In Washington’s biggest tax fight in decades, voters were backing the state’s new high-earners income tax in Tuesday’s vote count, rejecting an initiative that would repeal it.

Initiative 645, the tax-repeal proposal, was trailing with 58% of voters opposed. The “no” vote was bolstered by a huge margin in Democrat-dominated King County, where 66.5% of voters were against I-645. It also trailed in Snohomish and Pierce counties.

If Tuesday’s result stands, it would mark a tectonic shift in Washington’s tax code, ending the state’s holdout status as one of a handful without an income tax — keeping in place what backers called the “millionaires tax” passed by the Legislature this year.

Courts will likely still have the last word on the tax as a lawsuit challenging its constitutionality is pending.

Hundreds of thousands of ballots remain to be counted in the coming days.

The mood at the No on 645 campaign, at Seattle’s Reverie Ballroom, was upbeat as national results confirmed a good night for Democrats and liberal causes.

Speaking to the crowd, state Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, the prime architect of the tax, framed the historic vote as a long-sought win.

“For 93 years, we have been saddled with an anchor around our neck, with a tax system that is bad for working people, that’s bad for small businesses, that’s bad for just about everybody except for the 1%,” he said.

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