Urbanist-endorsed progressive challenger Katie Wilson is off to a fast start in her bid to unseat Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. Wilson admitted she expected to trail on election night but gain in subsequent drops, but she actually leads by nearly 1,300 votes over the incumbent. The mood was jubilant at a packed Centilia Cultural Center crowd in Beacon Hill.
“These results […] show us that voters stand with our vision of Seattle’s future, a city with social housing, a city with that reliable public transit, universal child care, income to feel at home,” Wilson said in her victory speech.
Wilson had 46.21% of the primary night vote to Harrell’s 44.86%. The election night count turnout was 19%, with Seattle likely reaching about twice that by the time all votes are tallied next week. Wilson said she expects her margin to increase in late returns. The general election will clearly be between Wilson and Harrell. She warned that they will have to fend off hundreds of thousands in campaign spending from Harrell’s corporate backers and their deep-pocketed political action committees (PACs).
"Our next mayor" chants broke out as results posted. Harrell has the advantage of incumbency and corporate support, but Wilson's progressive challenge has caught fire.
— The Urbanist (@theurbanist.org) August 5, 2025 at 8:16 PM
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“Instead of having a vision for our city’s future, Harrell’s agenda is set by his wealthy donors, but we’re going to fix that in November,” Wilson said. “In the next three months, Harrell’s campaign and his corporate PACs are going to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking me in every way they know how, because they know that Harrell was doing a bad job, and because, as I’m told by political people, one of the first rules of politics is deflection, not to be held accountable. Well, we want to hold him accountable.”
Wilson pointed to Harrell’s foot dragging at raising progressive revenue to fund solutions to top issues like homelessness and public safety. Harrell quickly signed a freshly passed progressive business and occupation (B&O) tax reform on Monday, seemingly in hopes of gaining some additional progressive credibility.
“These results also show us what we all see with our own eyes. Bruce Harrell is doing a bad job,” Wilson continued. “People of Seattle are tired of weak, ineffective leadership from the mayor’s office, and they are also not fooled when Bruce Harrell tries to present himself as a progressive who gets things done.”
