Progressives and moderates dominate conservatives in local races

Progressives and moderate conservatives won big across the Inland Northwest this election season, with Spokane progressives growing their City Council majority to 6-1 while incumbent mayors in smaller conservative communities lost reelection, but not to people farther to the right politically.

According to a breakdown from the Washington Secretary of State, 1,297 ballots (out of more than 147,000 submitted) were rejected in Spokane County, mostly for arriving late, being unsigned, or because the signature does not match the signatures on file (signatures change over time, and voters with these challenged ballots can go update their signature).

SPOKANE CITY COUNCIL DISTRICT 1

After initially leading over progressive challenger Sarah Dixit on election night, conservative Spokane City Council member Jonathan Bingle’s lead in the District 1 race evaporated, with Dixit leading the tally on Friday by 53 votes, which grew to a lead of 156 on Monday for the win.

Spokane County Elections Manager Mike McLaughlin says 64 ballots were rejected in District 1, meaning Bingle cannot make up the difference. He conceded the race Monday evening.

Bingle and Dixit agree that the closeness of the race was due to her campaign’s ability to mobilize people. Dixit says she emulated what’s worked for progressive candidates in District 1 in the past, and as a community organizer she’s always seen door-knocking as the most effective strategy to get people to vote.

Dixit says many people wrote off her campaign early on, but the closeness of the results shows her campaign to represent northeast Spokane made the right decisions.

“I know Spokane loves an underdog,” she says.

DISTRICT 2

In District 2, covering south Spokane, Kate Telis beat Alejandro Barrientos by 20%. Telis attributes her large margin of victory to running a campaign she says was always honest with the public. 

Barrientos described himself as an independent Democrat during the election despite being supported by Spokane’s conservative donors and PACs, which Telis cast as “an attempt to play games with the voters.”

Telis says large independent expenditures for Barrientos by real-estate industry PACs – about $150,000 in October alone – had her nervous, but that voters were smart enough to see the advertising for what it was.

“I said money can’t buy elections a lot,” Telis says.

As for her first order of business as a City Council member, Telis says she wants to evaluate how the new anti-camping ban targeting homeless people is working and prioritize creating more shelter beds.

Barrientos did not respond to requests for comment. 

DISTRICT 3 

Voters in Spokane District 3 reelected Zack Zappone to City Council over conservative challenger Christopher Savage, who said Monday afternoon he had yet to concede despite the final ballot tabulation showing he lost by more than 8%.

“I feel it’s a real affirmation on the direction that we’re going,” Zappone says of his win.

Zappone was the sole incumbent running for council this year. He was first elected in 2021 and got a front row seat to the political gridlock in Spokane city politics between the council’s 5-2 liberal majority and former conservative Mayor Nadine Woodward. He says fighting has subsided under the city’s left-leaning mayor, Lisa Brown, and says that Dixit flipping a seat in District 1 will create even more opportunities to get things done for the city.

Savage and other conservatives running for council this year cast the election as a referendum on the city’s homelessness policy, and signed onto a plan by the Spokane Business Association that accused city leaders of being soft on crime. That strategy was undermined by the council unanimously partnering with the mayor and voting to criminalize camping in Spokane in October.

“It’s interesting they started doing enforcement on that a week before ballots dropped,” Savage says, calling the vote “politically motivated.”

While it may have cost him votes, Savage claims the council’s pivot as a victory, saying the city would not have further criminalized homelessness without election pressure from conservatives.

“We changed policy through my campaign,” he says.

Zappone disagrees with Savage’s assessment, saying his homelessness policy has been consistent since he launched his reelection campaign, and that it was the SBA that moderated its position during the election to be closer to the council majority.

Jeff DeBray, Eastern Washington director for progressive organizing group Fuse Washington, says the results in Spokane show money can’t buy elections, but that liberals still have to do better on messaging surrounding homelessness.

“I think we’ve seen the public move to the right on this,” he says.

TOGETHER SPOKANE

Voters passed the “Together Spokane” plan to raise a combined $440 million over the next 20 years to fund schools and parks development. Divided into two propositions, the parks levy passed easily with 55% voter approval, while funding for the school bond sits at 61% approval, just above the 60% required supermajority.

SMALL TOWN MAYORS

Incumbent mayors in the Inland Northwest’s smaller communities fared poorly this election.

Coeur d’Alene City Council Member Dan Gookin emerged victorious in a four-way battle for the city mayor’s office. Gookin defeated incumbent interim Mayor Woody McEvers, as well as fellow challengers John Pulsipher and Debbie Loffman.

During the election, Pulsipher sent a letter to McEvers asking him to drop out of the crowded race, intending for Gookin to do the same to unite Coeur d’Alene’s more moderate conservatives against the hard right of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee, which backed Loffman.

Neither McEvers nor Gookin dropped out, and while the vote was split, the plurality favored not Loffman, but Gookin, who won with 34% of the vote.

Post Falls’ incumbent mayor fared poorly too. Mayor Ron Jacobson placed last in the three-candidate race, behind former Police Chief Scot Haug and winner Randy Westlund. Already a Post Falls City Council member, Westlund ran on a campaign of responsibly growing the city without overburdening taxpayers.

In Cheney, challenger Elsa Martin unseated Mayor Chris Grover. The Cheney Police Guild endorsed Martin after issuing a vote of no confidence in the previous city administrator and finance department over issues related to payroll.

• by Hunter Pauli, The Inlander, Nov 13, 2025