Harrell leads Wilson in early Seattle returns
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Bruce Harrell and Katie Wilson. Photos: Courtesy of the campaigns
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell was leading in the first batch of returns from Tuesday's election, capturing about 53% of the vote to community organizer Katie Wilson's 46%.
The big picture: A win for Harrell would make him the first Seattle mayor to win reelection since Greg Nickels in 2005 — and suggest the city's voters may not be ready to embrace Wilson's brand of progressive politics.
Caveat: More ballots in the vote-by-mail election will be counted in the coming days.
- Typically, progressive candidates in Seattle gain ground in later ballot counts, meaning Harrell's lead may not hold.
Zoom in: Progressive challengers were leading centrist incumbents Tuesday in two other citywide races.
- Erika Evans, a former assistant U.S. attorney, was about 25 percentage points ahead of Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison on election night, capturing 62.5% of votes to Davison's 37.2%.
- City Council President Sara Nelson, meanwhile, trailed Dionne Foster, the former head of a progressive nonprofit.
- Nelson was winning 41.7% of early votes to Foster's 57.9%.
Catch up quick: All three races have been viewed as a test of whether Seattleites are happy with the past four years of city leadership or whether they're ready to embrace more left-leaning policies.
- Wilson, the co-founder and general secretary of the Transit Riders Union, focused her campaign on the need to make Seattle more affordable, while criticizing what she called Harrell's lack of progress on homelessness.
- Harrell in turn attacked Wilson as inexperienced while questioning the authenticity of her "working-class identity politics" — particularly after a recent news article discussed how Wilson's parents helped cover her child care expenses during the campaign.
Voters appeared to be electing assistant city attorney Eddie Lin to an open council seat in District 2.
- Lin was leading with 68.6% of the vote Tuesday, while his opponent, city transportation policy advisor Adonis Ducksworth, had 31%.
- City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck looked on track to win reelection to her citywide seat, capturing 78.8% of the vote, to Rachael Savage's 41.7%.
What we're watching: The open race for King County executive was too close to call on election night.
- King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay was capturing 50.1% of the initial vote count, while King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci had 48.4%.
What's next: Only about half of ballots are typically included in election night results.
- King County Elections plans to post more results around 4pm Wednesday.