On Washington’s Primary Election night, Jennifer Forbes of Poulsbo perhaps saw the greatest victory in the state.
She led the pack of four judicial candidates all vying for Superior Court Judge Position 7.
“It was overwhelming,” Forbes said in response to seeing the initial tallies come in.
“My first reaction was joy,” she added. “We worked so hard.”
Forbes collected 49.2 percent of the vote on Election Night.
Her closest opponent, Bainbridge Island’s Karen Klein, was able to garner 19.6 percent of the vote (5,910 votes).
Under the state’s top two primary, Forbes and Klein will advance to the General Election, while Rob MacDermid and Bill Houser will watch from the sidelines.
Forbes was able to amass her staggering 49.2 percent standing with 14,847 votes.
While the numbers are impressive, they are also significant. Should Forbes take 50 percent of the votes in the primary, she will automatically take the judicial position in advance of the November election.
Forbes credited her opponents in the race for working hard as well, but she noted her campaign’s ability to strike a chord with the community.
“Running for judge is very difficult,” Forbes said. “You don’t have a platform to galvanize people with, so it’s important to have that community connection so people know who you are.”
She said that her message was only part of the equation of her success.
“I have a lot of experience,” she said. “I worked for 10 years, very hard, to make sure I had the right experience for this job and I’m also very involved in the community.”
“My experience and my community involvement paid off,” Forbes added.
Klein said she was happy to advance in the race.
“I’m very excited and feeling very confident. We worked really hard,” she said.
“I talked to voters and they were very supportive and I feel very optimistic,” Klein added.
Klein spent Election Night at home, watching election returns with her family and supporters.
She said her campaign was ready to reset for the General Election.
“It’s like the diving preliminaries,” she said, striking an Olympic theme.
“It’s a new game. You start over.”
Review writer Brian Kelly contributed to this report.
