Murray Wins Sixth Term in Washington, Overcoming a Tough Challenge

Senator Patty Murray, Democrat of Washington, was elected on Tuesday to a sixth time period, in response to The Related Press, overcoming a surprisingly stiff problem from Tiffany Smiley, a Republican and political newcomer.

Ms. Murray, 72, who proudly dubbed herself a “mother in tennis sneakers” throughout her preliminary run for the Senate in 1992 and turned it into an enduring marketing campaign model, will turn into the fourth most senior senator subsequent yr. She centered her newest marketing campaign on three a long time of legislative expertise; on her management of the Senate well being, schooling, labor and pensions committee, and on a pledge to codify nationwide entry to an abortion after the Supreme Court docket overturned Roe v. Wade.

“Oh my God, thanks,” she mentioned on Tuesday night at a celebration in her state, surrounded by younger kids and relations. She elicited cheers and applause after describing her marketing campaign throughout Washington State, together with working right into a scholar she had taught as a preschool trainer.

“Voters in Washington confirmed up — thanks,” she mentioned. She vowed to push to codify Roe v. Wade, an animating problem within the blue state.

Ms. Smiley, who was mounting her first run for public workplace after years as a nurse, veterans affairs advocate and caregiver, sought to weaponize Ms. Murray’s expertise. Ms. Smiley branding herself a “new mother on the town” who might convey change to each her state and Capitol Hill. Her story of preventing to help her husband, Scotty, after he was blinded by a suicide bomb assault in Iraq, additionally resonated with Republicans within the state. She was additionally a prolific fund-raiser.

However whereas she sought to distance herself from the right-wing positions of her occasion, Ms. Smiley not often parted methods with Republicans. Early on within the marketing campaign, she dodged questions in regards to the legitimacy of President Biden’s election victory — although she later acknowledged it — and opposed abortion rights.

Democrats poured hundreds of thousands of {dollars} into promoting that concentrating on her as in lock-step with Republican extremists, whereas Ms. Murray ran a marketing campaign geared toward galvanizing the deep blue cities and suburbs of her state.

A number of high-profile surrogates, together with Vice President Kamala Harris and Senator Elizabeth Warren, traveled to Washington State to rally core Democratic voters, as Election Day approached and Ms. Murray fretted that complacency would dampen turnout.

Having clinched a sixth time period, Ms. Murray is poised to stay a senior member of Democratic management and turn into the highest Democrat on the Appropriations Committee, the highly effective committee that oversees federal spending.