DelBene Defeats Koster in 1st Congressional District

The first round of early elections results show Democrat Suzan DelBene of Medina taking a 54 to 46 percent lead over Republican John Koster of Arlington in the 1st Congressional District race.

Washington's new 1st District is one of the state's largest and most politically diverse districts, stretching from Redmond to the Canadian border and including both tech-savvy suburbs and large expanses of farmland.

The race between DelBene and Koster was close right up until the election, with a late-October poll from KING 5 showing DelBene leading Koster by just 3 percentage points, which was within the survey's margin of error. 

DelBene is also leading returns for the special one-month term to fill Rep. Jay Inslee's seat. 

Check back here for updates as election results and reactions continue to come in. 

For more national and local election results from Patch, click here and here.

Which candidate did you support in the 1st Congressional District? What is your reaction to the early results? Tell us in the comments section.

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Editor's note: This story was updated at 11 a.m. Wednesday to include more recent ballot totals.