As Inslee focuses on presidency, who’s leading race for Washington’s governor?
Mar 22, 2019, 8:56 AM | Updated: Mar 24, 2019, 12:52 pm
(AP)
The 2020 election may be a ways off, but with Washington State Governor Jay Inslee largely focused on his presidential bid, a recent poll looked to figure out who might replace him as governor if he opts not to run for reelection.
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While it’s too early to tell whether or not Inslee will file to run, a poll conducted by Seattle-based firm CN4 Partners sussed out a handful of replacements, and gauged their relative popularity.
Rumors have long swirled that state Attorney General Bob Ferguson might mount a campaign for governor. That being so, Ferguson — a Democrat — polled at 24.6 percent of 400 likely 2020 voters. Among just Democrats, Ferguson garnered 45 percent of support.
Coming in a distant second among Democratic candidates was King County Executive Dow Constantine at 6.2 percent (14 percent of Democrats), followed by state Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz at 1.8 percent (5 percent of Dems).
Using 2016 Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Bryant as a placeholder in the absence of a major Republican currently considering a run, Bryant netted the support of 46.3 percent of voters. 21.1 percent were unsure of their choice at this time.
One aspect of the poll worth noting: 90 percent of the voters polled were white, making up a vast majority of the sample sample size. The results of the poll were “weighted by age, gender, ethnicity, and partisan preference based on likely 2020 turnout.”
The poll was also conducted without any input or funding from any candidates mentioned in the survey. CN4 is a national Democratic consulting firm headquartered in Seattle.