2025 was a pivotal year for the Seattle region and for The Urbanist. Voters elected more urbanists to office than ever before, and The Urbanist also made strides as an organization. Let’s look back on the year that was, as we forge ahead.
John Burbank looks back to a series of progressive victories that paved the way for the most significant mayoral victory in Seattle over the past 100 years, with Katie Wilson about to take office.
Precinct-level results maps show that Seattle Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson’s path to victory ran through Capitol Hill, the Central District, and the Rainier Valley, where she ran up her vote share.
The Urbanist Podcast is back after a hiatus, just in time to break down 2025 election results. In this episode, Urbanist publisher Doug Trumm and reporter Amy Sundberg discuss what happened in Seattle, with progressive mayoral challenger Katie Wilson’s dramatic victory, and other interesting races a
Seattle Mayor-Elect Katie Wilson announced her transition leadership team earlier this week, which features a mix of advocates and insiders. Wilson has reiterated a bold progressive agenda, but a pragmatic approach to achieve it.
Katie Wilson will be Seattle’s next Mayor. The progressive challenger expanded her lead over current Mayor Bruce Harrell to nearly 2,000 votes in Wednesday’s count, and The Urbanist and other local outlets have called the race for Wilson.
In Tuesday’s drop, Urbanist-endorsed progressive challenger Katie Wilson expanded her narrow lead over Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell. She now leads by 1,346 votes or 0.49%. With very few ballots remaining, Wilson is on the cusp of avoiding a machine recount.
Progressive challenger Katie Wilson now leads incumbent Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell by a razor-thin 91-vote margin after another batch of votes were counted Monday. Wilson appears well-positioned to pull off a dramatic comeback from a deficit of more than 11,000 votes in early results.
Seattle City Attorney-elect Erika Evans chatted with The Urbanist about what’s next after her resounding victory in the November election, unseating Seattle’s lone Republican office-holder.
Urbanist-endorsed progressive challenger Katie Wilson gained significantly on incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell in Friday’s count, pulling within two points, with a 4,300-vote gap to close. With around 50,000 votes remaining to be counted, her campaign says she’s on course to pass him and win.
Challenger Katie Wilson trailed Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell by seven points on election night, but progressives have closed such margins in the past. A comeback in late returns could be in the cards, based on Wilson’s performance in the August primary.
An opioid treatment nurse shares why they support Katie Wilson for Seattle Mayor and trust her to address interlinked crises around housing, homelessness, and opiate addiction.
From Bremerton to Issaquah and Tacoma, key races are on the ballot around the region that loom large for urbanist priorities. The outcome could determine where things are headed.
“It’s never been more important to have a movement mayor,” Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson told supporters Sunday. Multiple speakers portrayed Wilson as a bottom-up, people-powered coalition-builder, who stands in sharp contrast to incumbent Bruce Harrell, who they see as a top-down establish
Progressive challenger Katie Wilson continues to have the edge in the highly competitive Seattle mayoral race, despite a large fundraising advantage for corporate-backed incumbent Bruce Harrell. Two polls released this week indicate that Wilson still holds a lead, after winning the primary election
Eddie Lin announced the endorsement of the Washington Working Families Party and shared how the group helped him hone his stance on social housing.
In a campaign event last week, Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson harkened back to her younger street-musician days when she used to busk at Pike Place Market. Wilson told a gathering of Market workers and community members that she understood their struggles; she has lived them, and Seattle’s m
The Urbanist Elections Committee is excited to announce our 2025 general election endorsements, which span the region from Tacoma to Everett. Be sure to vote by November 4.
At an October 8th forum, urbanist-backed Kirkland City Council candidates discussed housing solutions, but none of their opponents showed, clearly ceding housing leadership in the four races. Here’s a recap of the solutions candidates laid out.
The Urbanist and Tech4Housing are hosting a rally and mega-canvass Sunday in Columbia City for Seattle City Council candidates Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Dionne Foster, and Eddie Lin, City Attorney candidate Erika Evans, and mayoral candidate Katie Wilson. Join us to help put the urbanist slate over the
Nearly $200,000 in outside spending from a political action committee started by one Woodinville tech worker has upended local politics in the quiet suburb. The goal? Taking down a pro-growth council majority.
While SeaTac City Councilmember Peter Kwon came in first with nearly 28% of the vote in a six-way primary race to be District 5’s next King County Councilmember, his campaign’s message has been high-level and light on specifics. In The Urbanist’s interview with Kwon, a strong theme of tax-aversion e
The Urbanist sat down with Steffanie Fain, who is running for King County Council’s District 5 seat and facing off with SeaTac City Councilmember Peter Kwon. Both position themselves as tax-averse fiscal hawks, but Fain expressed marginally more openness towards raising new revenue to tackle the num
Kirkland Councilmember Penny Sweet makes the case for why Shilpa Prem should be her successor on Council. The Urbanist Elections Committee agreed and endorsed Prem, too.
Bellingham is ranked the fourth most unaffordable housing market in the nation, but it doesn’t have to be this way. The city must embrace pro-housing policies: easing zoning restrictions, cutting red tape, and investing in mixed-income development, writes Bellingham City Council candidate Andrew Red
The progressives running for the four Burien City Council seats up this year have the upper hand based on primary results. Sam Méndez, Hugo Garcia, Sarah Moore, and Rocco DeVito will have to close the deal in November to flip the council.
Friday’s ballot count was very friendly to Seattle progressives, with mayoral challenger Katie Wilson exceeding the 50% mark with the boost. The election dynamics favor a progressive wave. Here’s why.
After losing three consecutive mayoral races and six of nine Council seats in two years, Seattle progressives sealed their best Primary election in over a decade. Across the board, Seattle progressives head into November as favorites.
Urbanist-endorsed progressive challenger Katie Wilson is off to a fast start in her bid to unseat Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, leading by nearly 1,300 votes on primary election night. Urbanist-endorsed Seattle City Council candidates Dionne Foster, Alexis Mercedes, and Eddie Lin have also taken comm
Michael Westgaard, a labor organizer with Raise the Wage Renton, is challenging incumbent Councilmember James Alberson, Jr. for Renton City Council’s Position 1 seat. Transit emerges as a central plank of his platform in this interview with The Urbanist.
Tacoma faces a pivotal August 5 primary in which voters will narrow field for mayor and city council seats. Housing, gun violence, and pedestrian safety have emerged as pressing issues in the Grit City.
It is vital that Seattleites vote yes on Proposition 1 in the August 5 primary to renew the democracy voucher program for another 10 years. Here’s Jazmine Smith’s case for why.
Join The Urbanist for a Campaign Volunteer Training Session to support our endorsed candidates. We have two dates in August: one in Seattle and one in Redmond.
The Urbanist Elections Committee is excited to announce our 2025 primary election endorsements, which span the region from Tacoma to Everett. Be sure to vote by August 5.
Progressive mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani’s victory in Tuesday’s Democratic primary is a watershed moment for New York City, and Seattle is on the cusp of its own watershed moment with the opportunity to elect Katie Wilson, a progressive who would break a long run of timid centrist leadership.
The race for King County Executive is heating up, and King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci says that she has the edge based on her internal polling. King County Council Chair Girmay Zahilay came in a close second in the poll, and King County Assessor John Wilson was a distant third, weighted d
Check out the key takeaways from the Seattle City Council candidate forum focused on mobility and housing issues that happened earlier this month. An urbanist consensus emerged among some, but not all issues.
Longtime small business and workers’ rights advocate Jeanie Chunn jumped into the race for Seattle City Council District 2 only a short time before the filing deadline earlier in May. The resignation of Tammy Morales from the D2 seat led to the temporary appointment of Mark Solomon, who will serve
A new Northwest Progressive Institute poll of Seattle voters that found challenger Katie Wilson had a slight lead over incumbent Bruce Harrell in the mayoral race, with 36% of respondents voting for challenger Katie Wilson if the general election for mayor were being held today, while 33% preferring
Tacoma voters balked at the price tag of the Streets Initiative II levy. That leaves Tacoma officials scrambling to come up with plan B to grapple with street safety and maintenance needs.
Too many people are sitting in a jail cell simply because they cannot afford bail while they await trial. Seattle City Attorney candidate Nathan Rouse lays out the case to end cash ball for nonviolent misdemeanors.
Lori Markovitz shares how House Bill 1596 could have saved her son by requiring anti-speeding technology for motorists with records of reckless driving. The bill needs to pass the state Senate by Wednesday to avoid a cutoff and become law in Washington state.
Seattle City Council’s District 2 race just got a little more crowded, as Protec17 union steward Jamie Fackler announced his candidacy today. Fackler brings the strongest union ties to the race, and he also is the most unabashed proponent of social housing.
Workers at Baja Concrete and Newway Forming contend their bosses stole millions in wages, but Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison has been slow to press their case, Rory O’Sullivan writes. Wage theft prosecutions are down under her administration.
We see in Alexis Mercedes Rinck the moxie to fight, the savvy to collaborate, and the backbone to stand up to the powerful people getting in the way of progress. Read on to see The Urbanist Election Committee’s case for re-electing Rinck.
“I’m the only candidate in this race with line-level prosecutorial experience, including the Republican incumbent, at both the city and federal levels,” Erika Evans said. Check out the rest of our interview with the third challenger taking on Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison this fall.
A recent Change Research poll found progressive Alexis Rinck is the only Seattle municipal official with a positive approval rating. In contrast, Mayor Bruce Harrell, Council President Sara Nelson, City Attorney Ann Davison were all under water. Precinct results for the recent social housing funding
This summer, voters will get a chance to show their support for Seattle’s innovative Democracy Voucher program when its funding levy comes up for renewal. While critics would like to see adjustments made, democracy vouchers have led to a more diverse pool of local candidates while giving more people
Transit Riders Union leader Katie Wilson jumped in the race to be the next mayor of Seattle today. Our interview with Wilson covers what’s motivating her to run and how she would deliver results where Mayor Bruce Harrell has failed.
Last month, actor and union representative Ry Armstrong jumped in the Seattle mayor’s race, arguing Bruce Harrell is dropping the ball on a plethora of issues. In their interview with The Urbanist, Armstrong explained what they’d do differently.
Nathan Rouse makes the case that political expediency, not protecting Seattle’s most vulnerable residents, is the likeliest explanation for Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison’s decision to join the lawsuit against Trump budget cuts. Davison is running for reelection and trying to hide her strong Repu
House Our Neighbors led a campaign that overcame a flood of corporate cash against them. Here’s how they did it, and what comes next to grow social housing in Seattle and ignite a broader movement.
Nathan Rouse wants to deliver public safety via holistic fixes and criminal justice reform. He’s challenging incumbent Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison, who he argues has focused on scoring cheap political points rather than results.
The Urbanist Elections Committee is seeking new members to join the committee to expand our geographic scope for the 2025 election cycle. If you live in an Eastside suburb, Tacoma, South Seattle, Shoreline, or Lynnwood and are interested in urbanism and politics, apply by March 8 to be considered.
Proposition 1A has won the special election to decide the fate of social housing in Seattle. After leading by 15 points on election night, Prop 1A continued to expand its lead in subsequent ballot counts, reaching a 20-point advantage on Thursday. Ultimately, it ended up being a 26-point win.
Proposition 1A grabbed nearly 58% of the election night vote tally, signaling social housing is on the way to victory in Seattle. The measure would tax big businesses to raise about $53 million annually to fund social housing.
The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce crafted the ballot language for Proposition 1B and pressured councilmembers to follow their plan to delay the social housing vote and put the competing measure on the ballot to siphon support, newly unearthed public records show. The centrists on Seattle
Backers of Proposition 1A highlighted a flood of cash from the region’s large corporations, including Amazon and Microsoft, promoting alternative Prop 1B. Unlike 1A, Prop 1B would not actually fund social housing or raise new revenue.
The rents and temps are too damn high. Seattle’s social housing developer can help — with Prop 1A funding. Vote yes on Prop 1A by February 11.
Seattle voters received Prop 1B campaign mailers riddled with lies about social housing. Don’t be fooled. Vote for Prop 1A.
Seattle Proposition 1A would tax excess compensation to fund mixed-income social housing. The Urbanist endorses a yes on 1A vote and urges you to vote by the February 11 deadline.
Burien residents should vote for Measure 1 because it will actually raise pay for low-wage workers. The Burien City Council has sought to muddy the waters, but their alternative is riddled with exemptions and a tip penalty that will largely erase the benefit to workers.
Rory O’Sullivan is a long-time Democratic party leader and legal aid attorney. He’s challenging Republican Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison, who he sees as ineffective and out of step with Seattle values.
In February, Seattleites should vote yes on Proposition 1A to launch the Seattle Social Housing Developer with progressive revenue. The Urbanist Elections Committee lays out why.