VANCOUVER — On the evening of Election Day, an upstairs event room at Club Green Meadows in Vancouver was filled with red and blue balloons, a cardboard cutout of presidential candidate Donald Trump and the sound of more than 200 Clark County Republicans chanting, “Trump, Trump, Trump.”
Members of the Clark County Republican Party, supporters and other community members gathered together Tuesday night to await election results and celebrate as they watched as Trump continued to snag numerous states as ballots were being counted. The celebration continued as initial local election results for Clark County races began rolling in just after 8 p.m.
Several Clark County candidates running for positions were able to celebrate early victory as they appeared to come out ahead in the first results that were released. The room erupted into applause and yells of joy when one of the event organizers first announced that Rep. Liz Pike was ahead in her race against Kathy Gillespie. As of 8:14 p.m., Pike was in the lead with 28,332 votes (54.87 percent). Gillespie had 23,307 votes (45.13 percent).
“I’m really glad,” Pike said of the initial results. “It looks like I’m going back to Olympia. I’m glad it looks like Eileen (Quiring) won, I’m glad Vicki Kraft is ahead for the seat in the 17th District. I’m relieved that it looks like the voters want to keep me.”
As of the 8:14 p.m. results, Vicki Kraft was in a close race with opponent Sam Kim in the race for the District 17 Position 1 representative seat. Kraft maintained 22,229 votes (50.55 percent) while Kim had 21,748 (49.45 percent).
“I’m excited to be able to serve the citizens of the 17th District,” Kraft said. “I’m so grateful to the volunteers and the community members.”
Eileen Quiring, who is running for the Clark County Council District 4 against Democrat Roman Battan, lead the race with 23,531 votes (60.43 percent). Battan had 15,406 votes (39.57 percent).
“I am elated,” Quiring said. “The demographics were very favorable for me. We’ll see what continues to happen.”
Katja Delavar, a member of the Clark County Republican Party and event organizer, said they were amazed with the turnout, which included about 250 people. Attendees were able to enjoy the party free of charge, an event that included food, drinks and an opportunity to take photos with a cardboard cutout of Donald Trump.
