce County election officials report having 350 votes left to count, spread across several legislative districts. Generally, the 25th District, which covers Puyallup, accounts for 16% of the county’s votes, said Pierce County Elections Manager Kyle Haugh. The 350 figure doesn’t account for ballots that haven’t been received yet, like those put in drop boxes in other counties that need to be mailed to Pierce County.

“I think there’s still a statistical chance to come out on top, we’ll keep working,” Jacobsen said in an interview Thursday.

As of Thursday afternoon, 280 ballots were being challenged in the 25th District due to signature issues that could be cured, Haugh said. There have been 36 write-in votes so far.

Given the current totals, the election is likely headed for a recount.

A machine recount is required if the difference between two candidates is under 0.5% of the total ballots cast and fewer than 2,000 votes. To trigger a manual recount, candidates have to be separated by fewer than 150 votes and 0.25% of the total votes. Recounts rarely flip election outcomes.

Going into the election, Democrats held 59 of the House’s seats, compared to 39 for Republicans. Democrats will take a two-thirds supermajority in the chamber, and if Strickling wins, could get up to 69 seats. 

Jacobsen’s seatmate in the 25th is among the casualties. Republican Rep. Michael Keaton will lose to David Berg, a Democrat who serves on the Puyallup school board. Keaton currently trails by nearly 1,000 votes.

Jacobsen has been in office for three terms. She won her previous races by 5% in 2020, 15.5% in 2022 and 11.5% in 2024. 

Jacobsen is blaming her underperformance on the national politics that has turned people away from Republicans, as seen in races all across the country.

“Ultimately, we didn’t get our message out,” Jacobsen said. “I think that the national environment caused people to make decisions nationally and not think about their local elections.”

She is no stranger to a close race. She won her first campaign for Puyallup City Council by 13 votes, but that amounted to more than one-half of a percentage point in an election with fewer than 2,600 ballots counted.

Jacobsen is known for having a large family, with 20 grandchildren. If they were all old enough, their votes could’ve helped. She says some of her children’s families’ have left the Puyallup area and Washington due to state policies.