43rd Legislative District
Washington’s 43rd Legislative District, which state Sen. Jamie Pedersen has represented since 2007, includes Capitol Hill, downtown, Fremont and the University District.
Earlier this month, the 43rd District Democrats endorsed Sabio-Howell, snubbing Pedersen, who has represented the district for nearly two decades. The King County Democrats also backed Sabio-Howell last week.
It all adds up to a serious challenge for Pedersen, a 57-year-old attorney and veteran of state politics, who for years skated by with little opposition. Four years ago, he ran unopposed. In 2018, he faced a token Republican who won 9.5% of the vote.
By any standard measure, Pedersen has built an impressive progressive track record. Elected Senate majority leader in 2024, he’s represented the 43rd Legislative District since 2007, first in the state House and then in the state Senate.
His win on the “millionaires tax” was the culmination of years of strategic work on changing the state’s famously regressive tax code. Over that time, he’s also led efforts to pass major LGBTQ+ rights legislation, gun restrictions and the elimination of the death penalty.
But in 2026, that might not be enough. Democratic voters are boiling mad at party leaders they view as feckless in standing up to President Donald Trump. The party’s left wing has turned out across the country, swinging against centrists and incumbents.
Last week, candidates backed by New York City’s democratic socialist Mayor Zohran Mamdani swept three Democratic congressional primaries. In Seattle last year, the party’s left flank also scored victories with the elections of Mayor Katie Wilson and City Attorney Erika Evans.
Sabio-Howell’s campaign team includes consultants who worked on those races. She has mobilized dozens of volunteers to doorbell the renter-heavy district with her argument that the state is letting the richest corporations off the hook even as working-class people struggle with rising rents and other costs.
“I could lose,” Pedersen said recently in an interview, acknowledging the dissatisfaction felt by many Democratic voters. He said a poll he commissioned this spring showed the Democratic Socialists of America have a higher approval rating in the district than the Democratic Party.
To be sure, Pedersen says he doesn’t believe the race will actually be that close if he can successfully remind voters — including many who are newer to the district — of his record.
He and his supporters scratch their heads at the notion that he’s not progressive enough.
“For people who know Olympia and come from that perspective it’s kind of head-spinning to think that after 18 months in which we passed unemployment insurance for striking workers, rent stabilization, transgender protections and the ‘millionaires tax’ … Really? What do they want exactly?” he said.
Pedersen is taking nothing for granted. He’s been out doorbelling for the first time in years. He’s also piling up campaign cash, raising about $336,000 to Sabio-Howell’s $82,000 as of Friday, according to Public Disclosure Commission filings.
In a more typical election year, as a caucus leader running in a safe Democratic district, Pedersen would ship most of his campaign dollars as “surplus” to help Democrats in swing districts. He doesn’t have that luxury this time.
Pedersen says he had a “wake-up moment” when the Senate Democrats’ campaign director, Katy Ozog, told him the caucus isn’t expecting any of that help this year.
“You need to raise a half a million dollars and spend it all on your own campaign,” he said, recounting her advice.
Pedersen retains the endorsements of most of the state’s major Democratic players, including Gov. Bob Ferguson, Attorney General Nick Brown, major labor unions, environmental groups and dozens of his legislative colleagues.
A third candidate, Heather-Marie Wilson, has also filed in the race, listing “no party preference.” She has raised no money and said in an email she’s not campaigning as visibly as her rivals while juggling her full-time job as a scientist. Her voter’s pamphlet statement criticizes Pedersen’s tax policies, accusing him of causing “an exodus of wealth, jobs and services from our state.”