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 similarities are numerous between Wilson and Mamdani. Both are young, stridently progressive, and reviled by the political elites in their city. Both fought to lower the cost of housing and transit while the establishment dragged its feet.
Both face giants of the Democratic centrist establishment. Mamdani just beat the former Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, heir to a political dynasty. Meanwhile, Wilson faces incumbent Bruce Harrell, a long-time politician who local pundits considered nearly invincible until Wilson got into the race.
Mamdani is a 33-year-old member of the state Assembly, born in Uganda to Indian Muslim and Indian American Hindu parents, who came to our country at the age of seven. Mamdani campaigned as a democratic socialist, focusing on increasing affordable mixed income social housing, a freeze on rents, public child care, and free city buses. Cuomo had the money and the backing of the Democratic old guard including the Clintons.
The editorial board of the New York Times wrote that it did “not believe that Mr. Mamdani deserves a spot on New Yorkers’ ballots.” The Seattle Times editorial board is likely to say something very similar about Wilson after years of fighting the progressive initiatives that she was spearheading.
Cuomo had millions in campaign funds; Mamdani has thousands of volunteers. Who won? The thousands of volunteers.
We have already had our own bellwether election this year in Seattle: the February special election putting social housing on the ballot with Proposition 1A. The volunteers for House Our Neighbors created the enthusiasm and the people power which resulted in a 26-point victory. They overcame the hundreds of thousands of dollars poured into the opposition to Proposition 1A, which levies a 5% tax on corporations for individual employee compensation in excess of $1 million to fund social housing,
Who were the opponents? Mayor Harrell, Amazon, Mayor Harrell, Microsoft, and Mayor Harrell, over and over again if you looked at all the opposition mailers!
And now? Now we have a candidate for our own city in Katie Wilson who embodies the hopes and dreams of the majority of us. So many Seattleites can’t figure out how to pay for child care and rent increases and health care, or recognize and want to provide the solutions for their neighbors grappling with these issues.
Harrell, on the other hand, is again the darling of the Democratic mainstream and corporate titans. He has garnered the support of real estate moguls, cell phone oligarchs, and former Governors Chris Gregoire (who now is the CEO for Challenge Seattle, a consortium of the corporate elite, including Microsoft, JB Morgan Chase, Expedia, Russell Investments, and T-Mobile). He has endorsements from former Governors Locke and Inslee, our current Governor Bob Ferguson, former Seattle mayors Jenny Durkan, Greg Nichols, and Norm Rice, Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, King County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda and numerous unions including SEIU 775 and the Plumbers and Pipefitters. How can he lose?
My question is “how can Harrell win?” The corporate elite have all bent their knee to the whims of Donald Trump. The oligarchs are rolling in billions. The Democratic establishment has shown their unwillingness to challenge the status quo that leaves millions in our state with out-of-control health care costs, child care costs, elder care costs, constantly rising tuition and underfunding of K-12 public education.
Seattle’s current mayor has a host of personal issues which may bedevil him. He defends the status quo, with no empathy. When progressive activists sought his support for Seattle’s groundbreaking paid sick leave effort in 2011, he spent the meeting complaining about his personal water bills at his million-dollar home in Seward Park. In 2018 Harrell first voted for Seattle’s first attempt at a JumpStart tax, and then voted to repeal it.
While Harrell is a multi-millionaire, Katie Wilson is a renter and a member of Seattle’s working class. Katie more than anyone is responsible for saving Seattle’s budget with the JumpStart payroll tax, which she developed and promoted for affordable housing. She founded the Transit Riders Union and built it into a powerful political force. She catalyzed the movement to Trump-Proof Seattle. She advocated for Proposition 1A for social housing.
She does not fear confronting the oligarchs and the status quo. She doesn’t have a lot of money — she has hundreds of volunteers. So in August, when the primary election returns push Katie to the head of the pack, don’t be surprised. We have a history of upsets fueled by regular people, and Katie has built the movement and the policies for a new upset, a quiet revolution, a new chapter for building our commonwealth.
John Burbank (Guest Contributor)
John Burbank founded the Seattle-based Economic Opportunity Institute in 1998 and led it until his retirement in 2020.