Sam Sumner Reed (born January 10, 1941) is an American politician who served as the 14th Secretary of State of Washington from 2001 to 2013. Reed is largely considered to be one of the most consequential state-level secretaries of state in American history.

Reed received his bachelor's and master's degrees in political science from Washington State University. He was elected to the office of Secretary of State in 2000, as one of only two Republicans to be elected to statewide office that year, after serving as Thurston County auditor.

Reed, whose family lived in Washington since territorial days, grew up in Wenatchee. His family later moved to Spokane where Reed graduated from Lewis and Clark High School. He attended Washington State University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in social studies and master's degree in political science.

A self-described Rockefeller Republican, in 1969 he, along with other moderate to liberal Republicans Chris Bayley and Daniel J. Evans founded the Cascade Conference, a symposium made up of fellow "Mainstream Republicans" where which ultimately evolved into the political advocacy group, the Mainstream Republicans of Washington, who continue to host annual Cascade Conferences to the present day.

Prior to his service as Secretary of State, Reed was elected Thurston County Auditor five times and served as Washington's Assistant Secretary of State under Lud Kramer and Bruce Chapman. He was also appointed by governor Daniel J. Evans onto the Governor's Advisory Council on Urban Affairs.

Reed was first elected as Washington's Secretary of State in 2000, narrowly defeating his Democratic challenger, former Congressman and Clark County Auditor Don Bonker, a conservative Democrat, by just over 0.4%.

In June 2000, California's blanket primary system was ruled unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court in a landmark case, California Democratic Party v. Jones. It was said to be unconstitutional on the terms that "violated the political parties’ freedom of association." Washington State had adopted a similar blanket primary system in 1935, though after negotiations, the Washington primary system remained unchanged.

Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party had longtime lobbied for the removal of the blanket primary system in order to gain more control over primary elections. As such, incumbent Secretary of State Ralph Munro, Reed's predecessor began a series of hearings around the state to gather public input on potential changes to the blanket primary system. In 2001, the newly elected Reed released findings that Washington voters strongly favor retaining the blanket primary system. Consequently, the statewide Democratic Party sued Reed, claiming the blanket primary to be unconstitutional, as in California. While Federal District Court in Tacoma upheld the primary, a later ruling in the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals found the blanket primary system unconstitutional.