Sen. Mark Mullet after WA primary: ‘I thought there were more moderate Democrats’

As The Associated Press (AP) noted in its coverage ahead of the Washington primary election, Democratic State Sen. Mark Mullet of Issaquah had garnered attention as a moderate gubernatorial candidate who would bring the perspective of a small business owner.

Unfortunately, that attention and perspective didn’t translate to a large enough number of votes on Election Day Tuesday as Democratic candidate and current Attorney General Bob Ferguson former U.S. representative and King County Sheriff Dave Reichert, a Republican, breezed into the general election for a showdown in November.

According to the latest voting results released Thursday, Ferguson received 45% of the vote, Reichert secured 28%, Republican Semi Bird was at just under 10% and Mullet was just below 6%.

Washington voting results: Check out the numbers in the key area races

During an appearance on “The Jason Rantz Show” on AM 770 KTTH Wednesday, Mullet acknowledged the difficulty of being a moderate Democrat during this election cycle.

“Definitely (being) the moderate Democrat or (being) the moderate in general, I think the lane is very narrow,” Mullet said. “If I’m being really honest, it’s a it’s a tough fight. And so I don’t regret having the fight. I wanted to make sure voters had that that choice, and I feel like I gave them that choice and, and it is what it is.”

Mullet added later he knew he was” living in mathematical reality going into the results,” but he thought he would have seen more voter support for a moderate candidate.

“It’s tough. I definitely am taking on the Democratic political establishment and, and I will be honest, I thought there (were) more moderate Democrats out there,” Mullet told host Jason Rantz Wednesday. “I thought that I know in Olympia, we’re very few and far between, but it was a rough night.”

From Jason Rantz: Semi Bird crashes and burns, may bring down Washington GOP with him

Mullet predicts a Ferguson win in November

When Rantz asked Mullet whether Reichert has a chance to beat Ferguson in the upcoming general election race, Mullet gave the Democrat Ferguson the advantage and he was blunt his assessment.

“I just think it’s going to be a really tough path and … that’s a combination of factors, a combination of (Trump at the top of the ticket. I mean, this is when I look around just the electoral map,” Mullet said. “It looks like ’24 … could be just a repeat of what we’ve seen since Trump came on the political scene, which is just larger democratic majorities in Olympia.”

He later reiterated that he thinks Trump being on the ballot doesn’t help Republicans in Washington.

“I think that Trump playbook just hasn’t played well in Washington for the Republicans down ballot,” Mullet said. “And my fear is that happens again in this cycle this November.”

From Ron Dotzauer: ‘Don’t read too much into primary election results’

Who is Mullet going to vote for this fall?

When Rantz asked Mullet which gubernatorial candidate he was going to vote for this fall, Mullet steered clear of the query, also noting he wasn’t going to endorse any particular candidate at this time either.

“I’m definitely not doing any public endorsements in the race at this time and and that’s not going to change, but I appreciate you asking me the question,” Mullet said. “I’ve learned to this campaign cycle (that) sometimes you just, you answer what you want to answer.”

Head here or click on the player below to listen to the entire interview with State Sen. Mark Mullet on “The Jason Rantz Show.”

Steve Coogan is the lead editor of MyNorthwest. You can read more of his stories here. Follow Steve on X, or email him here.