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Endorses Larson

The race

Washington Supreme Court Position 5 is a special election on November 3, 2026, for the remaining two years of Justice Barbara Madsen's term; Madsen, the first woman elected to this court, retired effective April 3, 2026, and Governor Bob Ferguson appointed Theo Angelis to the seat in March 2026. The August 4 top-two primary narrowed a four-candidate field to two: Angelis finished first with 623,396 votes (35.84%), Dave Larson advanced second with 559,629 votes (32.17%), and Thurston County Superior Court Judge Sharonda Amamilo (21.33%) and health-law appellate lawyer Greg Miller (10.44%) were eliminated. Only Angelis and Larson are on your November ballot. The race is officially nonpartisan; alignment below is derived from appointing authority, endorsers, and career record, disclosed as such.

Theo Angelis — Incumbent justice (appointed). Angelis is a Seattle litigator whom Ferguson appointed to this court in March 2026 — the first Washington justice of Middle Eastern descent. His endorsers are the Democratic establishment nearly whole: Governor Ferguson, Lt. Governor Denny Heck, former Governor Christine Gregoire, several sitting justices, Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen and sixteen other state senators, House Speaker Laurie Jinkins and nineteen other state representatives, King County Executive Girmay Zahilay, Planned Parenthood, Third Act, and The Stranger. (The Seattle Times endorsed the eliminated Amamilo in the primary.) His record as a justice is months long and, for grading purposes, unproven.

Dave Larson — Challenger. Larson is a former Federal Way municipal court judge who has run for this court before — in 2024, 2020, 2016, and 2000. He is recommended by the Washington State Republican Party and endorsed by the Forward Party, former Republican Secretary of State Sam Reed, and former New Jersey Governor Christine Todd Whitman and Andrew Yang in their Forward Party capacities. His candidacy runs on judicial experience at the trial level and on returning to the court a voice outside the appointment pipeline: both 2026 special-election incumbents reached the bench by gubernatorial appointment months before facing voters.

Pros and cons

Angelis: Credits: A practicing Seattle litigator elevated with the backing of most of the state's legal-political establishment, including several justices he now sits with; first place in a four-way primary; a historic first appointment. Dirt and debits: He is a Ferguson appointee of months' standing with no proven bench record at the supreme court level — unproven, which we record as such; his endorsement file is a single-party establishment file (the governor who appointed him, the Democratic legislative leadership, Planned Parenthood, The Stranger), which under our doctrine is alignment evidence, and it points one way; nothing in the retrieved record shows a restraint ruling or a break with that establishment.

Larson: Credits: Actual judicial service as a Federal Way municipal court judge — he has run a courtroom, which his opponent had not done at the appellate level before appointment; recommendations from the state Republican Party and the Forward Party and from a former Republican secretary of state — a file wider than a party line; persistence across five candidacies over 26 years is, at minimum, documented commitment to this court. Dirt and debits: Those same five candidacies are the debit column — voters declined to elect him in 2000, 2016, 2020, and 2024, and a perennial candidacy is a record fact, not an insult; municipal court is the lowest trial tier, so his bench experience, while real, is narrower than a superior court judge's; his supreme court record is unproven, like his opponent's.

Record gaps

OUR CALL

Our call: endorse Dave Larson. Disclosed basis: in a race where neither man has a proven supreme court record, the appointment path and the endorsement files are the evidence, and they point in opposite directions. Angelis is the product of the retire-and-appoint pipeline — named by a Democratic governor months before the election, carried by that governor's party's full establishment — and nothing retrieved shows independence from it. Larson has sat as a judge, is recommended by the Washington State Republican Party, and adds Forward Party backing that suggests appeal beyond one camp. His four prior losses are priced above; a voter's earlier no is not a disqualification, and the alternative is ratifying an appointment. Under our doctrine, unproven-versus-unproven resolves on alignment evidence, and the alignment evidence favors Larson.

Vote Dave Larson.

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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