We blinked, and out of the blue, we’re on the cusp of one other native election season.
In case you haven’t been following the election to date (and with totalitarian takeover on our heels, we’d perceive), right here’s your probability to catch up. The submitting deadlines are in early Could, so there’s nonetheless time for some surprises, however even now, the election is shaping as much as be an fascinating one.
This yr, we’ve got a mayor’s race that includes an embattled reasonable incumbent who speaks the language of progressivism, however governs like a conservative. We’ve bought a challenger for the District 9 Metropolis Council seat and a wide-open race in District 2. And at last, a Metropolis Legal professional race, the place anybody with an oz. of progressivism (or human decency) has been wanting to unseat the incumbent from the second she took workplace.
We’ve bought months earlier than endorsement time, however that doesn’t imply we shouldn’t meet the candidates who’ve thrown their hats within the ring. With out additional ado, right here’s our fast breakdown of the native elections to date.
Mayor
Bruce Harrell, Seattle’s very personal Chamber of Commerce sock puppet, lastly has some challengers.
The largest title within the sport to date is Katie Wilson: a street-fighting coverage wonk who’s constructed a robust, progressive popularity truly successful battles for working folks (elevating the minimal wage, maintaining transit reasonably priced). When she launched her marketing campaign, she informed The Stranger in regards to the form of mayor she hopes to be: a coalition builder who’s in a position to attain throughout the aisle to seek out widespread targets, with out diluting progressive, research-backed insurance policies. She described herself as somebody who’s prepared to check new concepts and push ahead on points which have stagnated on this metropolis for a decade.
She’s untested in elected workplace—and even working in an election—however she urged voters to take a look at her file as a coverage advocate. “I’ve spent the final 14 years of my profession organizing, constructing highly effective coalitions that win main victories for working folks,” she informed The Stranger. “And I’ve carried out all that from the surface. I’d be completely satisfied to place my legislative file up towards Bruce Harrell’s any day of the week.”
Then there’s Ry Armstrong, an MLK Labor Delegate for SAG-AFTRA and an elected member of the Actor’s Fairness Affiliation, repping 50,000 actors from Texas to Hawaii. That is Armstrong’s second go at elected workplace. In 2023, they ran for Kshama Sawant’s Metropolis Council seat in District 3, and whereas progressives typically bought wildly outspent by massive enterprise (and due to this fact creamed) in that election, Armstrong’s displaying was notably tough. Just one.86 % of the voters (a complete of 488 folks) voted for Armstrong in that race. They’re pleased with their massive concepts, and a collection of progressive taxes to pay for them.
Ry and Katie are joined within the race by a handful of different candidates, together with: MAGA-y Rachael Savage, the Republican who’s campaigning to dam everlasting supportive housing and arrest homeless addicts as technique of restoration; and Joe Molloy, a homeless man who says he misplaced his housing final yr resulting from an unsupported incapacity, and is working his grassroots marketing campaign from Tent Metropolis 3.
Metropolis Council District 9
Seattle’s Metropolis Council President Sara Nelson has been on the council since 2022 and has been president since 2024. Her management has represented the Chamber of Commerce (and Amazon’s) bid to say management of metropolis authorities, so we’re very happy to announce that she has a challenger. Her title is Dionne Foster, progressive coverage wonk, and capital good points tax champion. Nelson, identified for her right-leaning, business-first politics, is perhaps in bother, given the town’s enthusiastic help for progressive Alexis Mercedes Rinck in November, and the runaway success of February’s social housing initiative. Foster’s bought the fitting concepts on housing and homelessness, however let’s be actual, to cite a Reddit-er, if a rock ran towards Nelson, some Seattleites would most likely throw a vote its approach simply to keep away from the “right-wing, inept millionaire” vibe.
Metropolis Council District 2
On the finish of final yr, Tammy Morales stepped down from her seat representing D2 on Metropolis Council, saying that the conservative, business-oriented Metropolis Council was a poisonous, undemocratic atmosphere. The council appointed Seattle Police Division crime prevention coordinator and long-time Metropolis Council hopeful Mark Solomon to carry down the seat till this yr’s election, when it goes again to the folks.
So who’s gonna substitute the progressive Morales? Within the battle for D2’s vote, we begin with Assistant Metropolis Legal professional Eddie Lin, who primarily works with the Workplace of Housing. He describes himself as a champion of reasonably priced housing, progressive income, and making a metropolis the place “artists and bike messengers and baristas and educators can all afford to dwell right here.” Up to now, he’s gentle on particulars for a way he plans to try this, so we’ll be watching him carefully.
Then there’s Adonis Ducksworth, the Mayor’s senior transportation coverage official and one of many architects of the 2024 transportation levy. He’s pushing a platform that mixes security, affordability, and… skate parks? The lifelong skateboarder is aware of how essential public area is for teenagers (yay) however he additionally believes security in D2 comes with extra cops (boo). Like Lin, although, he hasn’t supplied many different particulars but.
Eclipsing each of their fundraising, although, is a more moderen entrant: Takayo Minakami Ederer, a Columbia Metropolis-born actual property investor and karate teacher (and one of many first members of the ladies’s nationwide karate crew). Primarily based on her early interviews, she’s largely working on a “public security” platform—which, you guessed it, to her means extra cops. She additionally acknowledges that we want extra shelter beds, and advocates for a public-private partnership to make that occur.
Metropolis Legal professional
In our pleasant neighborhood Metropolis Legal professional showdown, Nathan Rouse, Rory O’Sullivan, and Erika Evans all have massive concepts on the way to repair Seattle’s damaged justice system in distinction to incumbent Ann Davison—spoiler alert: most of them don’t contain locking up extra folks. Rouse, a public defender who’s carried out with Davison’s “tough-on-crime” charade, needs to carry again neighborhood courtroom and cease prosecuting minor offenses like SODA and SOAP violations (which, enjoyable truth, aren’t even being enforced proper now). In the meantime, Evans is specializing in serving up anti-Trump tea and advocating for hurt discount applications that truly assist folks as a substitute of shoving them into jail. After which there’s O’Sullivan, who thinks the Metropolis Legal professional’s workplace may use slightly extra compassion and rather less spectacle. So, prepare for a race that might determine whether or not Seattle stays caught within the felony justice quicksand or lastly tries to drag itself out with precise options.
Stranger Election Management Board is Marcus Harrison Inexperienced, Vivian McCall, Charles Mudede, Emily Nokes, Megan Seling, and Hannah Murphy Winter.
