The 2010 United States Senate election in Washington was held on November 2, 2010, alongside other elections to the

United States Senate The United States Senate is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the upper house, with the United States House of Representatives, U.S. House of Representatives being the lower house. Together, the Senate and ...

in other states as well as elections to the

United States House of Representatives The United States House of Representatives is a chamber of the Bicameralism, bicameral United States Congress; it is the lower house, with the U.S. Senate being the upper house. Together, the House and Senate have the authority under Artic ...

and various state and local elections. Incumbent Democratic Senator

Patty Murray Patricia Lynn Murray (, October 11, 1950) is an American politician serving in her sixth term as a United States senator from Washington (state), Washington, beginning her tenure in 1993, and is the state's Seniority in the United States Senate, ...

won re-election to a fourth term by a margin of 52.4% to 47.6% over Republican

Dino Rossi Dino John Rossi (born October 15, 1959) is an American businessman and politician who served as a Washington State senator thrice, from 1997 to 2003, in 2012, and again from 2016 to 2017. A Republican, he is a former chair of the Washington Sta ...

, who had run for governor in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

. This was the last U.S. Senate election in Washington where the margin of victory was single digits.

Primary election

Candidates

Democrats

, incumbent U.S. Senator * Charles Allen * Bob Burr

Republicans

, former

State Senator A state senator is a member of a State legislature (United States), state's senate in the bicameral legislature of 49 U.S. states, or a member of the unicameral Nebraska Legislature. History There are typically fewer state senators than there ...

and gubernatorial candidate * Paul Akers, salesman * William Chovil *

Clint Didier Clinton Bradley Didier (born April 4, 1959) is an American former professional football player who was a tight end for the Washington Redskins and Green Bay Packers of the National Football League (NFL). He won two Super Bowls with Washington. ...

, former

NFL The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The N ...

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

player * Norma Gruber * Michael Latimer

Others

Will Baker William T. Baker (born January 19, 1965) is an American perennial candidate from Tacoma, Washington. Baker, described by the ''Tacoma News Tribune'' as "a roadside flower salesman with a history of annoying elected officials," has run for Pierce ...

(Reform Party) * Schalk Leonard * Skip Mercer, professor * Mohammad Said (Centrist Party)

Polling

Results

2010 United States Senate primary election in Washington by county

General election

Candidates

The top 2 candidates from the

blanket primary The blanket primary is a system used for selecting political party candidates in a Partisan primary, primary election, used in Argentina and historically in the United States. In a blanket primary, voters may pick one candidate for each office wit ...

advanced to the general election. *

(D), incumbent U.S. Senator *

(R), former State Senator and gubernatorial candidate

Campaign

Rossi heavily criticized Murray for her support of the 2009 economic stimulus package; however, Rossi's economic promises are nearly identical to those of President Bush who asked for the stimulus. Rossi supports repealing the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health ...

and the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act. He also criticized Murray for her support for earmarks. In response, Murray said, "You bet that seniority and leadership has a big thing to do with it, but the other part of it is, I get up every day and I work hard and I believe in this and I am going to continue fighting for the community I represent." The National Rifle Association spent $414,100 supporting Rossi and opposing Murray in the 2010 senatorial contest.

Debates

Rossi offered six debates, five of which would be in-state and one nationally. Murray agreed to two debates, and only two debates were held. *

Seattle Seattle ( ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the 18th-most populous city in the United States. The city is the cou ...

KOMO-TV KOMO-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Seattle, Washington, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group alongside Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue-licensed The CW, CW affiliate ...

. *

Spokane Spokane ( ) is the most populous city in eastern Washington and the county seat of Spokane County, Washington, United States. It lies along the Spokane River, adjacent to the Selkirk Mountains, and west of the Rocky Mountain foothills, south ...

KSPS-TV KSPS-TV (channel 7) is a PBS member television station in Spokane, Washington, United States, owned by KSPS Public Television. The station's studios are located on South Regal Street in the Southgate, Spokane, Washington, Southgate neighborhood ...

and

KXLY-TV KXLY-TV (channel 4) is a television station in Spokane, Washington, United States, affiliated with American Broadcasting Company, ABC and owned by Morgan Murphy Media. Its studios are located on West Boone Avenue in Spokane, and its transmitter ...

Fundraising

Predictions

Polling

Aggregate polls

Results

Murray defeated Rossi by about 114,000 votes. King County, the home of Seattle, likely gave Murray a victory.

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

(largest city: Oak Harbor) * Pierce (largest city:

Tacoma Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, northwest of Mount ...

) * Skagit (largest city:

Mount Vernon Mount Vernon is the former residence and plantation of George Washington, a Founding Father, commander of the Continental Army in the Revolutionary War, and the first president of the United States, and his wife, Martha. An American landmar ...

) * Clallam (largest city:

Port Angeles Port Angeles ( ) is a city and county seat of Clallam County, Washington, United States. The population was 19,960 at the 2020 census, it is the most populous city in the county, as well as the most populous city on the Olympic Peninsula. T ...

) *

Mason Mason may refer to: Occupations * Mason, brick mason, or bricklayer, a worker who lays bricks to assist in brickwork, or who lays any combination of stones, bricks, cinder blocks, or similar pieces * Stone mason, a craftsman in the stone-cutti ...

(largest city:

Shelton Shelton may refer to: Places United Kingdom *Shelton, North Bedfordshire, in the parish of Dean and Shelton, Bedfordshire * Lower Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedfordshire * Upper Shelton, in the parish of Marston Moretaine, Bedf ...

) * Skamania (Largest city: Carson) * Cowlitz (Largest city: Longview) * Wahkiakum (Largest city:

Puget Island Puget Island is a 7.5 sq mi(4,785 acre; 19.365 km) island and Census-designated place (CDP) in the Columbia River in Wahkiakum County, Washington, United States. The island was named for Peter Puget, a lieutenant in the Vancouver Expeditio ...

)

By congressional district

Murray won 5 of 9 congressional districts.

Notes

References

External links

Elections and Voting
at the Washington Secretary of State
U.S. Congress candidates for Washington
at

Project Vote Smart Vote Smart, formerly called Project Vote Smart, is an American non-profit, non-partisan research organization that collects and distributes information on candidates for public office in the United States. It covers candidates and elected offic ...

Campaign contributions
from Open Secrets
2010 Washington Senate General Election: All Head-to-Head Matchups
graph of multiple polls from ''Pollster.com''
Election 2010: Washington Senate
from

Rasmussen Reports Rasmussen Reports is an American polling company founded in 2003. The company engages in political commentary and the collection, publication, and distribution of public opinion polling information. Rasmussen Reports conducts nightly tracking, ...

2010 Washington Senate Race
from

Real Clear Politics RealClearPolitics (RCP) is an American political news website and polling data aggregator. It was founded in 2000 by former options trader John McIntyre and former advertising agency account executive Tom Bevan. It features selected politi ...

2010 Washington Senate Race
from

CQ Politics ''Congressional Quarterly'', or ''CQ'', is an American publication that is part of the privately owned publishing company CQ Roll Call, which covers the United States Congress. ''CQ'' was formerly acquired by the U.K.-based The Economist Group, ...

Race profile
from

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

Editorial board endorsement interview: Senate 2010
from

The Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is an American daily newspaper based in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1891, ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region. The Seattle Time ...

Official campaign websites (Archived)
Patty Murray for U.S. Senate
incumbent
Dino Rossi for U.S. Senate
{{Washington elections 2010 Washington (state) elections

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...