Dixit defeats Bingle, completing a progressive sweep in Spokane council elections

The progressive candidate for City Council in northeast Spokane eked out a win in an almost-final count posted Monday.

Sarah Dixit, organizing director for Pro-Choice Washington, captured 50.6% of the vote, winning by 156 votes. Incumbent Jonathan Bingle, who lost a bid for Congress last year as a Republican, won 49.4%.

The race is outside requirements for a recount, which would occur if the margin shrank to within a half percentage point.

The news was still setting in for Dixit when reached by phone Monday night.

“It still feels very surreal just because the process has been over a week long waiting for the results,” she said of her “underdog” nail-biter victory.

She looks forward to being the youngest person on the council, saying voters wanted someone representative of themselves.

“I think my story is something they can find commonality in. For me it’s not just about what end of the political spectrum someone belongs to, but the lived experience someone has,” Dixit said.

Bingle conceded Monday evening in a phone call with The Spokesman-Review. Sounding a bit surprised, he said, “Life goes on.”

“We’ll move on, continue to do what we can do to make Spokane a better place,” he said.

He said he doesn’t yet have any insights on his political future, but would make that decision after talking with his wife.

“For now, what I’m going to do is go home, enjoy my wife and three young children and take a breath,” he said.

Progressives will have one more voice to add to their existing supermajority after Dixit’s win, leaving Michael Cathcart as the lone conservative.

Spokane County Elections manager Mike McLaughlin said after Monday’s count that all votes eligible to be counted have been tabulated. The next tabulation will happen Nov. 24. People whose ballots were set aside because they forgot to sign their ballots or their signatures did not match what’s on file can still fix their ballots. Those will be counted Nov. 24.

In the other two Spokane City Council races, incumbent Zack Zappone and former prosecutor Kate Telis, won by much larger margins.

Northeastern Spokane is the only district that has elected conservative City Council candidates in the last decade. The last remaining conservative council member, Cathcart, also represents the district.

McLaughlin said there’s only one race that is close to recount territory. Software engineer Rebecca Long has a 12 -vote lead for Cheney City Council Position 4 over recently retired Cheney firefighter Timothy Steiner. McLaughlin said if the margin shrinks to 10 or less, it would require a recount.

Jonathan Brunt contributed to this report.