Bryant was first elected to the Port of Seattle Commission in 2007, narrowly defeating incumbent Alec Fisken.[8] He was reelected in 2011 against DemocratDean Willard with over 60% of the vote, a remarkable share for a Republican in King County.[9]
On May 14, 2015, Bryant announced his campaign for Governor of Washington in the 2016 election, running as a Republican. He has made reduction of traffic congestion and traffic noise on the 520 bridge as major goals of his campaign.[10] Bryant also supported same-sex marriage as well as abortion rights and opposed capital punishment, placing him in the socially liberal faction of the Republican Party, while opposing raising the statewide minimum wage, making him fiscally conservative.[11] On November 8, 2016, Bryant lost the election to incumbent Democrat Jay Inslee, receiving 45.5% of the vote to Inslee's 54.2%.[12] Bryant won 30 of 39 counties, with many of his greatest margins in Washington's most rural areas.[13] Inslee won 68% of the vote in King County, Washington's largest, which proved decisive.[13] Bryant remains the last Republican gubernatorial candidate in Washington to come within single digits of winning.[14]
References
^"Bill Bryant". 2 May 2022. Archived from the original on 21 August 2021. Retrieved 13 November 2024.