Strickland Wins Race For Washington's 10th Congressional District

PIERCE COUNTY, WA — Marilyn Strickland will be replacing Denny Heck as the next representative for Washington's 10th Congressional District.

The Associated Press called Strickland's victory early Wednesday morning, though Strickland had started the race with a commanding lead since the first batch of results dropped late Tuesday.

Shortly after the AP called the race, Strickland shared a victory message over Twitter, thanking her supporters and that she was excited to represent the South Sound.

After the last ballot update, released just before 1 a.m. Wednesday, Strickland had garnered 50.19 percent of the vote. Her opponent, Beth Doglio, received 35.93 percent of the vote and, somewhat surprisingly, write-in candidates pulled 13.87 percent of the vote.

The Strickland-Doglio race was unusual in that both candidates are democrats, spurring some conservatives to support write-in candidate Marty McClendon as a Republican alternative. The race for lt. governor was also between two democrats, Denny Heck and Marko Liias, and like the 10th congressional district race, a conservative write-in candidate netted a significant portion of the vote.

Strickland was the mayor of Tacoma from 2010 to 2018 and was the front-runner of the primary, bringing in more than 21 percent of the August vote. Strickland was born in Seoul, South Korea. Her father, a member of the United States military, met Strickland's mother while stationed in Korea after the Korean War. Now that she has been elected, she is the first African-American to represent Washington State at the federal level, and the first Korean-American woman elected to Congress, according to her campaign.

Doglio is a state representative from the 22nd legislative district, and ran a campaign positioning herself as the more progressive alternative, even earning the support of high-profile progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. After the race was called in Strickland's favor, Doglio shared a statement thanking her supporters and wishing Strickland well in Congress.

More November General Election Coverage on Patch:

Washington General Election Night Results