1980Flipped from DemocraticFinal results
1980 election for Washington Governor
Governor · Washington
John D. Spellman (R) won with 56.7% of the vote, defeating Jim McDermott (D) by 13.4 points, a seat Democrats won last time.
John D. SpellmanRepublican · winner
56.7%981,083
Jim McDermottDemocrat
43.3%749,813
1,730,896 votes
Source: Algara, Carlos; Amlani, Sharif (Harvard Dataverse)Updated Oct 5, 2026, 12:23 AM ET
The seat over time
D − R margin in this seat's races around 1980
Races before and after
Source: Algara, Carlos; Amlani, Sharif (Harvard Dataverse)Updated Oct 5, 2026, 12:23 AM ET