State Rep. Richard DeBolt, R-Chehalis, at an election day party Tuesday night.
Given the margins by which incumbents Ed Orcutt and Richard DeBolt claimed victory in their primary races to remain state representatives of Washington’s 20th Legislative District, both men had little reason for concern as the general election cycle came to a close Tuesday evening.
Both men cruised to reelection against challengers from the Democratic party. Orcutt, R-Kalama, led Brennan Bailey of Chehalis by more than 14,000 votes while DeBolt, R-Chehalis, had eclipsed John Thompson of Silver Lake by nearly 13,000 votes as of Wednesday evening.
Orcutt has claimed 64 percent of the ballots cast. Bailey earned 35 percent, or 17,964 votes.
“I was hoping to be in the low 60 (percent) range, so to be in the mid-60’s, I’m very pleased,” Orcutt said. “I work really hard for the citizens of the district. I try to communicate with them, try to understand the issues they have and help out where I can. I think the people recognize the work that I’ve done and I think that’s why they returned me to office for another two years.”
DeBolt ran against a partisan opponent for the first time since 2010, when he beat Corinne Tobeck by about 16,000 votes. Thompson ran a largely cordial campaign against the former House Minority Leader, who talked up his experience and track record in Olympia en route to retaining his seat by margin of nearly 26 percent.
Within Lewis County, about two-thirds of voters went with both incumbents.
“I’m very happy with my numbers and looking forward to getting to work in Olympia,” DeBolt said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us.”
Bailey, who spent well over a year campaigning against Orcutt while teaching in Toledo and obtaining a Master’s degree at Harvard, celebrated the passage of a bond measure Tuesday night to fund new school construction in Toledo, where he is an elementary school teacher. He stated his desire for people to keep talking about issues raised during the 2018 election cycle, though he currently has no plans to seek elected office in 2020.
Bailey added that the experience of running for a seat in the state legislature affirmed his desire to separate money and politics.
“If you look at my opponent and every candidate who won, they had a lot of money on their side,” Bailey said. “Even the close races like the one in the 19th District, we’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars being spent there. The fact of the matter is, it’s hard to run a campaign without that kind of big money.”
Thompson said he appreciated the way in which he and DeBolt got along during debates and candidate forums, talking through different ways to address issues rather than being combative toward each other. That didn’t take the sting out of seeing the early returns Tuesday night.
“They are sort of what they are,” Thompson said. “I would have thought I’d do better, having knocked on a lot of doors and gotten a lot of good responses. I went into this race with no preconceived ideas, knowing it was a pretty red district. I know it would have been a long shot.”
Moving forward, Orcutt and DeBolt both plan to continue focusing on issues in which they’ve made progress, while still believing there’s more work to be done.
DeBolt intends to put much of his time toward continuing efforts to mitigate the impact of flooding on the Chehalis River Basin. He’s also committed to bipartisan efforts to improve mental health care in the district and statewide.
“(Mental health) has impacted a lot of families in Lewis County,” DeBolt said. “We’re lucky to have Cascade Mental Health here, and I want to make sure they have the resources necessary to accomplish their goal.”
Orcutt said he’ll look to continue pushing for improvements to key infrastructure centers after he and other area politicians successfully pushed up the replacement schedule for the Chamber Way Overpass in Chehalis by about five years.
His other stated areas of focus include job creation, flooding mitigation and protecting the wallets of taxpayers.
“Working with Rep. DeBolt and other legislators, including Senator John Braun, R-Centralia, I think we’ll continue working on all those things and trying to make life better for people in the 20th District.”
