Washington's 1st Congressional District election, 2020 (August 4 top-two primary)
- Primary date: Aug. 4
- Primary type: Top-two
- Registration deadline(s): Aug. 3
- Online registration: Yes
- Same-day registration: Yes
- Early voting starts: July 17[1]
- Absentee/mail voting deadline(s): Aug. 4 (received)
- Voter ID: Photo ID
- Poll times: Varies locally[1]
2022 →
← 2018
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| Washington's 1st Congressional District |
|---|
 |
| Top-two primary General election |
| Election details |
| Filing deadline: May 15, 2020 |
| Primary: August 4, 2020 General: November 3, 2020 Pre-election incumbent: Suzan DelBene (Democratic) |
| How to vote |
| Poll times: Poll opening hours vary; close at 8 p.m. (most voting done by mail) Voting in Washington |
| Race ratings |
Inside Elections: Solid Democratic Sabato's Crystal Ball: Safe Democratic |
| Ballotpedia analysis |
| U.S. Senate battlegrounds U.S. House battlegrounds Federal and state primary competitiveness Ballotpedia's Election Analysis Hub, 2020 |
| See also |
1st • 2nd • 3rd • 4th • 5th • 6th • 7th • 8th • 9th • 10th Washington elections, 2020 U.S. Congress elections, 2020 U.S. Senate elections, 2020 U.S. House elections, 2020 |
A top-two primary took place on August 4, 2020, in Washington's 1st Congressional District to determine which two candidates would run in the district's general election on November 3, 2020.
Incumbent Suzan DelBene and Jeffrey Beeler advanced from the primary for U.S. House Washington District 1.
| Candidate filing deadline | Primary election | General election |
|---|---|---|
Heading into the election, the incumbent was Suzan DelBene (Democrat), who was first elected in 2012.
Washington uses a top-two primary system, in which all candidates appear on the same ballot, for congressional and state-level elections. The top two vote-getters move on to the general election, regardless of their party affiliation. In states that do not use a top-two system, all parties are usually able to put forward a candidate for the general election if they choose to.[2][3]
For information about which offices are nominated via primary election, see this article.
This page focuses on Washington's 1st Congressional District's top-two primary. For more in-depth information on the district's general election, see the following page:
Candidates and election results
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House Washington District 1
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Suzan DelBene (D) | 55.4 | 147,666 |
| ✔ |  | Jeffrey Beeler (R) | 32.1 | 85,655 |
 | Derek Chartrand (R) | 5.9 | 15,777 | |
 | Justin Smoak (Unaffiliated)  | 2.9 | 7,701 | |
| Steven Skelton (L) | 2.7 | 7,286 | ||
 | Matthew Heines (Unaffiliated) | 0.5 | 1,335 | |
| Robert Mair (Unaffiliated) | 0.3 | 812 | ||
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 340 | ||
| Total votes: 266,572 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
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District analysis
- See also: The Cook Political Report's Partisan Voter Index
- See also: FiveThirtyEight's elasticity scores
The 2017 Cook Partisan Voter Index for this district was D+6, meaning that in the previous two presidential elections, this district's results were 6 percentage points more Democratic than the national average. This made Washington's 1st Congressional District the 162nd most Democratic nationally.[4]
FiveThirtyEight's September 2018 elasticity score for states and congressional districts measured "how sensitive it is to changes in the national political environment." This district's elasticity score was 0.96. This means that for every 1 point the national political mood moved toward a party, the district was expected to move 0.96 points toward that party.[5]
Campaign finance
The chart below contains data from financial reports submitted to the Federal Election Commission.
| Name | Party | Receipts* | Disbursements** | Cash on hand | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Suzan DelBene | Democratic Party | $2,189,501 | $1,903,677 | $1,339,118 | As of December 31, 2020 |
| Jeffrey Beeler | Republican Party | $61,970 | $62,279 | $4,040 | As of December 31, 2020 |
| Derek Chartrand | Republican Party | $7,451 | $6,887 | $565 | As of December 31, 2020 |
| Steven Skelton | Libertarian Party | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Matthew Heines | Unaffiliated | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Robert Mair | Unaffiliated | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
| Justin Smoak | Unaffiliated | $0 | $0 | $0 | Data not available*** |
|
Source: Federal Elections Commission, "Campaign finance data," 2020. This product uses the openFEC API but is not endorsed or certified by the Federal Election Commission (FEC).
* According to the FEC, "Receipts are anything of value (money, goods, services or property) received by a political committee." |
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General election race ratings
- See also: Race rating definitions and methods
Ballotpedia provides race ratings from four outlets: The Cook Political Report, Inside Elections, Sabato's Crystal Ball, and DDHQ/The Hill. Each race rating indicates if one party is perceived to have an advantage in the race and, if so, the degree of advantage:
- Safe and Solid ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge and the race is not competitive.
- Likely ratings indicate that one party has a clear edge, but an upset is possible.
- Lean ratings indicate that one party has a small edge, but the race is competitive.[6]
- Toss-up ratings indicate that neither party has an advantage.
Race ratings are informed by a number of factors, including polling, candidate quality, and election result history in the race's district or state.[7][8][9]
| Race ratings: Washington's 1st Congressional District election, 2020 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Race tracker | Race ratings | ||||||||
| November 3, 2020 | October 27, 2020 | October 20, 2020 | October 13, 2020 | ||||||
| The Cook Political Report | Solid Democratic | Solid Democratic | Solid Democratic | Solid Democratic | |||||
| Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales | Solid Democratic | Solid Democratic | Solid Democratic | Solid Democratic | |||||
| Larry J. Sabato's Crystal Ball | Safe Democratic | Safe Democratic | Safe Democratic | Safe Democratic | |||||
| Note: Ballotpedia updates external race ratings every week throughout the election season. | |||||||||
See also
- Washington's 1st Congressional District election, 2020
- United States House elections in Washington, 2020 (August 4 top-two primaries)
- United States House Democratic Party primaries, 2020
- United States House Republican Party primaries, 2020
- United States House of Representatives elections, 2020
- U.S. House battlegrounds, 2020
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Washington is a vote-by-mail state. Early voting dates and polling hours apply to county-level vote centers where individuals can instead vote in person.
- ↑ NCSL, "State Primary Election Types," accessed October 3, 2024
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "Top 2 Primary: FAQs for Candidates," accessed October 3, 2024
- ↑ Cook Political Report, "Introducing the 2017 Cook Political Report Partisan Voter Index," April 7, 2017
- ↑ FiveThirtyEight, "Election Update: The Most (And Least) Elastic States And Districts," September 6, 2018
- ↑ Inside Elections also uses Tilt ratings to indicate an even smaller advantage and greater competitiveness.
- ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Nathan Gonzalez," April 19, 2018
- ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Kyle Kondik," April 19, 2018
- ↑ Amee LaTour, "Email correspondence with Charlie Cook," April 22, 2018
