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Raquel Montoya-Lewis
2020 - Present
2027
5
Raquel Montoya-Lewis is a judge for Position 3 of the Washington Supreme Court. She assumed office on January 6, 2020. Her current term ends on January 10, 2027.
Montoya-Lewis ran for re-election for the Position 3 judge of the Washington Supreme Court. She won in the general election on November 3, 2020.
Montoya-Lewis first became a member of the Washington Supreme Court when she was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on December 4, 2019, to succeed Mary Fairhurst. To learn more about this appointment, click here.[1]
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country. As part of this study, we assigned each justice a Confidence Score describing our confidence in the degree of partisanship exhibited by the justices' past partisan behavior, before they joined the court.[2] Montoya-Lewis received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
Biography
Montoya-Lewis received her undergraduate degree from the University of New Mexico. She received both her master's degree in social work and her J.D. from the University of Washington.[4] Before her appointment to the court, Montoya-Lewis served as the chief judge for the Nooksack and Upper Skagit Indian Tribes in Washington and worked as an associate professor for Western Washington University.[4]
In 2020, Montoya Lewis was named Judge of the Year by the Washington chapter of the American Board of Trial Advocates.[5]
Elections
2020
See also: Washington Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
General election for Washington State Supreme Court Position 3
Incumbent Raquel Montoya-Lewis defeated Dave Larson in the general election for Washington State Supreme Court Position 3 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Raquel Montoya-Lewis (Nonpartisan) | 58.2 | 2,057,623 |
 | Dave Larson (Nonpartisan) | 41.4 | 1,462,764 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.4 | 13,661 | ||
| Total votes: 3,534,048 | |||
 = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Nonpartisan primary election
The primary election was canceled. Incumbent Raquel Montoya-Lewis and Dave Larson advanced from the primary for Washington State Supreme Court Position 3.
2016
Washington held general elections for local judicial offices on November 8, 2016. Candidates for district and superior court seats had to file for election by May 20, 2016. Primary elections were held on August 2, 2016, for six seats where more than two candidates filed for election. Montoya-Lewis won re-election without appearing on a ballot in 2016 because no challengers emerged by the May 2016 filing deadline.[6] In counties with a population that is greater than 100,000, if only one superior court candidate files for election for a judgeship, that candidate is automatically elected and the county does not hold a general election for the seat.
2015
See also: Washington judicial elections, 2015
Montoya-Lewis was re-elected without opposition to the Whatcom Superior Court in 2015. Washington's general judicial election was held on November 3, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates was May 15, 2015.[7]
2014
Montoya-Lewis was appointed to the Whatcom County Superior Court in Whatcom County, Washington, by Gov. Inslee on December 15, 2014.[4]
Campaign themes
2020
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Raquel Montoya-Lewis did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Appointments
2019
On December 4, 2019, Governor Jay Inslee (D) appointed Judge Raquel Montoya-Lewis to succeed Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst on the Washington Supreme Court. Fairhurst retired January 5, 2020, for health reasons.[8][1]
At the time of the appointment under Washington law, the governor appointed a replacement in the event of a midterm vacancy. Montoya-Lewis was Inslee's second nominee to the nine-member supreme court.
Analysis
Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship (2020)
Last updated: June 15, 2020
In 2020, Ballotpedia published Ballotpedia Courts: State Partisanship, a study examining the partisan affiliation of all state supreme court justices in the country as of June 15, 2020.
The study presented Confidence Scores that represented our confidence in each justice's degree of partisan affiliation. This was not a measure of where a justice fell on an ideological spectrum, but rather a measure of how much confidence we had that a justice was or had been affiliated with a political party. The scores were based on seven factors, including but not limited to party registration.[9]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[10]
- Mild Republican
- Strong Republican
This justice's Confidence Score, as well as the factors contributing to that score, is presented below. The information below was current as of June 2020.
Raquel
Montoya-Lewis
Washington
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Donated less than $2,000 to Democratic candidates
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
- Endorsed by Democratic-affiliated individuals or organizations
Partisan Profile
Details:
Montoya-Lewis was nominated by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) to fill a vacancy in 2019. She donated $55 to Democratic campaigns. She was endorsed by the 45th LD Democrats. The state of Washington was a Democratic trifecta when she was selected to fill a vacancy.
Personal
Note: Please contact us if the personal information below requires an update.
Montoya-Lewis is an enrolled member of the Pueblo of Isleta and a descendant of the Pueblo of Laguna Indian tribes.[1]
State supreme court judicial selection in Washington
- See also: Judicial selection in Washington
The nine justices of the supreme court are selected through contested nonpartisan elections and must run for re-election when their terms expire. Supreme court judges serve for six years.[11]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a judge must be:
- admitted to practice law in Washington; and
- under the age of 75.[12]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected through a peer vote and has a set term of four years.[13]
Vacancies
In the event of a midterm vacancy, the governor appoints a replacement. The appointee serves until the next general election, at which point he or she may run to serve for the remainder of the predecessor's term.[14] If the resignation and subsequent appointment takes place after the filing period opens for that year's elections, the appointee must stand in the next year's election to remain on the bench.[15]
The map below highlights how vacancies are filled in state supreme courts across the country.
See also
External links
|
Candidate Washington State Supreme Court Position 3 |
Officeholder Washington State Supreme Court Position 3 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Medium, "Inslee names first Native American to Washington State Supreme Court," December 4, 2019
- ↑ We calculated confidence scores by collecting several data points such as party registration, donations, and previous political campaigns.
- ↑ The five possible confidence scores were: Strong Democrat, Mild Democrat, Indeterminate, Mild Republican, and Strong Republican.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Office of Washington Governor Jay Inslee, "Governor Inslee announces appointment of Raquel Montoya-Lewis to the Whatcom County Superior Court," December 15, 2014
- ↑ Yahoo! Finance, "American Board of Trial Advocates Names Washington State Supreme Court Justice Raquel Montoya-Lewis 'Judge of the Year'," October 30, 2020
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "2016 Candidates Who Have Filed," accessed May 21, 2016
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "Candidates Who Have Filed," accessed May 18, 2015
- ↑ King5 News, "Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Mary Fairhurst to retire after colon cancer diagnosis," October 3, 2019
- ↑ The seven factors were party registration, donations made to partisan candidates, donations made to political parties, donations received from political parties or bodies with clear political affiliation, participation in political campaigns, the partisanship of the body responsible for appointing the justice, and state trifecta status when the justice joined the court.
- ↑ An Indeterminate score indicates that there is either not enough information about the justice’s partisan affiliations or that our research found conflicting partisan affiliations.
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, Methods of Judicial Selection: Washington," accessed April 16, 2025
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, Methods of Judicial Selection: Washington," accessed April 16, 2025
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, Methods of Judicial Selection: Washington," accessed April 16, 2025
- ↑ Washington State Legislature, "Washington State Constitution," accessed April 16, 2025 (Scroll to Article IV, Section 3)
- ↑ National Center for State Courts, Methods of Judicial Selection: Washington," accessed April 16, 2025
Federal courts:
Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals • U.S. District Court: Eastern District of Washington, Western District of Washington • U.S. Bankruptcy Court: Eastern District of Washington, Western District of Washington
State courts:
Washington Supreme Court • Washington Court of Appeals • Washington Superior Court • Washington District Courts • Washington Municipal Courts
State resources:
Courts in Washington • Washington judicial elections • Judicial selection in Washington
