Incumbent Bruce Harrell trailing Katie Wilson in race for Seattle mayor

Mayor Bruce Harrell is facing the fight of his political life, according to primary election results released Tuesday night. Ballots have Harrell trailing challenger Katie Wilson by 1,300 votes, well behind where the incumbent hoped to be.

Wilson, who is at 46.2%, will likely gain ground in the coming days as more votes are tallied; late ballots tend to favor more progressive candidates. The results are positive for Wilson, who’s trying to harness anger toward establishment politicians while pledging big action toward making Seattle more affordable.

For much of the 2025 campaign, Harrell’s re-election took on an air of inevitability as he swept up endorsements from business, labor and nearly all of Washington’s political heavyweights. Now it’s Wilson, capitalizing on a frustrated electorate, heading into the general election as the favorite.

The six other candidates running for office trailed Harrell, at 44.9%, and Wilson.

The top two vote-getters advance to the general election in November.

At Wilson’s campaign party at El Centro de la Raza on Beacon Hill, the mood was jubilant. Wilson expressed surprise at her strong position, promising to bring down the cost of living and bring more people inside.

“The 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 said.

Harrell, taking the microphone at his lakefront party after results came in, said, “We knew this is going to be a tough race.”

But, he said, “we know we will win.” Taking in the results from other races – moderate incumbents Council member Sara Nelson and City Attorney Ann Davison also trailed challengers from the left – he continued, “People really, really want to see change because there’s a lot of fear in our lives right now.”

In anticipation of Tuesday’s results, Harrell and Wilson had already begun taking swipes at each other. As the campaign shifts to the general election, the volume of that back and forth will only escalate.

The question for voters leading into November’s general election is how happy they feel now compared to four years ago and who they want leading the city into the future.

Harrell has styled himself as a steady hand in trying times. He ran in 2021 on a platform of improved public safety, a growing police department and reduced visible homelessness. Four years later, crime has come down and the hiring of new police officers has ticked up – a trend likely to continue under his watch.

With Donald Trump president again and the city facing a difficult budget season, changing course would be a disaster, Harrell argues.

On Wilson, Harrell and his campaign have sought to paint her as a radical leftist who would bring a return to the 2020-era politics that proved so unpopular in the last two elections. They’ve repeatedly brought up her kind words for the movement to defund the police and sought to connect her to former Council member Kshama Sawant, who came to symbolize that era in Seattle City Hall.

Wilson, on the other hand, has hoped to capture dissatisfaction with the current center-left establishment. As someone who’s been in City Hall for most of the last 18 years, Harrell represents the failings of a political class more interested in helping wealthy homeowners than struggling renters, she says. Her election would represent a refocusing of City Hall toward those struggling under the weight of an increasingly expensive city, she’s said.

Heading into the 2025 election cycle, Harrell won early endorsements from most of the city and state’s elected officials, including names who backed his challenger in 2021, such as progressive stalwart U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal. He also consolidated support among business leaders while picking off more labor support than he held in 2021.

Seattle has had a conflicted relationship with its executive leadership for nearly all of the 2000s. Paul Schell was booted after one term by Greg Nickels in the early 2000s; Nickels lost to Mike McGinn in 2009 after his second term; Ed Murray resigned in scandal; and Jenny Durkan chose not to run again.

A lawyer for US West in the early 1990s and then in private practice in the early 2000s, Harrell was first elected to the Seattle City Council in 2007. He was reelected twice before opting against a fourth run in 2019. He then ran against his former colleague, Lorena González, for mayor in 2021, winning easily.

Wilson has been a staple within Seattle politics for at least a decade. She was the progressive organizer who arguably found the most traction in City Hall – helping push through taxes on the city’s largest corporations and a suite of labor and landlord-tenant regulations.

Staff reporters Greg Kim and Nina Shapiro contributed to this report.