Live: The Stranger’s 2026 Primary Election Night Extravaganza

???? We’ve lint-rolled the ashy remnants of Eastern Washington off our slacks, we’ve taken a fat rip from the office’s Simply Orange gravity bong (we’re smokemaxxing), and we’re ready to raid the buffet tables at candidates’ respectable election night parties.

Where will we be? None of your business! You should be busy voting, especially if you’re a young whippersnapper under the age of 65. Here is our primary endorsement guide, our cheat sheet, and, if you’re more lost than Mr. Odysseus, here are instructions for how to vote and where to drop off your ballot. 

---

CHIPALO STREET IS IN DAD MODE
7:25 p.m.

Rep. Chipalo Street is not throwing his own party tonight. In theory, he’s going to Jaelynn Scott’s party, but he’s “still trying to get out the door ????.” He and his wife ate mushroom tacos for dinner, and now it’s the baby’s turn to eat. Yum!

---

TOSHIKO HASWEGAWA IS “CHILLEN” WITH HER HUSBAND
7:11 p.m.

The King County Council candidate isn’t having a big party. She’s hanging with her hubby, community members, and the campaign team instead. She’s eating chips and salsa and drinking a whiskey soda with extra lemon… Ope, that’s all! Her tacos just arrived. We want a whiskey sour! Instead we are drinking a “light lager” that we got ID’d for!

---

A BEAUTIFUL BURGER REPORT WITH GERRY POLLET
7:10 p.m.

Gerry Pollet had planned to spend the pre-ballot drop hours of election night hopping from block party to block party in the 46th—to “swing around a bunch” of them, he said—but his plans were foiled by the worst part of summer in the Pacific Northwest. Many of the parties on the itinerary were canceled due to poor air quality from the fires in Eastern Washington, said Pollet’s daughter Eileen. 

But a crowd of about 20 gathered behind Keystone Congregational Church in Wallingford despite the scorched-smelling air. As Pollet worked the crowd, constituents came up to him to discuss health policy and early learning, and a nice lady named Laura explained to us that she had waited until today to make the call about whether to forge ahead with the block party despite all the smoke. “I made the executive decision this morning that we were going to go and I’m glad we did,” she said, whipping out her phone and sharing the good news that the air quality is currently listed at “moderate.” Okay, Laura! 

The party was strictly BYOG (bring your own grillable), but there was perfectly good pizza on-hand for interloping reporters. As one neighbor stacked his grilled meat high, Pollet grinned: “That is a beautiful-looking burger,” he pronounced, before returning to a discussion of early learning. A Patty Murray staffer was also in attendance: She doesn’t talk to media, but we can confirm that she does have very cool sunglasses. 

---

KELABE TEWOLDE’S LUMPIA IS DELICIOUS
7:09 p.m.

Kelabe Tewolde’s already a winner in our book because his party unquestionably had the best food. He’s got service industry ties (he used to run a food pop-up), and local restaurant owner Elmer Dulla is a “homie,” so he secured familyfriend, one of Seattle’s hottest restaurants, as his HQ. The lumpia (with some kind of cream sauce) were good, but the wings were AMAZING. They taste like they’ve been dry-rubbed with spices and lemongrass or something? 

It was a family-friendly event with what feels like a cross-section of Beacon Hill—every age and race chowing down and half-watching CNN. 

Kelabe was circulating the room in a plain white T-shirt as we waited on results, very much the unpolished, authentic newbie candidate. “As a first-time candidate, I don’t know how to feel,” he told us. Anything above 40 percent tonight would count as a win, he added. Since Sharon Tomiko Santos is a 27-year incumbent, that would be a pretty strong showing.

Half-watching Yu-Gi-Oh and eating some incredible wings while waiting for the ballots to drop? There are worse ways to spend a smoky Tuesday evening.

---

CONNOR WITH WA DEMS UPDATE
7:06 p.m.

We asked Connor how phone banking was going. Err, text banking. “We are hearing a lot from folks who haven’t gotten their ballots in yet but plan to vote before 8pm!” he writes. We did not expect him to reply.

---

WE ARE SEATED NEXT TO TERESA MOSQUEDA’S DAUGHTER. NOBODY PANIC. AND PRAMILA JAYAPAL FEELS LIKE A COCKTAIL TONIGHT, BUT WE’RE AT A BREWERY.
7:05 p.m.

Teresa Mosqueda’s daughter is very small, wearing a sparkly dress, and is making a paper fortune teller. Perhaps it will tell the fortunes of her mom’s future on King County Council. We assume from the vibe of the party—and the doofuses running against her—that it is going to be positive. She just read our fortune. The result? “Your [sic] the best.” Wow. We feel good about that.

Mosqueda took a break from talking to the union workers about their contract bargaining process (classic!) to tell us that she is thrilled that this is the first even-year election for King County Council. She’s drinking a cider right now, but she might be switching to a sauvignon blanc. “A savvy b for a savvy b,” she says. “And you can quote me on that.”

Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is also here, fresh off a call with Michigan congressional candidate Abdul El-Sayed. He’s up in the returns right now! Jayapal is jazzed. The rest of the country and other candidates she endorsed are already doing well. She feels like a cocktail. But we are at Seapine Brewery in Georgetown. She is going to have the Seapine IPA instead. NO wait, her staffer just told us she picked the Yodeling Coyote, a West Coast IPA. Aren’t we all yodeling coyotes inside?

---

THE BACKROOMS OF THE WASHINGTON STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY
7:00 p.m.

You can tell the Washington State Democratic Party is in touch with the grassroots urban progressive movement because the party’s big primary night election party is being held at an undisclosed location deep in the former Eastside Republican stronghold across from a shopping mall. There may finally be a light rail line to Bellevue, but according to the party invite, it’s a 41-minute walk from the LINK station to the venue (through the vaporized ruins of Spokane). That means that so far tonight there are no members of the public present, just a Children’s Crusade of young campaign volunteers and their consultant-caste majordomos. There’s Pagliacci pizza, which is fine, as well as name-brand soda (!!!). We’re told this was originally planned as a thank-you party for volunteers before being expanded to include press and the public, which explains the church lock-in vibe.

Through a series of Backrooms-esque backrooms, the Party awaits: a mostly empty monument to the region’s oversupply of office real estate, where many of the tables lack tabletops, for some reason. Such banality feels perfectly suited to the Democratic congressmen that moderate suburbanites turned to as the Republican Party lurched hard to the right (particularly after Trump took over the party). That is to say, this is an event for the swagless right wing of the Puget Sound region’s Congressional delegation: Adam Smith, Suzan DelBene, and Kim Schrier.

Washington Republicans are not seriously contesting any of these races. They know their odds are better at toppling sea lion enemy MGP down in Vancouver, they’ve got the party’s only remaining Congressional districts in Eastern Washington to defend, and their attempt to repeal the new Millionaires Tax on the November ballot is their biggest statewide priority. Neither DelBene (net worth ~$120 million) nor Schrier are facing anything like a real election challenge from the left or the right.

Smith, however, is slightly more exposed. Socialist firebrand Kshama Sawant is gunning for him and his AIPAC donors, and the big story tonight is whether she claws her way to a second-place finish to take him on again in November. Melissa Chaudhry, a progressive Democrat who lost badly to Smith in the 2024 general election, could spoil Sawant’s chances by splitting the left vote in a third direction. Chaudhry only made it through last election’s primary because two Republicans split the conservative vote, but with only the self-funded Doug Basler running for the GOP this time around, Chaudhry could pull enough votes from Sawant to send Basler to the general election to get clobbered by Smith.

---

ALONE!
6:51 p.m.

We’ve arrived at the site of Ron Davis’s election night bash in Roosevelt, and we’re early. Nobody else is here yet, but how could we be bored? There’s Skee-Ball. Ms. Pac-Man. A game where I can shoot a duck, a zombie, a yeti, or the Terminator with a shotgun. Do they deserve it? You have about an hour to vote. 

Edit 7:02 PM: Teenage boys have arrived. The thunder of Skee-Ball is all we can hear.

Edit 7:04 PM: The boys have lost interest in Skee-Ball.

---

THE SMOKE
6:26 p.m.

The SECB is starting to wonder if we belong to a “sensitive group.”

---

GROUND GAME ON LOCK
6:22 p.m.

On the way to another election party, we ran into two Sawant canvassers, David and Luke, outside the Columbia City light rail station. The guys had been tabling out in the smoke since 7 a.m. and were still enthusiastically preaching the socialist gospel. No one can dispute that Kshama mobilizes volunteers like a General.

---

WA DEMS BOYS HAVE OUR NUMBER
5:25 p.m.

Before we can scramble out the door, “Connor with wa dems” has texted us. “We’re not here to rage bait, but the Primary is today and voting is a huge green flag.”

“Michael with wa dems” is also on our case. “we need u to lock in and help dems up and down the ballot in todays primary election.” Perfect use of the lingo, guys.

---

NOBODY WANTS TO VOTE ANYMORE
5:00 p.m.

As of 4 p.m. today, turnout was at 21.7 percent, and, as usual, old people are voting early and often. Data from King County Elections shows the younger the voter, the less likely they are to have turned in their ballots. For example, only 9.1 percent of voters aged 18-24 have returned their ballots. Of the more than 321,000 registered voters 65 and older, 43.6 percent have done the same. This may seem concerning, but the young and progressive are procrastinators.

To bide their time before the 8 p.m. ballot drop, candidates are living it up around town with their dedicated supporters and volunteers. Hannah Sabio-Howell and Rep. Shaun Scott are partying together on Capitol Hill. Ron Davis is in Roosevelt. The bookworms behind Yes on Proposition 1 are drowning their worries at Reuben Brews downtown (a third of the library’s budget depends on the passage of this levy). Rep. Gerry Pollet is jumping between neighborhood block parties.

Not everyone is having a big to-do. Sen. Jamie Pedersen has opted for a quiet night at home with his family. Perhaps he is baking cookies with his four Viking sons. Toshiko Hasegawa and Will Dreher have also said they’re only having parties with family and volunteers.

If you haven’t voted, off with you. And for the love of God, please do not slip your ballot into a mailbox. You may as well shred it because it won’t be counted!

The post LIVE: The Stranger’s 2026 Primary Election Night Extravaganza appeared first on The Stranger.