(The Center Square) – With early voting underway Friday in Washington, the race featuring 16 candidates competing for five seats on the state Supreme Court has already reported $2 million in contributions ahead of the Aug. 4 primary election day.
As of Thursday, the candidates had reported nearly $2.1 million in campaign contributions and roughly $736,000 in spending with approximately $1.4 million in cash on hand, though that may change soon.
According to the Public Disclosure Commission, the total contributions exceed those of prior Supreme Court election years leading up to the August primary. With 16 candidates campaigning for five seats, 2026 could break the 2016 record of $2.79 million spent between seven campaigns for three positions.
The unusually high-profile election comes as a lawsuit challenging the new state income tax is expected to eventually reach the Supreme Court in the next year or so.
While supporters argue it only targets high earners, opponents say that upholding it could lead to a progressive income tax on all Washingtonians.
Voters will also have an opportunity to repeal the new income tax with a ballot initiative in November.
Supreme Court elections are usually low-information, voter-turnout affairs, so The Center Square has published question and answer articles with every candidate on the primary ballot who agreed to be interviewed.
Four of the races will appear on the Aug. 4 primary ballot, but only the top two candidates in each will advance to the Nov. 3 general election.
Position 4 advanced to November election automatically, since state Court of Appeals Judge Ian Birk and King County Superior Court Judge Sean O’Donnell are the only two running for the position.
Skipping the primary ballot ultimately required the candidates to refund their donors roughly $37,000.
Position 5 has attracted the most money so far, with roughly $650,500 in contributions among the four candidates, followed by Position 4, where Birk has reported more than anyone else at nearly $349,000.
Justice Theo Angelis, who holds Position 5, is the funding leader in terms of the 14 candidates on the Aug. 4 ballot, having raised about $309,000 so far. What appears to be his strongest challenger, retired Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Dave Larson, currently leads in spending at about $202,500.
Angelis joined the bench in April after being appointed by Gov. Bob Ferguson, joining Justice Colleen Melody, whom he had appointed just a few months earlier as well.
While neither had served as a judge, they came with strong Democratic establishment support, with Melody having raised $209,500 so far.
Some of their challengers have accused Ferguson of essentially stacking the court ahead of the state income tax challenge eventually reaching the bench. The Center Square questioned both appointees and published an in-depth report on the issue, including interviews with each of their opponents.
Several of the nonpartisan candidates challenging the incumbents on the ballot this year have argued that the current bench is ideologically driven and that the integrity of the judiciary is at stake.
The August primary will narrow the field to eight candidates between the four positions on that ballot, but 10 will appear in November after including Birk and O’Donnell.
The Northwest Progressive Institute polled voters in May and found that the vast majority of them are still undecided across all five races.
That means campaign funding can still play a role in the races.
“Dollars do matter. They do. I’m not naive to that, but I do believe that it’s most important that the voters make an informed decision,” Thurston County Superior Court Judge Sharonda Amamilo, who is running against Angelis, Larson and appellate attorney Greg Miller, told The Center Square in June.
Ballot boxes close at 8 p.m. on Aug. 4.