Spokane County commissioners Kuney, Kerns handily win re-election

The incumbent Republicans on the Spokane County Board of Commissioners cruised to victory on Tuesday.

Mary Kuney and Josh Kerns both held leads on the Democratic challengers, according to unofficial early results.

District 2

Kuney was 16 percentage points ahead of her opponent, Democrat David Green, on election night, with Kuney at 58% of the vote and Green sitting at just shy of 42%.

Kuney was first appointed to the District 2 seat in 2017. That district includes Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake and much of South Spokane County. In the primary election, in which only district residents can vote, Kuney won with about 62% of votes. In the general election, the entire county votes on all county commissioner candidates.

Both Kuney and Green are accountants and have both have previously run for county treasurer. Kuney promised to focus on the budget and said she has made the county more efficient during her time in office. Green said he planned to focus on more “people-first” policies and said the county needs to do more to combat climate change.

District 1

Kerns was ahead of challenger Ted Cummings by 12 points on election night, with 56% of the vote to Cummings’ 44%.

Kerns, a Republican, was first elected to the seat in 2016 and represents District 1, which includes most of North Spokane County. In the primary, in which only district 1 residents have a vote, Kerns won with about 64% of votes.

Kerns is a former legislative aide to State Sen. Jeff Holy and owns a marketing company with his wife. Cummings, a Democrat, is a cattle farmer from Chattaroy who works for Kaiser Aluminum. Cummings is also active in union groups locally and is against requiring union negotiations to be open public meetings, saying those policies interfere with frank negotiations. Kerns supports the requirement.

S-R reporter Adam Shanks contributed to this story