Seegers leading French for Clallam commissioner seat

Published 1:30 am Thursday, August 6, 2026

PORT ANGELES — Challenger Jake Seegers is leading incumbent Mike French following initial primary ballot counts for a Clallam County commissioner seat.

Seegers, who is running as an Independent, was ahead of French, a Democrat, with 52.08 percent (1,402 votes) to 47.66 percent (1,283 votes) on Tuesday night.

Both candidates will advance to the Nov. 3 general election.

“I’m honored by a community that is standing behind me and wants to change and is ready for some common sense in local leadership,” Seegers said Wednesday.

French said he expected the race to be close.

“I think that there’s still a lot of votes to count,” French said.

As the candidates move on to the general election, they have slightly different priorities.

“My top priority is public safety because I think it’s the foundation for everything else,” Seegers said. “My second priority is economic development. If we want to build the economy, we need public safety.”

Seegers’ third priority is to balance the county’s budget, which he said will take public safety protecting economic development.

“I’m also committed to affordability,” he said. “We need to balance the budget so the taxpayer can keep more of their hard-earned money.”

French’s No. 1 priority is economic development, he said.

“I want to make sure we are providing the infrastructure businesses need to succeed and bringing in high-wage jobs,” French said.

He cited several instances of improving economic development in the county: A mill is lined up to start working in the Forks Industrial Park, there’s a potential buyer for the former McKinley Mill site in Port Angeles, and the wastewater sewer extension that’s going in west of Port Angeles will allow for more housing development.

“Many of those projects are connected to the Recompete strategy,” French said.

The campaign so far has been great, Seegers said.

“I’ve had many wonderful opportunities to meet so many people in the community and really learn from them, listen to their concerns and learn their solutions,” he said.

He believes one role of government is to empower the people, and that’s what he plans to do by listening to “the people on the ground, in the trenches.”

French said he plans to continue to discuss economic development and bringing good jobs to the county.

“I’m interested in continuing to have a campaign that’s focused on the issues, that’s not an aggressive, attacking campaign,” French said. “I’m not interested in my supporters having any of that negative campaigning. I’m really interested in talking about the issues with the voters.”

Seegers encouraged anyone who has questions for him to reach out.

“I’m always happy to have a conversation with someone one-on-one or in a group about what they’re most concerned with,” he said.

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Reporter Emily Hanson can be reached by email at emily.hanson@peninsuladailynews.com.