Des Moines Democrat Dave Upthegrove remained in a tight race against two Republicans for one of the top two spots in the state Commissioner of Public Lands race.
Upthegrove moved into second place from third place a few days after the Aug. 6 primary initial count and stayed in that spot the first two days of this week. Upthegrove is a King County Council member whose District 5 includes part of Kent.
Republican Jaime Herrera Beutler leads with 21.9% (408,179) followed by Upthegrove with 20.98% (390,973 votes) and Republican Sue Kuehl Pederson with 20.68% (385,510 votes), according to results released at 5:11 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 13 by the Office of the Secretary of State.
The two candidates with the most votes in the Aug. 6 primary move on to the Nov. 5 general election ballot. Ballots will continue to be counted over the next week until the Office of the Secretary of State certifies the results Friday, Aug. 23.
Upthegrove trailed Kuehl Pederson by about 10,000 votes in the earlier counts and leads her by 5,463 votes, as of Aug. 13.
“While we are leading in the current statewide total, the race is definitely too close to call,” Upthegrove said in an Aug. 12 Facebook post.
Upthegrove said the race could be decided by a couple of hundred votes or less based on which counties still had ballots to count. He said it could drag out to late in the week.
An estimated 27,700 ballots on hand remained to be counted, as of Aug. 13, according to the Secretary of State. An exact number is impossible to know because ballots that were delayed in delivery are still arriving in elections offices and being processed, according to an Aug. 13 email from an Office of the Secretary of State spokesperson.
Upthegrove, who has represented District 5 on the King County Council since 2014, was one of seven candidates on the ballot.
Herrera Beutler, a former U.S. representative, lost her 3rd District Congressional seat in 2022. Kuehl Pederson lost to current lands commissioner Hillary Franz in 2020.
The lands commissioner leads the state’s wildfire fighting force and manages nearly 6 million acres of public lands – from coastal waters and aquatic reserves, to working forests and farms, commercial developments and recreation areas.
Upthegrove ran unsuccessfully for lands commissioner in 2016. He placed third in the primary election behind Republican Steve McLaughlin and Franz. Franz won the general election.
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