There's a reason why we wait to count the votes, but Jaime Herrera Beutler has apparently seen enough.

The six-term Republican congresswoman conceded Tuesday as Donald Trump–backed candidate Joe Kent continued his late surge past Herrera Beutler in the 2022 primary election for Washington's Third Congressional District. The AP hasn't called the race yet, as Kent leads by less than 1,000 votes with an estimated 10,000 left to count, but the incumbent from Southwest Washington acknowledged the inevitable in a statement shortly after the most recent tally. "My campaign came up short this time," she wrote, before eventually alluding to why: "I’m proud that I always told the truth, stuck to my principles, and did what I knew to be best for our country."

Herrera Beutler was one of 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Trump following the January 6 insurrection. Unlike fellow Washington GOP rep Dan Newhouse, who will advance to the general in the Fourth, Herrera Beutler couldn't hold off a Trump-backed challenger in Joe Kent. She becomes the third pro-impeachment conservative candidate to lose a race after straying from the party line. (Four others didn't even run.) Amid an ongoing FBI probe of his home, the former president was quick to boast in a statement on Tuesday: "Joe Kent just won an incredible race against all odds in Washington state. Importantly, he knocked out yet another impeacher, Jaime Herrera Beutler, who so stupidly played right into the hands of the Democrats."

Per usual, 45's assessment is, at a minimum, misleading. Democrat Marie Gluesenkamp Perez has collected the most votes in the primary. It's possible Trumpsters actually just "played right into the hands of the Democrats" by jeopardizing a Republican stronghold.

But the vote-splitting among conservatives in the primary means the general will be a much tougher hill to climb for Perez, an auto shop owner who entered the fray because of the district's overwhelming conservative bent. Though far from a perfect predictive measure, combining Herrera Beutler and Kent's vote counts (and other Republicans') in the primary leaves Perez behind by a fair margin.

The run-up to November, however, will also be a test of Kent's political mettle. The veteran and first-time candidate has hewed to Trump's talking points so far, including falsely questioning the integrity of the 2020 election. Some Dems have boosted these types of candidates over conservatives who voted their consciences on impeachment in hopes the challengers will flame out by fall. Now Kent and others will face the full force of the opposing party's wrath.

In other primary news:

• The Seattle Times has called Washington's secretary of state race, with incumbent Democrat Steve Hobbs and nonpartisan opponent Julie Anderson advancing. It will be the first time the state hasn't elected a Republican for the office in six decades.
• Senator Patty Murray holds a 19-point lead over Republican Tiffany Smiley.
• And congresswoman Kim Schrier will square off against Matt Larkin, who emerged from a conservative triumvirate trying to unseat her, in November. The fate of the state's Eighth Congressional District was always going to be a major storyline to follow this election season; now, after Herrera Beutler's ouster, there might just be another local race that could command national attention.