[1] Because Washington has a blanket primary system, parties did not nominate their own candidates to run in the general election.

The top two candidates in the August 2 nonpartisan blanket primary then advanced to the general election.

Murray received 52.2% of the primary vote and advanced to face Republican Tiffany Smiley.

[3] Despite the predictions of a close race, Murray defeated Smiley and won re-election to a sixth term by a 14.5-point margin.

Although this was a significantly larger margin of victory for Murray than what was expected, it was fairly consistent with Washington's partisan lean.