ELECTION 2025: Challengers’ leads widen further in three Seattle city races

As of tonight, the King County Elections vote count is close to caught up – it’s counted almost 32 percent of voters’ ballots, only two points behind the 34 percent it’s received. And the latest count has further widened the leads for challengers in three Seattle citywide races.

SEATTLE MAYOR: Katie Wilson now has 50.15%, more than eight points ahead of incumbent Bruce Harrell‘s 41.70%.

SEATTLE COUNCIL CITYWIDE POSITION 9: Dionne Foster is up to 57.89%, 22 points ahead of incumbent Sara Nelson‘s 35.77%.

SEATTLE CITY ATTORNEY: Erika Evans is now at 55.33%, more than nine points ahead of incumbent Ann Davison‘s 35.83%.

Complete results are here; the archived results reports from Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday are linked here. Next vote count is expected Monday afternoon. Top two will go to voters for a final decision on November

Andros August 8, 2025 (7:18 pm)

Bruce is over.Katie is new boss.

Rhonda August 8, 2025 (7:49 pm)

Neither of them are over 50% and low turnout, so it’s anyone’s race. We very well could be stuck with Bruce again.
- Brick August 8, 2025 (8:58 pm)
  
  Reread the article. She’s over 50%
  - Rhonda August 8, 2025 (10:50 pm)
    
    50.15% is extremely thin ice when almost 7 out of 10 Seattle registered voters threw their ballots away.
    - WSB August 8, 2025 (11:27 pm)
      
      The city turnout so far is 39.9%. The 34% turnout is countywide.
      History I just looked up:
      34% also is what Harrell had in the 2021 primary (not far ahead of second-place Lorena González, 32%).
      In 2017, Jenny Durkan had 27 percent, Nikkita Oliver 17 percent.
      In 2013, Ed Murray had 30 percent, incumbent Mike McGinn 29 percent (Bruce Harrell ran for mayor that year too and got 15 percent in the primary)
      In 2009, Mike McGinn had 27.7%, Joe Mallahan 26.9%, and incumbent Greg Nickels finished out of the running at 25.4%.
      Nickels had won his second term in 2005, when he got 57% in the primary, and second-place Al Runte got 22%.
      The last time a second-place primary finisher won the mayoral general was 2001, Nickels’ first term, when city attorney Mark Sidran won the primary with 33.8 percent, just a few hundred votes ahead of Nickels with 33.5 percent, and incumbent Paul Schell finished out of the running with 21.7%.
      Four years before that, in 1997, Nickels had finished third in the primary, which was won by Schell with 28% and Charlie Chong with 21% (no incumbent).
      28 years seems far enough back to go so I’m stopping there!
    - WS Troll August 9, 2025 (5:26 am)
      
      Those folks who “threw their ballots away” don’t count. That’s on them.
- Jort August 8, 2025 (10:52 pm)
  
  Pre-emptive question to help with logical arguments: will voters blame the “low turnout” if Bruce loses in November, even if it’s the same or higher turnout than Bruce’s winning election in 2021? Or will we just keep getting “if the voters I imagine in my head actually voted (instead of real people) then all my electoral beliefs would be validated!”
  - Morning Mist August 9, 2025 (10:26 am)
    
    Nice try. There won’t be any logical arguments here, only appealing to emotions.
1994 August 8, 2025 (10:40 pm)

Results of the November election will tell us if it is Katie or Bruce.

Morgan August 8, 2025 (8:53 pm)

This city hasn’t had two term mayor in 20 years…reading comments I see why…but also don’t get it.

James August 8, 2025 (9:12 pm)

I’m not sure why everyone is unhappy with Bruce? Or I don’t mean everyone but clearly many people. It took a bit of time but seems slowly but surely he has cleaned up the city & cleared our homeless camps including RV problems in many areas of the city. What are the issues many have with him? Is it truly bad enough to start over from scratch with a brand new mayor or let the current mayor continue to make progress to better Seattle overall. Progressives usually have made issues worse unfortunately, higher crime, soft on crime, ignoring actually getting rid of the homelessness everywhere etc. how’s Katie any better than Bruce? Enlighten me please. I hope Bruce wins again.

Harrell August 8, 2025 (10:07 pm)

It’s amazing how quickly people forget what Seattle was like when Mayor Harrell took office. In all my years I have never seen Seattle in the toilet the way that it was when he started. He did a magnificent job leading us out of a trash city into more of what Seattle has always been. I’m very grateful for that and voting for him again.
- James August 8, 2025 (10:45 pm)
  
  @Harrell I couldn’t agree more! Very Well said. At first I was disappointed in the speed in which he was moving especially in dealing with issues such as homelessness & crime (spd shortage & social justice soft on crime judges seeming to be the root cause of this). But over his term he has really stepped up and made a dent in improvements in these areas & I’d love to see him continue at that progress for another 4 years. He seems reasonable and common sense. Many seem to want to vote for change just to have change & not realizing how things could get worse than they are now just by voting for a more progressive candidate such as Katie who will prob ignore the homeless & crime issues and claims shes veiny compassionate in doing so then all the tax paying citizens of Seattle pay the ultimate price in the end. We must move forward as a city not backwards & no mayor will be perfect and do all things right but Bruce seems to be on the right track to getting Seattle cleaned up and back to the city it once was.

Centrist August 8, 2025 (10:38 pm)

I’ll be voting for Bruce. Here are my reasons:

Macroscopically, the data shows crime is trending down. The reasons are multifaceted, but one can make a strong argument that this is, in part, because Bruce has significantly increased the police force. I for one, feel much safer seeing more police officers patrolling our community.

Bruce has also shown commitment to his community by showing up to Seattles indivisible meeting to talk with people. This shows courage. It must be incredibly hard to be a politician in a blue state in a Trump climate.

Change is needed at the federal level. But it may not be needed locally. I’m trying to not let this desire for federal change influence my local decisions.

gingersnap August 9, 2025 (9:13 am)

I will not be voting for Harrell and this is why:He brandished a gun at a pregnant woman over a parking spot in a casino parking lot. I mean, that’s not the only reason, but it’s a pretty solid one.
- ltmmgm August 9, 2025 (5:46 pm)
  
  I’ve read a couple of articles on this “pulling a gun” in a casino parking lot and both say it was a man, nowhere a pregnant woman. And, I am not condoning pulling a weapon on anyone, maybe I need to google deeper???
  - k August 9, 2025 (7:43 pm)
    
    Here you go. One of the people he pulled the gun on was 8 months pregnant. Harrell’s account of the incident never mentions the woman, and has, unfortunately gotten a lot more press coverage than the victim’s. https://www.kuow.org/stories/woman-pregnant-bruce-harrell-seattle-mayor-iowa

Derek August 9, 2025 (2:16 am)

I’ll be voting for Katie. We need root cause fixes to the wage gap and policies that even the playing field and make Seattle more affordable. And because she’s very pro density and transit. Bruce had 16 years of policy shaping. We need a fresh start.

Delridge resi August 9, 2025 (7:53 am)

Good luck with that plan. A mayor can’t fix that.
- Foop August 9, 2025 (9:37 am)
  
  Harrell is actively hurting the light rail permanently. Moving the slu stop and the cid station adds nothing to our cities future economy and will hurt accessibility and ridership.harrell and his council are paring down to comp plan to be nearly meaningless. Without more housing Seattle will continue to be unaffordable, more people will be forced into housing insecurity as costs rise. Traffic will worsen as it remains unsafe to bike and walk in the city and as more people are forced out into suburban sprawl and have to drive in for work every day.Just a few things.
Brandon August 9, 2025 (8:43 am)

Help us out. What are those root causes exactly? (Without marxism talking points please). And what are those fixes? (Excluding the tried and failed ones that have proven worsening affordability).
- SoLongDelridge August 9, 2025 (10:03 am)
  
  Such a clown response. “I am very interested in these root causes but don’t say anything l have already rejected!”
  - Derek August 9, 2025 (1:42 pm)
    
    lol yep. Not even worth responding to. Can do the same shtick with Bruce and sweeps that don’t work. These people don’t even know Marxists are why they get a weekend to enjoy.
    - Hybrid August 9, 2025 (7:39 pm)
      
      Sweeps work, Derek, when there’s a biohazard tent encampment across the street from your home with bullets flying into your windows. Me and my kids have had to literally dive for cover in our living room from the encampment shootouts here by the Delridge library.
vapocool August 10, 2025 (10:10 am)

Well we all know that if Katie gets into office the current administration in DC will chew her up and spit her out like what the cat leaves for you to step in, in the morning. And no this household did not vote for our current in DC and we also do not have any say for the Mayor, we live in Burien.

Morgan August 9, 2025 (6:38 am)

Mayor’s job is to make sure garbage picked up and potholes fixed…that’s the toolkit of a competent local govt.folks Thinking Mayor position has the power of a President and Congress is going to bankrupt the city and exhaust itself without fixing “root causes” . Be aware of the actual power and position and please don’t make symbolic votes!

Mellow Kitty August 9, 2025 (7:44 am)

Your vote was your chance to speak. If you didn’t vote, you don’t get to complain.

Admiral-2009 August 9, 2025 (9:37 am)

Bruce is the first competent Mayor the City has had in years! Just go downtown and you will see it is much cleaner and vibrant. The City is finally getting better again and keeping Bruce in office is the best choice for Mayor by a big margin!

Flock August 9, 2025 (10:45 am)

He came in in ’22. I wonder if the end of the pandemic and the national economic recovery and ongoing national decline in crime might have something to do with that. A bit rich to credit him with national trends.
- Morgan August 9, 2025 (4:15 pm)
  
  Recovery just happened by itself then?
  - Flock August 9, 2025 (5:17 pm)
    
    If the recovery happened all across the country, maybe Seattle’s mayor isn’t the main reason why.

Scarlett August 9, 2025 (3:02 pm)

The argument:

“The Mayor can’t effect national politics, so vote for someone who will fix potholes.”

False. To the contrary, mayors of large cities do have a significant impact on decisions made at the federal level and, moreover, a lot of us expect them to do so, regardless of our individual political beliefs. I think we all know that the primary responsibility is the city they are elected to serve, but either individually, or collectively, mayors certainly put their thumb on the scale nationally, as we’ve seen recently.

But this state has a long lineage of the cautious, play it safe politicians and Harrell is simply the latest iteration so don’t expect any bold positions from him on anything.

Morgan August 9, 2025 (4:18 pm)

Harrell isn’t being a pushover to bully boy in the White House. But to think you’re going to overhaul capitalism from the mayors office is naive. Agin, the choice isn’t do nothing…minimum wage was a good example of seattle pushing and leading.What’s on offer though is big exercise in futility and financial trouble…which will cut down ability to show a better moral example nationally. Road to we know where paved with good intentions and claims that cautiousness is weakness…

Pang August 9, 2025 (5:20 pm)

A lot of innuendo in your comment, but honestly not sure what your specific objections is. Which policy actually proposed by Katie Wilson (or any of the candidates in this story) do think is going to lead us to futility, future trouble, and hell?