State reference

How does government work in Washington?

Washington’s legislature, governor, courts, local governments and election offices, with a source for every fact.

Facts checked November 5, 2026. Anything we could not verify from a source is left out rather than guessed. Rules change, so confirm deadlines with the official election office.

147

State legislators

Legislature

4 years

Governor’s term

Governor

Counties

Local

Seats in the US House

Clerk of the House

Foundation: Washington State Constitution source
In effect since: 1889 source

What may surprise you here

Washington uses a top-two primary, so the two candidates with the most votes advance to the general election regardless of party. source
Voters hold two reserved powers, the initiative and the referendum, written into the legislative article of the constitution. source

Legislature

Name: Washington State Legislature source
Senate: seats: 49 source
Senate: term in years: 4 source
House of Representatives: seats: 98 source
House of Representatives: term in years: 2 source
Term limits: None (statutory term limits were struck down by the state supreme court in 1998) source

Structure set by: Washington Constitution, Article II, section 1.

Governor and statewide offices

Term in years: 4 source
Term limit: None source
Next regular election: 2028 source
Lieutenant governor: separate election source
Attorney general: elected source
Attorney general’s term in years: 4 source
Secretary of state: elected source
Secretary of state’s term in years: 4 source

Courts

Highest court: Supreme Court source
Intermediate appeals court: Court of Appeals source
Main trial court: Superior courts source
How high-court judges reach the bench: nonpartisan election source

Local government

Called: county source
How many: 39 source
Cities and towns: The Census Bureau counted 281 municipal governments in Washington in 2022 and no township governments. source
Schools: The Census Bureau counted 295 independent school district governments in Washington in 2022. source

Elections

Chief election official: Secretary of State source
Who runs elections locally: County elections offices source
Primary type: top-two source
Regular governor elections fall in: even source
Citizen initiatives: yes source

Who holds these offices

As of November 5, 2026. Terms of the current Congress run to January 3, 2027. Winners of the November 3, 2026 elections are not shown until results are certified and they take office.

Governor: Bob Ferguson Democratic, in office since January 15, 2025. source

US senators for Washington
Senator	Party	Seat	Senator since	Current term ends
Maria Cantwell	Democratic	Class 1	January 3, 2001	January 3, 2031
Patty Murray	Democratic	Class 3	January 5, 1993	January 3, 2029

Members of the House for Washington
Seat	Member	Party	In the House since
District 1	Suzan K. DelBene	Democratic	November 13, 2012
District 2	Rick Larsen	Democratic	January 3, 2001
District 3	Marie Gluesenkamp Perez	Democratic	January 3, 2023
District 4	Dan Newhouse	Republican	January 6, 2015
District 5	Michael Baumgartner	Republican	January 3, 2025
District 6	Emily Randall	Democratic	January 3, 2025
District 7	Pramila Jayapal	Democratic	January 3, 2017
District 8	Kim Schrier	Democratic	January 3, 2019
District 9	Adam Smith	Democratic	January 7, 1997
District 10	Marilyn Strickland	Democratic	January 3, 2021

Boundaries for the 119th Congress, simplified from the Census Bureau cartographic boundary file. For an exact address, use the House lookup.

Who has held each Senate seat since 2001

Each band is one person in the seat. The line marks November 2026; anything to its right is the rest of a current term. Dates through 2026 come from the congress-legislators public dataset, whose current members are matched against the Senate’s own roster on every build.

Senate seat, Class 1