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Endorses Edwards

The race

Washington Supreme Court Position 1 is a special election on November 3, 2026, for the remaining two years of the term Justice Mary Yu left when she retired in December 2025; the seat is next up for a regular election in 2028. Governor Bob Ferguson appointed Colleen Melody to the seat in January 2026. Washington's top-two primary narrows the November ballot to two names, and the August 4 primary did exactly that: Melody finished first with 923,965 votes (52.90%), Scott Edwards advanced second with 513,394 votes (29.39%), and family-law attorney Laura Christensen Colberg was eliminated with 305,110 votes (17.47%). Only Melody and Edwards are on your November ballot. The race is officially nonpartisan; the alignment evidence below comes from appointing authority, career record, and endorsers, and we disclose that basis rather than pretend a party label exists.

The court's coming docket gives the race weight beyond one seat: the constitutionality of Washington's new high-earners ("millionaires") income tax is expected to reach this court, and both candidates' careers run straight through that fight from opposite sides.

Colleen Melody — Incumbent justice (appointed). Melody spent 11 years leading the Civil Rights Division of the Washington Attorney General's Office under then-Attorney General Bob Ferguson, after earlier work as a trial attorney in the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division. In the AG's office she worked on cases defending abortion access, challenging the first Trump administration's travel ban and family-separation policies, and protecting LGBTQ+ rights. She is a University of Washington law graduate who clerked on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. She had no judicial experience before Ferguson appointed her to this court. Her endorsers include Governor Ferguson, Attorney General Nick Brown, former Governor Jay Inslee, most of her fellow justices, Planned Parenthood, Third Act, The Seattle Times, and The Stranger.

Scott Edwards — Challenger. Edwards has practiced constitutional, appellate, and state tax law in Washington for roughly three decades, at firms including Bogle & Gates, Perkins Coie, Ballard Spahr, and, since 2025, Lane Powell. He holds an economics degree from Princeton and a law degree from the University of Washington. As a litigator he sued — unsuccessfully — to block progressive taxes on high earners, including Seattle's high-earners tax and Washington's capital gains tax, and he has challenged the new state millionaires tax. This is his first run for elected office and he has never served as a judge. The Washington State Republican Party recommended him (it co-recommended Colberg in the primary). His campaign states his priorities as deciding cases on the law and the record rather than politics or outside pressure, and applying clear, principled legal reasoning.

Pros and cons

Melody: Credits: A long, senior litigation career in civil-rights law at the state and federal level; a Ninth Circuit clerkship; the confidence of the governor who appointed her and of most sitting justices; first in the primary with a majority of the vote. Dirt and debits: Her career is an advocacy career for one side of contested questions — abortion access, challenges to federal immigration enforcement — which is proven, documented activism as a lawyer, and it is the opposite of a restrained bench record; she had never been a judge before her appointment months ago, so her judicial record is unproven by definition; and she was appointed by the same governor whose signature tax her court may judge, after serving as his top civil-rights lieutenant for a decade.

Edwards: Credits: Three decades of constitutional and appellate litigation, including tax cases argued against the state — the exact subject matter headed to this court; a stated philosophy of deciding on the law and the record; the state Republican Party's recommendation. Dirt and debits: He has never served on a bench — a supreme court seat as a first judgeship is unproven, which we record as unproven, not as a demerit; his tax challenges lost, so voters should weigh that his signature litigation position has not prevailed in court; and a career representing corporate and wealthy clients against tax measures is itself an advocacy record, narrower than Melody's but not neutral.

Record gaps

OUR CALL

Our call: endorse Scott Edwards. The disclosed basis is record and endorsers, as it must be in a nonpartisan race. Melody's file is a proven record of progressive advocacy — a decade running a civil-rights division dedicated to expanding rights claims and resisting federal enforcement — capped by appointment from the governor she served. That is a fine résumé for an advocate; under our doctrine, a Democrat-aligned jurist earns support only on a proven restrained bench record, and she has none. Edwards offers the opposite profile: a constitutional and tax litigator whose stated method is the law and the record, recommended by the state Republican Party, whose career was spent telling governments no when they exceeded their taxing authority. His lack of bench service is unproven, never a demerit. On a court about to judge the governor's tax, the litigator who sued to stop it is the check the Constitution intends.

Vote Scott Edwards.

For the complete Election 2026 breakdown — every race, claim by claim — see the full coverage on our website.

Vote early. Research your candidates. Choose the best moderates, whatever their party — no extremism from either side. And encourage your friends and family to do the same.

Sources

Election result — November 4, 2026

Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.

AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.

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