1 candidate holds commanding lead in 8th District Senate race in Tri-Cities
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Tri-City 2022 Election Coverage
The latest news and updates on the 2022 primary and general elections in the Tri-Cities.
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Republican Matt Boehnke and Independent Ronni Batchelor were leading Tuesday night in the primary race for an open state Senate seat representing the western part of the Tri-Cities.
Early election night results showed both candidates with a sizeable lead over Republican Alex Barrington, who had just 9%, or 1,454 votes.
If results hold, Boehnke and Batchelor will advance to the Nov. 8 general election.
The race is for the open, lone seat representing Washington’s 8th District in the state Senate.
Boehnke, a two-term Republican already representing the district in the House, had a commanding lead with 67% of the initial votes counted, or 10,696.
Before going to the Legislature, Boehnke served on the Kennewick City Council. He’s also a retired U.S. Army colonel and small business owner. He currently heads Columbia Basin College’s Cyber Security Department.
Boehnke said in a Wednesday morning Facebook post that he was “honored and humbled by yesterday’s results.”
Batchelor, who works in mental health care as a crisis assistant, had 3,780 ballots, or 24% on Tuesday night.
She works with Lourdes outreach program and is embedded in local police departments.
Close to 16,000 ballots have been counted so far in the race.
The 8th District includes all of Richland and south Richland, as well as large swaths of west Pasco and west Kennewick.
The district was redrawn last year as part of the nonpartisan decennial redistricting effort.
There’s still plenty of ballots left to count, according to local auditor’s offices. An updated ballot count is expected Wednesday afternoon.
Both Benton and Franklin counties expect to have more than 10,000 more ballots each to count in coming days.
Election results are final on Aug. 16.
This story was originally published August 2, 2022 at 9:03 PM.
