Washington State Elects GOP Senator
Rebounding from a 1986 loss, former Sen. Slade Gorton of Washington Tuesday defeated Rep. Mike Lowry to claim the U.S. Senate seat being relinquished by Dan Evans and keep it in Republican hands.
Michael S. Dukakis narrowly defeated George Bush to take Washington’s 10 electoral votes and Democratic Gov. Booth Gardner was reelected in a landslide.
Dukakis had 51% of the vote to 49% for Bush.
Gorton, who lost the state’s other Senate seat to Democrat Brock Adams two years ago, took 51% of the vote to 49% for Lowry, a feisty liberal Democrat. Gardner, a popular first-term Democrat, easily defeated state Rep. Bob Williams, an evangelical conservative who found Gardner an elusive target.
In Wyoming, Republican Sen. Malcolm Wallop won a third term early today, but his margin over Democratic challenger John P. Vinich was so slim that the votes may be recounted.
With all precincts reporting, Wallop had 90,330 votes, for 50%, and Vinich, a state senator, had 89,161 votes, also 50%.
Bush easily carried Wyoming to take the state’s three electoral votes.
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