Voters in Southwest Washington are on their way to unseating four Republican incumbents in the state’s competitive 17^th and 18^th Legislative Districts, unofficial election results show.

The two districts contain four state house seats currently held by Republicans, which Democrats targeted this year amid heavy spending by PACs aiming to keep them under GOP control.

District 17, Position 1

Preliminary results as of Tuesday night show Democrat Ben Christly leading Republican incumbent Kevin Waters in the sprawling 17^th Legislative District that stretches from Vancouver through Skamania County and portions of Klickitat County.

Christly said it was too early to declare victory but said the initial results looked good.

“I think it was combination of really good candidates,” Christly said. “I think everybody had solid messages of how they wanted to fight for working families.”

In the final days before the Nov. 3 election, outside spending by Republican-aligned PACs against Christly’s campaign totaled nearly $600,000 — more than all but one other non-Congressional race in Washington state, according to records from the state’s Public Disclosure Commission.

District 17, Position 2

Democrat Diana Perez was leading Republican incumbent David Stuebe in the position 2 seat in the 17^th Legislative District. Perez, a Vancouver city councilor, was leading by 16 percentage points according to initial results Tuesday night.

District 18, Position 1

Democrat Randi Knott was leading Republican incumbent Stephanie McClintock for the first position of District 18, according to initial results.

District 18 is located in north Clark County. It includes the City of Battle Ground. McClintock was seeking her third term as state representative. Knott, her Democratic challenger, has a public policy background and serves on the Clark County Developmental Disabilities Advisory Board.

District 18, Position 2

Democrat Deken Letinich is leading the race for position 2 in the 18^th Legislative District against Republican incumbent John Ley. Letinich has a deep background in Clark County’s labor community. Ley, a former commercial airline pilot and vocal critic of the I-5 Interstate Bridge replacement, was seeking his second term as Representative.

With the four candidates leading, House democrats in Washington are inching closer to a supermajority, according to Shasti Conrad, the Democratic party chair.

“This is unprecedented,” Conrad said Tuesday night. She said it was years since her party was in control of the 17th and 18th districts.

Each race was also among the top 10 statewide for outside campaign spending. According to campaign finance records, Republican-aligned political action committees spent between $400,000 and $600,000 defending each incumbent’s seat ahead of the election, nearly five times more than Democratic supporters.

News Source : https://www.opb.org/article/2026/11/03/southwest-washington-17th-18th-legislative-districts-results/