2012 Washington Secretary of State election

The Washington Secretary of State election, 2012, took place on November 6, 2012. Republican Kim Wyman was narrowly elected Secretary of State to succeed incumbent Republican Sam Reed, who did not seek re-election.

2012 Washington Secretary of State election

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Nominee Kim Wyman Kathleen Drew Party Republican Democratic Popular vote 1,464,741 1,442,868 Percentage 50.38% 49.62%

County results Congressional district results Precinct results Wyman:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Drew:      50–60%      60–70%      70–80%      80–90%      >90% Tie:      50%      No votes

Secretary of State before election Sam Reed Republican Elected Secretary of State Kim Wyman Republican

Primary election

Blanket primary results by county

  Wyman

•   20–30%
•   30–40%
•   40–50%
•   50–60%
•   60–70%

  Drew

•   30–40%

The primary election took place in August. Under Washington's top-two primary system, introduced in the early 2000s, the primary was designed to narrow the field of candidates to two, rather than select specific party nominees, and candidates could designate themselves as affiliated with any political party, whether it existed or not.

Seven candidates contested the primary:

• Thurston County Auditor Kim Wyman ran under the Republican Party designation.
• Karen Murray ran under the Constitution Party designation.
• Sam Wright ran under the Human Rights Party designation.
• David J. Anderson ran as an independent candidate.
• Former Seattle mayor Greg Nickels, state senator Jim Kastama, and former state legislator Kathleen Drew, all ran under the Democratic Party designation.

Wyman and Drew scored the most votes in the primary contest, thereby becoming the two candidates to advance to the general election. Wyman received 39.75-percent of the vote and Drew 21.73-percent.

2012 Washington Secretary of State blanket primary election

Primary election
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	Kim Wyman	528,754	39.76
	Democratic	Kathleen Drew	289,052	21.73
	Democratic	Gregory J. Nickels	210,832	15.85
	Democratic	Jim Kastama	185,425	13.94
	Constitution	Karen Murray	50,888	3.83
	Independent	David J. Anderson	44,276	3.33
	Human Rights	Sam Wright	20,809	1.57
Total votes			1,330,036	100.00

General election

Republican Kim Wyman won the general election in a close-fought contest, and was the only Republican elected to statewide office in Washington. She was endorsed in the election by the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin,^[1] The Wenatchee World,^[2] the Tri-City Herald,^[3] and The Seattle Times.^[4] She was also endorsed by the Washington Education Association,^[5] which typically endorsed Democrats.^[3]

With Wyman's victory, Republicans extended their control of the office of Secretary of State of Washington to 48 consecutive years, having won each of the preceding 12 elections.

Polling

Graphical summary

Poll source	Date(s) administered	Sample size	Margin of error	Kim Wyman (R)	Kathleen Drew (D)	Undecided
Elway Research[6]	October 18–21, 2012	451 (RV)	± 4.5%	34%	34%	32%
Elway Research[7]	September 9–12, 2012	405 (RV)	± 5.0%	32%	40%	28%

By congressional district

Wyman won 6 of 10 congressional districts, including two that elected Democrats.^[8]

District	Wyman	Podlodowski	Representative
1st	53%	47%	Suzan DelBene
2nd	47%	53%	Rick Larsen
3rd	56%	44%	Jaime Herrera Beutler
4th	65%	35%	Doc Hastings
5th	60%	40%	Cathy McMorris Rodgers
6th	49.9%	50.1%	Derek Kilmer
7th	28%	72%	Jim McDermott
8th	57%	43%	Dave Reichert
9th	40%	60%	Adam Smith
10th	55%	45%	Denny Heck