2004 United States presidential election in Washington (state)

2004 United States presidential election in Washington (state)
	November 2, 2004
	November 2, 2004
Turnout	82.05% (of registered voters) 6.59%[1]
Kerry 50-60% 60-70%	Bush 50-60% 60-70% 70-80%
President before election; George W. Bush; Republican	Elected President ; George W. Bush; Republican

The 2004 United States presidential election in Washington took place on November 2, 2004, and was part of the 2004 United States presidential election. Voters chose 11 representatives, or electors to the Electoral College, who voted for president and vice president.

The State of Washington was won by Democratic nominee John Kerry by a 7.2% margin of victory. Prior to the election, all 12 news organizations considered this a state Kerry would win, or otherwise considered as a safe blue state. This was the last election Washington was decided by a single-digit margin, as it would vote for Democrats by double digits in the following elections.

Caucuses

2004 Washington Democratic caucuses

Campaign

Predictions

There were 12 news organizations who made state-by-state predictions of the election. Here are their last predictions before election day.[2]

D.C. Political Report: Solid Democrat
Associated Press: Solid Kerry
CNN: Kerry
Cook Political Report: Solid Democrat
Newsweek: Solid Kerry
New York Times: Solid Kerry
Rasmussen Reports: Kerry
Research 2000: Solid Kerry
Washington Post: Kerry
Washington Times: Solid Kerry
Zogby International: Kerry
Washington Dispatch: Kerry

Polling

Kerry won every single pre-election except one tie. The final 3 poll average had Kerry winning with 50% to 45%.[3]

Fundraising

Bush raised $3,263,363.[4] Kerry raised $5,337,921.[5]

Advertising and visits

Neither campaign advertised or visited this state during the fall election.[6][7]

Analysis

A solidly blue state, Washington has voted for the Democratic presidential nominee in every presidential election since 1988. Neither candidate seriously contested the state as it was viewed as a safe blue state. Like Oregon, the state is divided politically by the urban/rural divide and geographically by the Cascade Mountains. Most of the state's population resides in Western Washington along the Pacific Coast and in highly urbanized areas like Seattle; this part of the state votes overwhelmingly Democratic. The other side of the mountains in Eastern Washington is much more rural and conservative and therefore heavily Republican. While polling showed that voters trusted Bush more than Kerry on the issue of terrorism, the Iraq War and Bush's domestic policies were unpopular in the state.[8] As of the 2020 presidential election, this is the last election in which Clark County, Island County, and Skagit County voted for the Republican candidate.

Results

2004 United States presidential election in Washington (state)
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Votes	Percentage	Electoral votes
	Democratic	John Forbes Kerry	John Reid Edwards	1,510,201	52.82%	11
	Republican	George Walker Bush (Incumbent)	Richard Bruce Cheney (Incumbent)	1,304,894	45.64%	0
	Independent	Ralph Nader	Peter Camejo	23,283	0.81%	0
	Libertarian	Michael Badnarik	Richard Campagna	11,955	0.42%	0
	Constitution	Michael Peroutka	Chuck Baldwin	3,922	0.14%	0
	Green	David Cobb	Darrell Castle	2,974	0.10%	0
	Workers World	John Parker	Teresa Gutierrez	1,077	0.04%	0
	Socialist Workers	Roger Calero	Margaret Trowe	547	0.02%	0
	Socialist Equality	Bill Van Auken	Jim Lawrence	231	0.01%	0
Totals				2,859,084	100.00%	11
Voter turnout (Voting age population)						61.7%

Results breakdown

By county

County	Kerry%	Kerry#	Bush%	Bush#	Others%	Others#
Adams	25.6%	1,315	73.2%	3,751	1.2%	61
Asotin	37.8%	3,319	60.6%	5,320	1.7%	147
Benton	32.2%	21,549	66.3%	44,350	1.5%	987
Chelan	35.6%	10,471	62.9%	18,482	1.5%	443
Clallam	46.4%	17,049	51.3%	18,871	2.3%	846
Clark	46.7%	79,538	52.0%	88,646	1.3%	2,255
Columbia	28.7%	605	69.8%	1,470	1.5%	32
Cowlitz	50.8%	21,589	47.6%	20,217	1.6%	667
Douglas	32.2%	4,306	66.6%	8,900	1.2%	166
Ferry	35.9%	1,201	60.4%	2,019	3.6%	121
Franklin	32.1%	5,188	66.6%	10,757	1.3%	214
Garfield	27.7%	365	70.8%	935	1.5%	20
Grant	29.9%	7,779	68.5%	17,799	1.6%	417
Grays Harbor	52.2%	14,583	46.0%	12,871	1.8%	499
Island	47.2%	18,216	51.2%	19,754	1.5%	589
Jefferson	62.4%	11,610	35.7%	6,650	1.9%	356
King	65.0%	580,378	33.7%	301,043	1.4%	12,113
Kitsap	51.3%	60,796	46.9%	55,608	1.7%	2,049
Kittitas	41.8%	6,731	56.3%	9,052	1.9%	301
Klickitat	43.7%	4,036	54.3%	5,016	2.0%	185
Lewis	33.1%	10,726	64.9%	21,042	2.0%	660
Lincoln	29.4%	1,706	69.1%	4,015	1.5%	90
Mason	50.8%	12,894	47.2%	11,987	2.0%	513
Okanogan	38.6%	6,309	59.0%	9,636	2.4%	397
Pacific	53.4%	5,570	44.4%	4,634	2.2%	227
Pend Oreille	37.3%	2,310	59.6%	3,693	3.1%	195
Pierce	50.5%	158,231	48.1%	150,783	1.4%	4,317
San Juan	65.3%	6,589	32.6%	3,290	2.1%	209
Skagit	48.1%	25,131	50.0%	26,139	1.8%	960
Skamania	46.0%	2,374	52.2%	2,695	1.7%	90
Snohomish	53.0%	156,468	45.5%	134,317	1.4%	4,212
Spokane	43.2%	87,490	55.1%	111,606	1.7%	3,491
Stevens	33.5%	6,822	64.0%	13,015	2.5%	503
Thurston	55.5%	62,650	42.6%	47,992	1.9%	2,147
Wahkiakum	45.7%	1,021	52.4%	1,171	1.9%	43
Walla Walla	36.0%	8,257	62.5%	14,323	1.5%	345
Whatcom	53.4%	48,268	44.6%	40,296	2.0%	1,830
Whitman	46.0%	8,287	52.2%	9,397	1.8%	328
Yakima	39.1%	28,474	59.6%	43,352	1.3%	964

By congressional district

Kerry won 6 of 9 congressional districts.[9]

District	Bush	Kerry	Representative
1st	42%	56%	Jay Inslee
2nd	47%	51%	Rick Larsen
3rd	50%	48%	Brian Baird
4th	63%	35%	Doc Hastings
5th	57%	41%	George Nethercutt
5th	57%	41%	Cathy McMorris Rodgers
6th	45%	53%	Norman D. Dicks
7th	19%	79%	Jim McDermott
8th	48%	51%	Jennifer Dunn
8th	48%	51%	Dave Reichert
9th	46%	53%	Adam Smith

Electors

Technically the voters of Washington cast their ballots for electors: representatives to the Electoral College. Washington is allocated 11 electors because it has 9 congressional districts and 2 senators. All candidates who appear on the ballot or qualify to receive write-in votes must submit a list of 11 electors, who pledge to vote for their candidate and his or her running mate. Whoever wins the majority of votes in the state is awarded all 11 electoral votes. Their chosen electors then vote for president and vice president. Although electors are pledged to their candidate and running mate, they are not obligated to vote for them. An elector who votes for someone other than his or her candidate is known as a faithless elector.

The electors of each state and the District of Columbia met on December 13, 2004, to cast their votes for president and vice president. The Electoral College itself never meets as one body. Instead the electors from each state and the District of Columbia met in their respective capitols.

The following were the members of the Electoral College from the state. All 11 were pledged for Kerry/Edwards:

David Peterson
Mary Ervin
Valeria Ogden
Patsy Whitefoot
Larry Armstrong
Ken Bumgarner
Richard Kelley
Sarah Chandler
Greg Markley
Alan Johanson
Mary Crosby

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.

[1] Secretary of State: Kim Wyman. "Voter Turnout by Election". www.sos.wa.gov. Retrieved 2020-05-25.

[2] ttp://www.dcpoliticalreport.com/members/2004/Pred2.htm#NW%5B%5D

[3] ttp://uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/GENERAL/CAMPAIGN/2004/polls.php?fips=53

[4] ttp://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/george_w_bush.asp?cycle=04

[5] ttp://www.campaignmoney.com/political/campaigns/john_f_kerry.asp?cycle=04

[6] ttp://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/special/president/tracking/

[7] ttp://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004/special/president/campaign.ads/

[8] ttp://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2004//pages/results/states/WA/P/00/epolls.0.html

[9] ttp://www.swingstateproject.com/diary/4161/