King County Democrats celebrate high caucus turnout

This morning, tens of thousands of Democratic activists and voters throughout King County came together to kick off the 2016 Washington State Democratic Party’s caucus and convention cycle by participating in presidential precinct caucuses at hundreds of neighborhood locations.

Preliminary reports from party leaders suggest turnout was incredibly high, after visits by both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders to the state this week, on par with the record 2008 turnout in many places.

King County Democratic Chair Rich Erwin released the following statement following the adjournment of most of the precinct caucuses.

“Today, huge numbers of passionate Democrats made time on a busy, sunny Saturday morning to participate in our party’s presidential caucuses. To everyone who attended, we extend our most profound thanks. We are especially grateful to our volunteer area caucus coordinators and their teams. Without their involvement and dedication, our legislative district organizations would not have been able to put on successful caucuses.”

“We are committed in 2016 to electing a Democratic president to take over for President Obama on January 20th, 2017. We need to build on the hard-won progress we’ve made in rebuilding our country since the Bush years, not go backwards. We, the Martin Luther King Jr. County Democrats, emphatically reject the ugly, divisive politics of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, which are at odds with our county and our state’s finest traditional values. We are fired up to elect Democrats up and down the ballot this year.”

“This Tuesday, we anticipate making our first endorsement of the 2016 cycle, and we look forward to hearing the first report from our Endorsements Committee.”