United States House of Representatives elections in Washington, 2012

	2014 → ;
	; ; 2012 U.S. House Elections in Washington
	Primary Date ; August 7, 2012
	Partisan breakdown • Candidates
	Washington District Pages District 1 • District 2 • District 3 • District 4 • District 5 • District 6 • District 7• District 8 • District 9 • District 10
	Other House Elections
	Alabama • Alaska • Arizona • Arkansas • California • Colorado • Connecticut • Delaware • Florida • Georgia • Hawaii • Idaho • Illinois • Indiana • Iowa • Kansas • Kentucky • Louisiana • Maine • Maryland • Massachusetts • Michigan • Minnesota • Mississippi • Missouri • Montana • Nebraska • Nevada • New Hampshire • New Jersey • New Mexico • New York • North Carolina • North Dakota • Ohio • Oklahoma • Oregon • Pennsylvania • Rhode Island • South Carolina • South Dakota • Tennessee • Texas • Utah • Vermont • Virginia • Washington • West Virginia • Wisconsin • Wyoming
	2012 U.S. Senate Elections

The 2012 U.S. House of Representatives elections in Washington took place on November 6, 2012. Voters elected 10 candidates to serve in the U.S. House, one from each of the state's 10 congressional districts.

Candidate Filing Deadline	Primary Election	General Election
May 18, 2012	August 7, 2012	November 6, 2012

Primary: Washington has a top-two primary system, in which the top two vote-getters, regardless of party, go on to the general election.^[1]

Voter registration: Voters were required to register to vote in the primary by July 9, or July 30 in-person for first-time voters.^[2] For the general election, voter registration deadlines were October 9, and October 28 for first-time voters.^[2]

See also: Washington elections, 2012

According to the New York Times race ratings in October 2012, two of the ten districts were considered to be in play. Those were the 1st and 10th districts.^[3]

The Center for Voting and Democracy (Fairvote) projected that Democrats would win four districts while Republicans would win two seats. It did not make a projection for the remaining four districts.^[4]

Primary competitiveness

See also: National contested primary average during the 2012 U.S. congressional elections

Washington tied with Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Rhode Island, and Alaska for having the most competitive congressional primaries in 2012, with 100% of major party primaries having been contested (10 out of 10). The national average was 54.31%.

Seven U.S. House incumbents sought re-election in Washington in 2012. 7 of those 7 (100%) faced a primary challenger. Nationwide, 200 out of the 386 incumbents seeking re-election faced a primary challenger (51.81%).

Partisan breakdown

Heading into the November 6 election, the Democratic Party held five of the nine Congressional seats from Washington. However, the state gained one seat after the 2010 census and elected 10 representatives in 2012.

Members of the U.S. House from Washington -- Partisan Breakdown
Party		As of November 2012	After the 2012 Election
	Democratic Party	5	6
	Republican Party	4	4
Total		9	10

Incumbents

Heading into the 2012 election, the incumbents for the nine congressional districts were :

Name	Party	District
Adam Smith	Democratic	9
Cathy McMorris Rodgers	Republican	5
Dave Reichert	Republican	8
Doc Hastings	Republican	4
Jaime Herrera Beutler	Republican	3
Jay Inslee	Democratic	1
Jim McDermott	Democratic	7
Norm Dicks	Democratic	6
Rick Larsen	Democratic	2

Margin of victory for winners

There were a total of 10 seats up for election in 2012 in Washington. The following table shows the margin of victory for each district winner, which is calculated by examining the percentage difference between the top-two vote getters. If the race was uncontested, the margin of victory is listed as 100%.

District	Winner	Margin of Victory	Total Vote	Top Opponent
Washington, District 10	Denny Heck	17.1%	278,417	Richard Muri
Washington, District 1	Suzan DelBene	7.9%	328,212	John Koster
Washington, District 2	Rick Larsen	22.3%	302,291	Dan Matthews
Washington, District 3	Jaime Herrera Beutler	20.8%	293,884	Jon T. Haugen
Washington, District 4	Doc Hastings	32.4%	233,689	Mary Baechler
Washington, District 5	Cathy McMorris Rodgers	23.8%	308,578	Rich Cowan
Washington, District 6	Derek Kilmer	18%	316,386	Bill Driscoll
Washington, District 7	Jim McDermott	59.3%	374,580	Ron Bemis
Washington, District 8	Dave Reichert	19.3%	302,090	Karen Porterfield
Washington, District 9	Adam Smith	43.2%	268,139	Jim Postma

General election candidates

This is a map of the congressional districts of Washington before and after the 2010 redistricting. The image also includes the partisan breakdown of the districts that are close in registration figures.

District	General Election Candidates	Incumbent	2012 Winner	Partisan Switch?
1st	Suzan DelBene John Koster	Jay Inslee	Suzan DelBene	No
2nd	Rick Larsen Dan Matthews	Rick Larsen	Rick Larsen	No
3rd	Jon T. Haugen Jaime Herrera Beutler	Jaime Herrera Beutler	Jaime Herrera Beutler	No
4th	Mary Baechler Doc Hastings	Doc Hastings	Doc Hastings	No
5th	Rich Cowan Cathy McMorris Rodgers	Cathy McMorris Rodgers	Cathy McMorris Rodgers	No
6th	Derek Kilmer Bill Driscoll	Norm Dicks	Derek Kilmer	No
7th	Jim McDermott Ron Bemis	Jim McDermott	Jim McDermott	No
8th	Karen Porterfield Dave Reichert	Dave Reichert	Dave Reichert	No
9th	Adam Smith James Postma	Adam Smith	Adam Smith	No
10th	Denny Heck Richard Muri	N/A	Denny Heck	N/A

Candidates

Note: Election results were added on election night as races were called. Vote totals were added after official election results had been certified. Click here for more information about Ballotpedia's election coverage plan. Please contact us about errors in this list.