Washington Senate

2020 Election Update

Heading into the 2020 election, Democrats controlled the Washington Senate 29 to 20. Democrats flipped one seat (SD 28) and lost one seat to Republicans (SD 19) for no change.

The below table shows 2020 and 2018 election results for the Washington Senate. The LDI scores are for the 2020 cycle. EveryDistrict will release new scores and district rankings after the redistricting process.

2018 Election Update

After the 2016 election, Democrats held 25 Washington State Senate seats compared to Republicans’ 24, but a power-sharing agreement gave Republicans control of the chamber. In November 2017, Manka Dhingra flipped a Republican-held district into the Democratic column and Democrats took control of the chamber with a 26-23 majority.

In the 2018 election, Democrats expanded their majority by winning three additional seats; they now control the chamber 29-20. Democrats flipped SD 26, SD 30, and SD 47.

Understanding the Map

EveryDistrict’s Legislative District Index (LDI) is the gold standard of state legislative competitiveness. Our LDI ranks state legislative districts on a scale from 100 to -100, using statewide elections data. Districts with a score of 100 would vote for statewide Democratic candidates by an average of 100 points (with the Democratic candidate receiving 100% of the vote); districts with a score of -100 would vote for statewide Republican candidates by an average of 100 points (with the Republican candidate receiving 100% of the vote). For a more realistic example, a district with a score of 10 would vote for statewide Democratic candidates by an average of 10 points (meaning we would expect the Democratic state legislative candidate to win with 55% of the vote compared to the Republican winning 45% of the vote).

After the 2018 election, EveryDistrict reviewed and enhanced our LDI system, improving the accuracy of the metric with new methodologies and the most recent electoral data.

For more information about EveryDistrict’s LDI, please click here.