Rep. Dan Newhouse leads in fierce battle for re-election against Jerrod Sessler

Nov. 5—Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Sunnyside, is narrowly leading Tuesday night in perhaps his fiercest challenge to date against Jerrod Sessler, a former NASCAR driver who former President Donald Trump had endorsed in a bid to unseat Newhouse.

Newhouse had earned 50.3% of the vote Tuesday night, compared to Sessler's 48%.

If results hold, it means that one of the last Republicans who stood up to Trump in 2021 is still standing. Newhouse was one of just 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump for inciting the Jan. 6 riot, and Trump has explicitly pointed to this vote as the motivation for supporting Republicans who could defeat Newhouse.

Newhouse said that he believed he would be able to successfully govern alongside Trump, who was heavily favored to win the presidency Tuesday night.

"A lot of things are said during campaigns, but when it gets down to doing the important work that we have in front of us, those things need to be set aside," Newhouse said.

However, Newhouse added that he did not regret the impeachment vote.

Sessler, on the other hand, was among the Trump supporters who attended the Jan. 6, 2021 "Stop the Steal" rally; while he has said he never entered the Capitol that day, he argues, like Trump, that those convicted of crimes related to the riot should be pardoned.

Sessler's campaign did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.

Newhouse is among the even rarer cohort of Republicans who voted to impeach Trump and still holds office — only Rep. David Valadao, R-California, can say the same, and Valadao serves in a decidedly more Democratic district than Newhouse. Newhouse is alone among them in surviving a Trump-endorsed challenge, squeezing through a crowded 2022 primary ahead of Trump-backed Republican Loren Culp before easily defeating a Democrat in the general election. Sessler, who sought Trump's endorsement but didn't receive it, finished fourth in that race.

Sessler tried again this year, this time earning Trump's endorsement, though this support was somewhat complicated by the late addition of a third major Republican contender, Tiffany Smiley, into the race. Smiley ran an unsuccessful but surprisingly energized 2022 campaign against incumbent Sen. Patty Murray and decided to try her hand at unseating Newhouse this year. Just days before the August primary, Trump also endorsed Smiley, hedging his bets against Newhouse.

Sessler emerged from that contest victorious, however, earning the top spot with 31.2%, while Newhouse earned second place with 24.5%. Smiley declined to endorse either candidate. Unlike in 2022, Newhouse now faced a head-to-head contest with a pro-Trump Republican in the general election.

Newhouse said Tuesday night that he has campaigned heavily on his legislative record in Washington D.C. and his local roots in central Washington state on the campaign trail, and he believes that helped him build a potentially winning coalition.

"I truly believe, sincerely, that the challenges that we face in Central Washington, I get," Newhouse said. "Because they're my challenges, as well as my constituents' challenge, and my neighbors' challenge. So I truly think that I can better represent people because of that, versus someone who is not from here."

Though there was no Democrat on the general election ballot this year in one of the most reliably Republican districts in the state — no Democrat has held the seat since 1995, after then-Congressman Jay Inslee lost re-election — there was still a Democrat running for the office.

Cherissa Boyd, a 61-year-old mother from Kennewick, ran a write-in campaign on the theory that she could squeak by if Newhouse and Sessler split the vote; instead, whether because Boyd was a relative unknown with few funds to pay to get her name out there, or because Democrats firmly coalesced behind Newhouse, Boyd did not capture a substantial number of votes.

Write-in candidates received just over 1.6% of the vote Tuesday night.