Here’s how the candidates stand after a second day in Whatcom’s primary election

There was little change in Whatcom County races after the second round of vote tallies were posted online in Washington’s vote-by-mail primary.

Totals released Wednesday afternoon, Aug. 3, include ballots with valid postmarks that arrived in the mail and ballots that were collected from official drop boxes.

Only the two candidates with the most votes, regardless of party affiliation, will advance to the Nov. 8 general election in Washington state’s “top two” primary, where voting is conducted by mail.

Vote totals released by the Whatcom County auditor and the secretary of state show that in the remaining close local race, the 42nd Legislative District House Position 2, Democrat Joe Timmons and Republican Dan Johnson remained in the lead.

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, will face a Republican challenger in Dan Matthews, who was in second place among nine candidates competing against Larsen in the 2nd Congressional District.

Races in the 42nd Legislative District, which includes Bellingham’s northern neighborhoods and the northern part of Whatcom County, proved the most competitive locally, where the district’s two House seats and single Senate seat were open.

All three races in the 42nd featured at least three candidates.

Democratic Reps. Alice Rule of Blaine and Sharon Shewmake of Bellingham represent the district in the House and Republican Sen. Simon Sefzik of Ferndale represents the district in the Senate.

Shewmake decided to challenge for the Senate seat held by Sefzik instead of running for re-election to House position 2, leaving that contest wide open.

Results for each of those three races in the primary on Tuesday, Aug. 2, showed that the combined Republican vote topped the Democratic total by 51% to 49% in the House and 53% to 47% in the Senate.

Republicans had more incentive to vote because two of those races featured two Republican candidates against a single well-known Democrat.

But both Sefzik and Shewmake, who will square off for the state Senate seat in November, told The Bellingham Herald that they weren’t too concerned with the overall primary results.

“Forty-seven percent of the vote is pretty good in this election, in a contested Republican primary where (Republicans) really went out to vote,” Shewmake said.

Sefzik said he was grateful to advance to the general election with 33% of the vote, ahead of fellow Republican Ben Elenbaas, who took 19%.

“We had a feeling that we would do well. (But) you don’t know until you know — until you see the results,” he told The Herald.

“I felt relief and I was happy and then it was thinking about what we have to do next,” he said.

Each candidate said that they plan to stick to their message and strategy for the general election.

So far it’s been an expensive race.

Sefzik raised $374,000 and spent $230,000 — more than the $179,000 Shewmake raised, according to campaign finance data from the state Political Disclosure Commission. Shewmake spent $142,000.

In addition, political action committees spent $63,000 to support Shewmake’s campaign and $184,000 against her.

Elenbaas raised $100,000 and spent $79,000.

Voter turnout was 41% among Whatcom County’s 155,458 registered voters, according to the Whatcom County Auditor’s Office.

Statewide voter turnout was 28%.

An updated ballot count is scheduled for about 5 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 4. That total will include ballots with valid postmarks that arrived in the mail.

2nd District U.S. Congress

U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, was leading his nine challengers with 47% of the total vote for Whatcom County’s only U.S. House seat after recent redistricting. The 2nd District now includes all of Whatcom, Skagit, San Juan and Island counties and part of Snohomish County.

Republican Dan Matthews was in second place with 18%, followed by Democrat Jason Call with 14%. MAGA Republican Cody Hart had 9%, Doug “Yoshe” Revelle (no party preference) 0.4%, Republican Bill Wheeler 4%, Conservative Party candidate Jon Welch 0.7%, Republican Brandon Lee Stalnaker 0.6%, Republican Leif Johnson 2% and Republican Carrie R. Kennedy 4%.

40th District

Only the two House members’ terms were facing election this year in the 40th District, which includes parts of Whatcom and Skagit counties and all of San Juan County.

▪ State Rep. Debra Lekanoff, D-Bow, was unopposed. Lekanoff had 95% of the vote.

▪ State Rep. Alex Ramel was leading union official Trevor Smith for House Position 2. Ramel had 75% of the vote to 22% for Smith.

Both are Democrats who live in Bellingham.

42nd District

Both state House seats and the state Senate seat were open in Washington’s 42nd District, which includes northern Bellingham neighborhoods and the rest of northern and eastern Whatcom County.

Each race had at least three candidates:

▪ Shewmake had 47% of the vote and Sefzik had 33% after the second tally was released Wednesday afternoon. Whatcom County Councilman Ben Elenbaas finished third with 19% and was eliminated.

▪ State Rep. Alicia Rule, D-Blaine, will face Tawsha (Dykstra) Thompson, a Lynden Republican, in the 42nd District House Position 1 race. Rule was leading with 49% of the vote. Thompson had 35% and Kamal Bhachu of Blaine, who was running as a Republican, was in third place with 16%.

▪ Joe Timmons, a Democrat who’s serving as Gov. Jay Inslee’s regional representative in Northwest Washington, was leading with 29% of the vote for House Position 2, followed by Republican Dan Johnson with 28%. Kyle Christensen, a Republican and former mayor of Sumas. was in third place with 24% and Democrat Richard May of Blaine was fourth with 19%.

Prosecuting attorney

Whatcom County Prosecuting Attorney Eric Richey, a Democrat, was unopposed for a second term. Richey had 95% of the vote.

District Court judge position 2

Jonathan Rands was leading with 42% of the vote, followed by Gordon M. Jenkins with 35%. David Nelson was in third place with 22%.

Live voting result updates for Aug. 2, 2022, primary election in Whatcom County, WA