Community Government

Certification confirms local 2024 election results

Certification of election results on Tuesday, Nov. 26, closed the book on the 2024 election season.

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Official counts confirmed preliminary results posted on election night, Nov. 5.

Voters picked Emily Randall, the Democratic state senator representing the 26th Legislative District, to succeed Gig Harbor Democrat Derek Kilmer in Congress. Randall, of Bremerton, won 56.71% of the vote (239,687 votes) in the race against Republican state Sen. Drew MacEwen of Shelton (43.11%, 182,182 votes). 

Randall’s Senate replacement to be picked

Randall officially takes office as the first woman to represent Washington’s Sixth Congressional District on Jan. 3, 2025.

The Pierce County Council and Kitsap County commissioners will meet in a joint session at 9 a.m. Dec. 11 at the Red Barn Youth Center on the Key Peninsula to select Randall’s replacement. The 26th Legislative District encompasses parts of both counties.

Democratic precinct committee officers from the 26th District selected three finalists to replace Randall. Democrats picked the finalists because Randall is a Democrat.

The finalists are Deb Krishnadasan, a former Peninsula School Board member; Laurel Kingsbury, a Peninsula School District educator and PenMet Parks board member; and Renee Hernandez-Greenfield, a tribal member and adjunct professor at Tacoma Community College. 

26th Legislative District 

Voters returned Rep. Michelle Caldier, R-Gig Harbor, to the Legislature for a sixth term in Olympia. Caldier earned 54.6% of the vote (49,086 votes) in defeating Democrat Tiffiny Mitchell of Port Orchard (45.2%, 40,636). 

Peninsula High School graduate Adison Richards won the 26th District’s other seat in the state House. Richards, an attorney who now lives in Bremerton, defeated former Rep. Jesse Young with 51.77% of the vote (46,833 votes). Young was the choice of 48.09% (45,503). 

OSPI 

Peninsula School Board member David Olson fell short in his campaign for state Superintendent of Public Instruction, but his candidacy proved popular in his home county. 

Olson won 46.63% of the statewide vote (1,543,550 votes) in his campaign to unseat incumbent Superintendent Chris Reykdal (52.77%, 1,746,848). But in Pierce County, Olson won 51.87% of the vote (196,911) to Reykal’s 47.54 (180,464). 

No rightward shift in Pierce 

Pierce County voters did not appear to swing to the right in 2024, as was the case elsewhere in the country. 

The Republican presidential ticket of Donald Trump and JD Vance won 42.8% of the Pierce County vote, well behind the 53.5% of Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.  

That’s about the same as 2020, when Trump and running mate Mike Pence won 42.61% to the 53.76% of Joe Biden and Harris. In 2016, Trump-Pence won only 40.78% of the vote, trailing Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine’s 47.92. 

Republican candidate for governor Dave Reichert outperformed Trump in Pierce County. Reichert won 48.96% of the Pierce County vote in his losing campaign against Bob Ferguson (50.79% in Pierce County). Ferguson won statewide with 55.51% to Reichert’s 44.28%. 

Reichert also did better in Pierce County than 2020 Republican nominee Loren Culp, who won 47.95% here. He fell short of 2016 Republican candidate Bill Bryant, however, who won 49.79% against Jay Inslee.