What most divides Seattle's mayoral candidates
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Katie Wilson and Bruce Harrell. Photos courtesy of the campaigns.
Ballots are out, and Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell is fighting to keep his seat against progressive organizer Katie Wilson, who outperformed him by nearly 10 percentage points in the August primary.
Why it matters: The Nov. 4 election will decide whether Seattle stays the course under Harrell — a former City Council member who has emphasized downtown recovery and public safety — or chooses Wilson's further-left vision for making bigger public investments in housing and homelessness.
State of play: Harrell has attacked Wilson — who has never held elected office — as too inexperienced for the role.
- Wilson, the general secretary of the Transit Riders Union, highlights her successful advocacy for Seattle's payroll expense tax and policies like renter protections as evidence of her skill navigating City Hall and building coalitions.
Here's a look at some of the candidates' biggest clashes on the campaign trail:
Social housing
Wilson said she entered the race partly because Harrell did not support a ballot measure that Seattle voters passed in February to raise taxes on businesses to pay for social housing — a type of mixed-income public housing that Seattle voters previously approved in 2023.
- Harrell supported an alternative ballot measure that wouldn't have raised new money for the social housing program.
- The Harrell-backed plan, which voters rejected in February, would have also narrowed who was eligible to rent the public housing units.
Homelessness
Harrell has criticized Wilson's plan to stand up 4,000 units of shelter or emergency housing as unrealistic and unaffordable.
- He's defended his work to clear encampments, emphasizing that residents are offered services and shelter when tents are removed.
- "I will clean streets if I have to, to make sure they are safe," Harrell said during a FOX 13 debate last month.
Wilson argues Harrell has been "spending money moving encampments around the city" without getting enough people into housing.
- She says the mayor has failed to live up to his promises to address homelessness, including his 2021 pledge to build 2,000 units of permanent supportive housing or emergency shelter in his first year.
- "We have thousands more people sleeping outside today than we did four years ago," Wilson said during an Oct. 8 forum at Seattle University. "That is failure."
- She's proposed housing people in publicly funded affordable housing units that are now vacant. Harrell's campaign says the units are "ill-equipped" for that purpose.
Policing
Harrell wants to rebuild Seattle's police force to 1,500 officers — up from fewer than 1,000 as of earlier this year. He's criticized Wilson for supporting a 2020 plan to dramatically cut the police budget.
- "My opponent has no background in public safety, except arguing to defund it," Harrell said during a debate hosted by The Seattle Times and KING 5.
Wilson says her position has evolved since then.
- "Part of what that movement got wrong is that we thought, because half of calls don't need an armed response, maybe we only need half as many police officers," she said.
- She said she now believes "we can't just scale down the size of the police department based on the calls we think can be taken by alternative responders."
Surveillance bill
Harrell recently supported expanding CCTV cameras in more areas of the city, while also allowing police to access traffic camera data.
- He called the use of the technology a "best practice" that can help first responders quickly respond to violent crimes.
- "It is not surveillance," Harrell said during a September debate hosted by Rainier Avenue Radio.
- Wilson said she would have opposed the camera expansion, largely because of concerns the data and footage could be tapped by the Trump administration to target undocumented immigrants or others.
- "This is not a time to be taking this kind of risk," Wilson said.
Taxes
Both candidates support a plan co-authored by Harrell to lower taxes for most of Seattle's small businesses while raising taxes on the city's biggest companies.
Yes, but: Wilson supports a citywide capital gains tax to help solve city budget problems, while Harrell's campaign said that type of tax is easy to evade and wouldn't raise much money.
- The mayor opposed a plan to implement a capital gains tax last year, although his campaign says he's open to discussing the idea further.
What's next: Ballots must be postmarked by Nov. 4 to be counted, or placed in an official ballot drop box by 8pm on Election Day.
Go deeper: Your complete guide to the Nov. 4 election in Seattle