Washington State is a diverse and politically active state. There are several political parties represented in the state, including the Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, and Green parties. Each party has its own platform and agenda to work towards for the betterment of Washington and its citizens. The current governor is Jay Inslee, a Democrat first elected in 2012. In Congress, both of Washington's U.S. Senators are Democrats and ten of the state's ten Congressional representatives are also Democrats. The Democratic party holds a majority in both chambers of the State Legislature. Voters have passed many initiatives over the years that address issues from healthcare to gun control to education funding. The politics in Washington State generally reflect progressive values and emphasize taking care of people who live there while also protecting our environment for future generations.
The political climate in Washington is moderately liberal.
In Washington 58.0% of the people voted for the Democratic Party in the last presidential election, 38.8% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 3.3% voted for an Independent Party.
In the last Presidential election, Washington remained very strongly Democratic, 58.0% to 38.8%.
Washington voted Democratic in the previous six Presidential elections.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Washington is moderately liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Washington, Washington: d d D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Washington
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 791,486 contributions totaling $105,250,821 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $133 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 102,707 contributions totaling $35,643,677 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $347 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)