The 2000 Washington gubernatorial election was held on November 7, 2000. Incumbent Democratic governor

Gary Locke Gary Faye Locke (born January 21, 1950) is an American politician and diplomat serving as the interim president of Bellevue College, the largest of the institutions that make up the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system. Locke se ...

defeated the Republican candidate John Carlson for his second term in a landslide. , this was the earliest gubernatorial election in Washington in which both candidates are currently still living. This is the last time a Democratic nominee for governor outperformed the Democratic nominee for president in Washington. This would also be the last gubernatorial election in Washington in which the margin of victory was in double digits and in which any counties in

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the Hanf ...

voted for a Democrat until

Jay Inslee Jay Robert Inslee (; born February 9, 1951) is an American politician, lawyer, and economist who has served as the 23rd governor of Washington since 2013. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as a member of the U.S. House of Represen ...

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

landslide victory.

Primary election

Candidates

Democratic

, incumbent

Governor of Washington The governor of Washington is the head of government of Washington and commander-in-chief of the state's military forces.WA Const. art. III, § 2. The officeholder has a duty to enforce state laws,WA Const. art. III, § 5. the power to either a ...

* Meta Heller

Republican

* John Carlson, talk radio host on KVI-AM * Harold Hochstatter, state senator

Libertarian

* Steve W. LePage

Results

General election

Candidates

(D), incumbent

* John Carlson (R), talk radio host on KVI-AM

Debates

Complete video of debate
September 28, 2000 -

C-SPAN Cable-Satellite Public Affairs Network (C-SPAN ) is an American cable and satellite television network that was created in 1979 by the cable television industry as a nonprofit public service. It televises many proceedings of the United States ...

Complete video of debate
October 11, 2000 -

Complete video of debate
October 23, 2000 -

Results

Counties that flipped from Republican to Democratic

* Clallam (largest city:

Port Angeles Port Angeles ( ) is a city and county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. With a population of 19,960 as of the 2020 census, it is the largest city in the county. The population was estimated at 20,134 in 2021. The city's har ...

) * Pend Oreille (Largest city: Newport)

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

* Kittias (Largest city:

Ellensburg Ellensburg is a city in and the county seat of Kittitas County, Washington, United States. It is located just east of the Cascade Range near the junction of Interstate 90 and Interstate 82. The population was 18,666 at the 2020 census. and wa ...

)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington Gubernatorial Election, 2000

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from S ...

2000 United States gubernatorial elections

Gubernatorial A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of politica ...