43-year-old democratic socialist who’s never held elected office unseats Seattle Mayor in another win for affordability politics

Harrell, a centrist Democrat who previously served three terms on the City Council, led in early results. But Washington holds an entirely mail-in election, with ballots postmarked by Election Day. The votes that arrived later, which had historically been more liberal, broke heavily in Wilson’s favor, further increasing the gradual shift to the left at the national level.

In a concession speech at City Hall Thursday afternoon, Harrell said he congratulated Wilson in a “joyful” call.

“I feel good about the future of this country and this city,” he said.

Wilson, 43, is a democratic socialist and has never held elected office. She said at a news conference later Thursday that it was hard for her to believe she had been elected mayor, considering she had no intention of running at the beginning of this year, and acknowledged concerns about her lack of experience: “No one saw this coming.”

But she also spoke about the resonance of her volunteer-led campaign among voters concerned about affordability and public safety in a city where the cost of living has risen with the spread of Amazon and other tech companies. Universal child care, better mass transit, improved public safety, and stable, affordable housing are among her priorities, and she said she will take office with a strong mandate to pursue them, though she acknowledges that the city also faces a large budget shortfall.

Calling herself a coalition builder and community organizer, Wilson said she would also work with those who questioned her qualifications to lead a city with more than 13,000 employees and a budget of nearly $9 billion: “This is your city, too.”

“When I say this is your city, it means you have a right to be here and live a good life — whatever your background is, whatever your income,” Wilson said. “But it also means that we all have a collective responsibility to this city and to each other. … We cannot address the major challenges facing our city unless we do it together.”

She will be working with a relatively new city council: Only two of the seven council members have served more than one term.

Harrell was elected mayor in 2021 in the wake of the chaos caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and racial justice protests over the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police. With crime rates down, more police hired, drug use less visible, and many homeless encampments removed from city parks, it seemed likely that the business-backed Harrell would one day run for re-election.

But Trump’s return to office — and his efforts to send in federal agents or cut funding for blue cities — helped rouse progressive voters in Seattle. The lesser-known Wilson, a democratic socialist, ran a campaign that echoed some of the themes of progressive New York mayoral candidate Zahran Mamdani. She beat Harrell by nearly 10 percentage points in the August primary and quickly became a favorite to win the mayor’s office.

Wilson studied at a college at Oxford University in England but did not graduate. She founded the small nonprofit Transit Riders Union in 2011 and has led campaigns to improve public transportation, raise the minimum wage, stronger renter protections, and provide more affordable housing. A renter herself, she lives in a one-bedroom apartment in the city’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, and says that shaped her understanding of Seattle’s affordability crisis.

Wilson criticized Harrell for doing too little to provide more shelter, and said his raid on encampments was cosmetic, merely pushing unhoused people around the city. Wilson also portrayed him as a city council member who takes responsibility for the status quo.

Harrell, 67, played on the 1978 Rose Bowl champion football team at the University of Washington before enrolling in law school. His father, who was black, came to Seattle from the segregated Jim Crow South, and his mother, a Japanese American, was interned in an internment camp in Minidoka, Idaho, during World War II after officials seized her family’s Seattle flower shop — experiences that strengthened his understanding of the importance of civil rights and inclusivity.

Both candidates touted plans for affordable housing, fighting crime and trying to immunize the city from Trump, which receives about $150 million a year in federal funding. They both want to protect Seattle’s sanctuary city status.

Wilson proposed a citywide capital gains tax to help offset federal funding the city would lose and to pay for housing costs. Harrell says this idea is ineffective because the city’s capital gains tax can easily be avoided by those who would be required to pay it.