Washington's_9th_congressional_district
Washington's 9th congressional district
U.S. House district for Washington
Washington's 9th congressional district encompasses a long, somewhat narrow area in Western Washington, through the densely populated central Puget Sound region, from Auburn and Federal Way in the south to parts of Seattle and Bellevue in the north. Since 1997, the 9th district has been represented in the U.S. House of Representatives by Adam Smith, a Democrat from Bellevue.
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Established after the 1990 U.S. census, the 9th district was originally drawn as a "fair fight" district. The first representative from the 9th district, Mike Kreidler (D), was defeated after one term by Republican Randy Tate; Tate, in turn, was defeated after one term by Smith. Since being first elected in 1996, Smith's moderate voting record and a strong Democratic trend in the Puget Sound region turned the formerly contentious district into a fairly safe Democratic seat.
Al Gore and John Kerry each carried the 9th district, with 53% in 2000 and 2004, respectively. Barack Obama won the district in 2008, with 59% of the vote.
In 2011, the state began the process of redistricting in response to population changes determined by the 2010 census. In the final report by the bipartisan redistricting commission issued in January 2012, the 9th district shifted to the north. The new district covered Bellevue, Southeast Seattle, and Mercer Island, but only went as far south as the southern tip of Commencement Bay in Tacoma. As of the 2022 redistricting, it is a majority-minority district and the second-most Democratic district in the state; only the neighboring 7th district, covering the rest of Seattle, is more Democratic.
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