2026 Washington Supreme Court Forum: Meet the candidates

Name: 2026 Washington Supreme Court Forum: Meet the candidates
Start: 2026-04-27T18:00:00-07:00
Location: 402 S 3rd St, Yakima, WA

Schedule

Mon, 27 Apr, 2026 at 06:00 pm

UTC-07:00

Location

402 S 3rd St, Yakima, WA | Yakima, WA

Judges from the municipal court to State Supreme Court face voters about every four years. Oftentimes they run unopposed, so the voters' choice is easy.
But in the Primary Election this summer, five of the nine Justice positions on the State Supreme Court will be on the ballot. Only one will be a Justice who has served a previous full term. Two are recent appointees by Governor Ferguson, and their challengers. And two positions are open seats with three candidates to choose from.
The Yakima County Democratic Party is holding a candidate forum for these Court races on Monday, April 27th, starting at 6:30 pm. Locals in Yakima may gather at the party office, 403 S. 3rd Street, starting at 6pm, but anyone may view the Forum live on-line via ZOOM. The forum will be moderated by Jessica Levin, Director of the Center for Civil Rights
and Critical Justice at Seattle University School of Law.
For on-line attendance, register for the forum and get further information on the races at this link:
https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_mFTmDrq7QLmLQC5n-7dxeg
The election of Supreme Court Justices is a bit quirky. And voters need to pay attention in the Primary. If a candidate earns more than 50% of the vote in the Primary, they advance to the General Election ballot unopposed. If there are only two candidates for a position, this 50%-plus-1 threshold will inevitably be reached, and the decision is
made in the Primary.
The other quirky thing about judge elections is that the candidates must maintain non-partisan status and they can't talk about any issue that is currently or likely to be before the court. So they can't talk about the
Millionaires Tax just passed by the Legislature, for example. Other Supreme Court cases recently have involved Capital Gains tax, funding for public education, gun regulations, land use and zoning regulations, and more.