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2016 United States Senate election in Washington

The 2016 United States Senate election in Washington was held on November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of Washington. Incumbent Democratic Senator Patty Murray ran for re-election to a fifth term, and won by a significant margin, winning 59% of the vote, to Republican Chris Vance's 41%.

The election took place concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections.

Under Washington's nonpartisan blanket primary law, all candidates appear on the same ballot, regardless of party. In the August 2 primary, voters had the choice to vote for any candidate, regardless of their party affiliation. The top two finishers—regardless of party—would advance to the general election in November, even if a candidate managed to receive a majority of the votes cast in the primary election. California is the only other state with this system, a so-called "top two primary" (Louisiana has a similar "jungle primary", but there is no general election if one candidate receives 50% plus one vote of all votes cast in the primary).

As of 2024, this is the last time a Democrat running statewide for federal office has won Grays Harbor and Mason counties.

Thor Amundson
Phil Cornell, retired communications technician
Patty Murray, incumbent U.S. senator
Mohammed Said
Eric John Makus
Uncle Mover
Scott Nazarino
Chris Vance, former state representative, former member of the King County Council, and former chair of the Washington State Republican Party
Bill Bryant, Seattle Port Commissioner (running for governor)
Jaime Herrera Beutler, U.S. representative (running for re-election)
Andy Hill, state senator
Steve Litzow, state senator (running for re-election)
Rob McKenna, former attorney general of Washington and nominee for governor in 2012
Cathy McMorris Rodgers, U.S. representative (running for re-election)
Dave Reichert, U.S. representative (running for re-election)
Dino Rossi, former state senator, nominee for governor of Washington in 2004 and 2008, and nominee for U.S. Senate in 2010
Pano Churchill (Lincoln Caucus)
Ted Cummings (independent)
Zach Haller (independent)
Chuck Jackson (independent)
Donna Rae Lands (Conservative)
Mike Luke (Libertarian)
Jeremy Teuton (System Reboot)
Alex Tsimerman (StandUpAmerica)
Sam Wright (Human Rights)

Party	Candidate	Votes	%
	Democratic	745,421	53.82%
	Republican	381,004	27.51%
	Republican	57,825	4.18%
	Democratic	46,460	3.35%
	Republican	41,542	3.00%
	Libertarian	20,988	1.52%
	Democratic	13,362	0.96%
	Independent	11,472	0.83%
	Independent	11,028	0.80%
	Independent	10,751	0.78%
	Republican	8,569	0.62%
	Independent	7,991	0.58%
	Democratic	7,906	0.57%
	Independent	6,318	0.46%
	Independent	5,150	0.37%
	Independent	5,092	0.37%
	Independent	4,117	0.30%
1,384,996	100.00%

Dates	Location	Murray	Vance	Link
October 16, 2016	Seattle, Washington	Participant	Participant
October 23, 2016	Redmond, Washington	Participant	Participant

Source	Ranking	As of
The Cook Political Report	Safe D	November 2, 2016
Sabato's Crystal Ball	Safe D	November 7, 2016
Rothenberg Political Report	Safe D	November 3, 2016
Daily Kos	Safe D	November 8, 2016
Real Clear Politics	Safe D	November 7, 2016

Poll source	Date(s)administered	Samplesize	Margin oferror	PattyMurray (D)	ChrisVance (R)	Other	Undecided
SurveyMonkey	November 1–7, 2016	1,451	± 4.6%	59%	37%	—	4%
Insights West	November 4–6, 2016	402	± 4.9%	53%	37%	—	11%
SurveyMonkey	October 31–November 6, 2016	1,292	± 4.6%	59%	37%	—	4%
SurveyMonkey	October 28–November 3, 2016	944	± 4.6%	61%	36%	—	3%
SurveyUSA	October 31–November 2, 2016	667	± 3.9%	53%	41%	—	6%
SurveyMonkey	October 27–November 2, 2016	807	± 4.6%	61%	36%	—	3%
SurveyMonkey	October 26–November 1, 2016	698	± 4.6%	61%	36%	—	3%
SurveyMonkey	October 25–31, 2016	745	± 4.6%	61%	36%	—	3%
Elway Poll	October 20–22, 2016	502	± 4.5%	58%	34%	—	8%
KCTS 9/YouGov	October 6–13, 2016	750	± 4.4%	55%	39%	—	16%
Strategies 360/KOMO News	September 29–October 3, 2016	500	± 4.4%	57%	36%	—	6%
Emerson College	September 25–26, 2016	700	± 3.6%	48%	41%	3%	8%
Insights West	September 12–14, 2016	505	± 4.4%	46%	25%	2%	27%
Elway Poll	August 9–13, 2016	500	± 4.5%	52%	34%	—	14%
Elway Poll	April 14–17, 2016	503	± 3.5%	50%	32%	—	18%
Elway Poll	October 13–15, 2015	500	± 4.5%	44%	23%	—	33%

Party	Candidate	Votes	%	.mw-parser-output .tooltip-dotted{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}±%
	Democratic	1,913,979	59.01%	+6.65%
	Republican	1,329,338	40.99%	−6.65%
3,243,317	100.00%	N/A

Murray won seven of ten congressional districts, including one that elected a Republican.

District	Murray	Vance
56.25%	43.75%	Suzan DelBene
61.31%	38.69%	Rick Larsen
49.46%	50.54%	Jaime Herrera Beutler
44.13%	55.87%	Dan Newhouse
47.84%	52.16%	Cathy McMorris Rodgers
58.15%	41.85%	Derek Kilmer
82.62%	17.38%	Jim McDermott
Pramila Jayapal
51.67%	48.33%	Dave Reichert
72.08%	27.92%	Adam Smith
57.71%	42.29%	Denny Heck

2016 United States Senate elections

Official campaign websites (archived)

Patty Murray (D) for Senate
Chris Vance (R) for Senate

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