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.”
Wilson also previewed some attack lines in her speech, portraying Harrell as beholden to his corporate backers.
“Over the past few months under the pressure of our campaign, Harrell is teaching all of us all a master class in performative politics,” Wilson said. “He reversed his opposition to tiny house villages and tent cities, ones that he had previously actively opposed. He supported Councilmember Rinck’s progressive business tax, which will be on the ballot this November. And just a few days ago, he teamed up with our city attorney, who was also fighting for her political life, to sue the Trump Administration over executive orders that are seven months old. Well, tonight we’re here to say too little, too late.”
Washington State’s primary election ballot boxes closed at 8pm Tuesday and election officials released their first count of early ballot returns shortly thereafter. Election night returns typically account for about half of total ballots cast in Washington State, which is a vote-by-mail state.
Several other Urbanist-endorsed candidates were off to a good start in early returns, including a potential Seattle City Council sweep. Citywide Position 9 candidate candidate Dionne Foster is leading Council President Sara Nelson, 53.7% to 39%. Position 8 candidate Alexis Mercedes Rinck is up big with 75% of the vote, and District 2 candidate Eddie Lin is handily leading a four-way race with 45.7%.
Former federal prosecutor Erika Evans is way ahead of incumbent Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison, who is the only Republican in office in Seattle. Evans was one of two candidates The Urbanist endorsed in the primary, along with Rory O’Sullivan. Evans has 51% of the election night vote to just 37% for Davison, suggesting it’s Evans’ race to lose in November.
Counts of votes cast in the last few days of the election will trickle in over the next week. In Seattle, late returns have generally trended toward the more progressive candidate, allowing some to leapfrog their opponents — most famously Kshama Sawant.
At the King County level, Girmay Zahilay is leading Claudia Balducci 40% to 30%. The two county councilmembers are set to face off in an general election matchup with Zahilay having the upper hand, but it’s anybody’s ball game.
The King County Parks Levy is cruising with 70% of the election night count. Seattle’s democracy voucher program renewal measure is leading with 55% of the vote.
This is a developing story, so watch for updates.
Doug Trumm is publisher of The Urbanist. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrian streets, bus lanes, and a mass-timber building spree to end our housing crisis. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2019. He lives in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and loves to explore the city by foot and by bike.
