Pierce County Write-In Candidate Advances To November Election

PUYALLUP, WA — Republican state Rep. Cyndy Jacobsen will face a challenger in her bid for a second term representing the 25th District in Olympia after a write-in candidate gathered enough votes to advance out of the primary. Jacobsen, whose district includes Puyallup and South Hill, was elected to her first two-year term in the statehouse in 2020 and appeared on primary ballots without any named challengers in August.

Primary results from the Pierce County Auditor's Office showed Jacobsen with nearly 90 percent of the primary vote, with just over 10 percent going to write-ins. State law allows candidates to formally declare themselves as write-in candidates until polls close.

Elections officials said Cameron Severns, a Democrat, submitted his declaration the day before the election and successfully cleared the benchmarks needed to advance out of the primary: receiving at least 1 percent of the vote, and getting the second-most votes overall. Primary results show Severns received 525 of the 22,613 tallied in the race, claiming roughly 2.3 percent of the vote.

Having formally advanced out of the primary, Severns will appear on general election ballots and be included in voters' pamphlets and guides.