G. Helen Whitener
G. Helen Whitener is a judge for Position 6 of the Washington Supreme Court. She assumed office on April 24, 2020. Her current term ends on January 7, 2029.
Whitener ran for re-election for the Position 6 judge of the Washington Supreme Court. She won in the general election on November 8, 2022.
Whitener first became a member of the Washington Supreme Court when she was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on April 13, 2020, to succeed former Justice Charlie Wiggins. 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] Whitener received a confidence score of Mild Democrat.[3] Click here to read more about this study.
The Washington State Supreme Court is the court of last resort in the state. It has nine judgeships. To read more about the court, click here.
| Washington State Supreme Court |
|---|
|
| Court Information |
| Justices: 9 |
| Founded: 1889 |
| Location: Olympia |
| Salary |
| Associates: $262,011[4] |
| Judicial Selection |
| Method: Nonpartisan election of judges |
| Term: 6 years |
| Active justices |
| Steven Gonzalez, Charles W. Johnson, Barbara A. Madsen, Sheryl Gordon McCloud, Raquel Montoya-Lewis, Sal Mungia, Debra Stephens, G. Helen Whitener, Mary Yu |
Biography
Before serving on the supreme court, Whitener served as a judge for the Pierce County Superior Court from 2015 to 2020. From 2005 to 2013, she worked as an attorney in private practice. She was also a member of the Washington Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals from 2013 to 2015. Whitener received her undergraduate degree from Baruch College, City University of New York and a J.D. from Seattle University.[1]
Whitener was awarded the Excellence in Diversity APEX award by the Washington State Bar Association in 2019.[5]
Elections
The section below details Whitener's judicial appointments and elections throughout her career.
2022
See also: Washington Supreme Court elections, 2022
General election
General election for Washington State Supreme Court Position 6
Incumbent G. Helen Whitener won election in the general election for Washington State Supreme Court Position 6 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | G. Helen Whitener (Nonpartisan) | 97.8 | 1,918,080 |
| Other/Write-in votes | 2.2 | 42,740 | ||
| Total votes: 1,960,820 | |||
 = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
The primary election was canceled. Incumbent G. Helen Whitener advanced from the primary for Washington State Supreme Court Position 6.
2020
See also: Washington Supreme Court elections, 2020
General election
Special general election for Washington State Supreme Court Position 6
Incumbent G. Helen Whitener defeated Richard Serns in the special general election for Washington State Supreme Court Position 6 on November 3, 2020.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | G. Helen Whitener (Nonpartisan) | 66.1 | 2,263,513 |
 | Richard Serns (Nonpartisan) | 33.3 | 1,140,338 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.6 | 19,416 | ||
| Total votes: 3,423,267 | |||
| = 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. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
The primary election was canceled. Incumbent G. Helen Whitener and Richard Serns advanced from the special primary for Washington State Supreme Court Position 6.
2016
Retention election
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.
Whitener 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
Retention election
See also: Washington judicial elections, 2015
Whitener was re-elected without opposition to the Pierce Superior Court - Position 11 in 2015. Washington's general judicial election was held on November 3, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates was May 15, 2015.[6]
Pierce County Superior Court
Whitener was appointed to the Pierce County Superior Court on January 6, 2015, by Governor Jay Inslee (D). She was appointed to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Judge John A. McCarthy.[7]
2012
Whitener ran for the Pierce County Superior Court in 2012. She was defeated by Stan Rumbaugh in the primary election on August 7, receiving 43.86% of the vote.[8][9]
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
G. Helen Whitener did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
2020
G. Helen Whitener did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.
Appointments
2020
Governor Jay Inslee (D) appointed Judge G. Helen Whitener to the Washington Supreme Court on April 13, 2020. Whitener succeeded Justice Charles K. Wiggins, who retired at the end of March 2020. Whitener was the governor's third nominee to the nine-member state supreme court.[10][11]
At the time of the appointment under Washington law, the governor appointed a replacement in the event of a midterm vacancy. Otherwise, judges were selected in nonpartisan elections.
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.[12]
The five resulting categories of Confidence Scores were:
- Strong Democrat
- Mild Democrat
- Indeterminate[13]
- 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.
G. Helen
Whitener
Washington
- Partisan Confidence Score:
Mild Democrat - Judicial Selection Method:
Elected - Key Factors:
- Appointed by a Democratic governor
- State was a Democratic trifecta at time of appointment
Partisan Profile
Details:
Whitener was appointed by Gov. Jay Inslee (D) to fill a vacancy in 2020. The state of Washington was a Democratic trifecta at the time of her appointment.
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.[14]
Qualifications
To serve on the supreme court, a judge must be:
- admitted to practice law in Washington; and
- under the age of 75.[15]
Chief justice
The chief justice of the supreme court is selected through a peer vote and has a set term of four years.[16]
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.[17] 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.[18]
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 6 |
Officeholder Washington State Supreme Court Position 6 |
Personal |
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Washington Governor Jay Inslee, "Inslee appoints Judge G. Helen Whitener to the Washington State Supreme Court," April 13, 2020
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ The salary of the chief justice may be higher than an associate justice.
- ↑ The News Tribune, "Inslee appoints Pierce County Superior Court judge to state Supreme Court," April 13, 2020
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Washington Secretary of State, "2016 Candidates Who Have Filed," accessed May 18, 2015
- ↑ The News Tribune, "G. Helen Whitener to take Pierce County Superior Court seat," January 6, 2015
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "2012 Primary Results by County," August 28, 2012
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "2012 Primary Election Candidates," accessed December 24, 2014
- ↑ Seattle Times, "Justice Charles Wiggins announces plan to retire from the Washington Supreme Court," January 16, 2020
- ↑ Washington Governor Jay Inslee, "Inslee appoints Judge G. Helen Whitener to the Washington State Supreme Court," April 13, 2020
- ↑ 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
 |
State of Washington Olympia (capital) |
|---|---|
| Elections |
What's on my ballot? | Elections in 2025 | How to vote | How to run for office | Ballot measures |
| Government |
Who represents me? | U.S. President | U.S. Congress | Federal courts | State executives | State legislature | State and local courts | Counties | Cities | School districts | Public policy |
