Harrell looking to the left (Image: Downtown Seattle Association)
It seems like it is only a matter of time before the nation’s tech bro revolution figures prominently in Seattle’s 2025 political battles. Mayor Bruce Harrell’s office is explaining away his comments praising Elon Musk and other MAGA-aligned tech leaders last week while addressing the city’s business community at the annual “State of Downtown” gathering.
“The mayor was not praising them, he was referencing they have an objective reputation as leaders in technology and innovation, and that it is a danger they are in the president’s orbit,” the mayor’s spokesperson told Publicola trying to explain the praise.
“We know that our current president surrounds himself by some of the smartest innovators around,” Harrell said as he veered off script in his business-friendly speech at the Downtown Seattle Association event. “When we drop names like Andreessen or Peter Thiel or David Sacks or Elon Musk, these are smart innovators.”
The nuanced praise for Musk in the shadow of his Department of Government Efficiency work to gut major areas of the federal government and his increased efforts supporting right wing campaigns around the globe comes as Harrell is shaping his reelection campaign with themes around “common values,” “public safety solutions,” and “proven leadership to stand up for our values.”
With his job going up for a vote, the veteran Seattle politician does not seem interested at this point in engaging in extra tangles with the Trump administration — though his office said the mayor “certainly doesn’t agree with their politics” in the statement provided to media in the wake of last week’s Downtown Seattle Association speech.
It will be a tricky row to hoe for Seattle leaders facing reelection in 2025.
Monday morning, City Attorney Ann Davison, who ran for Lt. Governor as a Republican in 2020, released a statement calling Seattle a “Welcoming City,” avoiding the “Sanctuary City” label championed in past battles with Trump over immigration, as she announced Seattle will join San Francisco, Portland, “and many other jurisdictions across the country” in filing suit against the Trump administration over its threats to cut to cut federal resources to cities “that do not conduct federal immigration enforcement.”
“It is not against the law to be a welcoming city. For more than 20 years, the City of Seattle, by ordinance, has directed its employees to not inquire about a person’s immigration status, absent a legal obligation to do so,” the Davison statement reads. “It is well within our authority to direct our employees in this manner.”
Davison announced in January she would seek reelection joining public safety collaborators Harrell and City Council president Sara Nelson on the Seattle campaign trail.
In the mayor’s race, meanwhile, none of the candidates lining up to oppose Harrell at this point have the mayor’s name recognition but one of them is being very straightforward in their approach to Making America Great Again.
“Calling all MAGA Republicans in WA State. We need your help from outside the blue city,” Harrell challenger and Capitol Hill shop owner Rachael Savage pleaded on social media this week seeking financial support for her campaign.
CHS reported here on Savage’s campaign launch as a Republican for the non-partisan mayor’s office as the candidate is promising to lead an end to “the addiction and mental illness epidemic” with a major crackdown in which the city’s police and prosecutors “arrest, charge and convict every person committing crimes on the streets of Seattle no matter how small those crimes are.”
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With Harrell moving toward the center and this Savage woman gaining steam, who do we Progressives have in our corner?
I overheard someone say Sawant should come back to run lololololol
Moving towards the center?! Harrell was the center, he was endorsed by the WA Technology Industry Association and Seattle Times already in the primaries in 2021! We have had pro-business neoliberal mayors (in a strong mayor government) since 2013. Progressive initiatives have continued to be watered down and stymied by these administrations that continue to ride donations and endorsements from the large businesses that then get preferential treatment in the city over everyone else.
we need someone who’s a critical thinker. Uncompromising values. Can’t be bullied. Nothing to gain or lose by running and winning. Someone who just comes from nowhere and gets folks energized for the fight.
Not much if anyone because they’re isn’t optimism it’ll mean anything after all this time.
Let’s make Seattle unwelcoming to tech oligarchy.
Let’s make Seattle unwelcoming to drug vagrants
we can do both
I agree!
Still waiting on the later.
seriously?
and that means what? Things are going as planned. That’s what.
I thought it was going to be Dan Savage! He would have a chance.
A privileged white gay man. We did that already and it turned out pretty bad! Sooo….
pretty bigoted dude. toy saying white gay people can’t lead?
yes, that’s exactly what you said.
No it’s not. The quote is hella up there. Also maybe you weren’t here for
Ed Murray. Nothing worse than running for mayor and having your sex life called into question! Know your history!
dude I am 6 decades of raised here all over King county.
I recall Murry’s name…But I was not involved in politics then
He was a gay man who happened to also be a child molester, so, yes, Tim’s comment was insanely bigoted.
Did you ever follow up on the smear campaign on him? Yeah nothing happened. It all just went away when he stepped down as mayor.
Did you know they tried to take him down with similar allegations when he ran for Secretary of State and won? It’s not bigoted to remember how they treat gay people in politics. Murray was not a child molester. He was a gay man targeted by republicans.
His own family members making the accusations is different from a Republican smear campaign. Regardless, your comment was bigoted, just like saying because we had one corrupt female mayor or one corrupt black mayor, we should never try to run a black or female mayor again. People don’t jump to those conclusions when a white politician fails. I’m sure you meant it as a joke, but it was still a bigoted one. Can’t believe I have to explain this in 2025 to a liberal.
You must want to be right. And I can’t wait for the next Mayor to earn your vote with that very fact. Just like MAGA. You shoot from the hip and believe the first thing you read. And I’m not liberal. That’s insanity. No one, not even democrats want to work with liberals anymore. It cost us 2024 and it will cost us Seattle.
liberals are just grifters! Looking for likes on instagram.
Thanks Maggie. Normally I don’t need the reinforcements. But this time I did. It’s kinda nice to have someone take the time out to say. “Naw, you got it right”. Because getting it right matters. Apreeshiate it cuzzin
This is the worst Liberal Idpol I have ever seen in my life and I see a ton of it.
Yeah well… it’s what happened. All those lawyers representing the alleged victim, dropped the alleged victim like a hot rock after the mayor stepped down. And the news went silent on the issue too! Ed Murray was not that great of a mayor but he deserved better than what he got!
Anyways virtue signaling is gonna bite Seattle in the rear pretty hard this next election. And with that nice clean nose Republican “WHITE” woman running for Mayor… the most you are gonna dig up on here is a disgruntled employee. Most likely with blue hair! Get ready!
in a ranked voting system. if you want to start a new party. Have your own lane? It is a good system.
Like FOX ‘ not news’. It’s the only widely carried propaganda network for the alt right. Then there’s legacy, ABC,NBC,CBS RINO coverage. Then a group of other cable news/internet places for progressives.
FOX gets #1 ratings as a result. There’s nothing the other stations can do for more viewers. There’s only so many Maddow’s.
In short? All the money goes to you and it is a revenue stream like no other. MAGA buys merch and donates cash religiously. They LOVE a good grifter. They gladly follow them.
However? If someone came along with lived experience and a sharp perspective and critical thinker with a keen intellect and charismatic? Most if not all are totally wanting to be on the down low. Especially these days. So it has to be someone ready to die for their values rather than compromise them. Someone with nothing to lose or gain. Someone who’s in it for the long haul and can pass the torch to the next young leader and stay in the loop after for anything the new person needs. Build a collision of character as the right has done the opposite of. One that will refuse to kow or be bullied.
Make Seattle great again by getting all of these clowns out of office
chyaaa…ya think? lol…It’s beyond dangerous at this point.
Who you gonna believe, the spin doctor or your lying ears?
Honestly, what a preposterous attempt to sanitize Harrell’s remarks. The meaning is perfectly clear and we must infer that so too is his feeling on these “innovators.”
Nope. They’re only considered smart innovators if you ignore the histories. Stop digging H, the hole’s deep enough.
“certainly doesn’t agree with their politics”. Ow! You think maybe that’s too strong?
A “Welcoming City”? I have a feeling that’s under dispute.
“…no matter how small those crimes are.” May be time for a savage tax audit.
I voted for Harrell and I will never vote for him again. Fuck President Musk. Fuck VP Trump and Fuck bootlicker JD Vance.
Hitching your wagon to MAGA is certainly a move at this moment… I’m guessing she’s realizing both her and her store have been outed as frauds and hoping this can save her somehow by getting an online MAGA customer base. Hopefully not and the next news we hear about her is her cultural colonialism shop closing.
The first thing these people do is say (w/o saying it). That once in office? They will enrich themselves and by osmosis it will make the donors keep giving. Money is speech right?
Changing your values for something else is the very definition of corruption. It’s going to take someone how takes their oath seriously. Willing to die for their country than forget values for something in return. Like a US Marine. We take an oath mostly like the POTUS. We take it three times. Once at the end of processing. Once you graduate boot camp.
I know what you are thinking. “He said three, the dumbshit…” Negative. SOME recruits are required to say it repeatedly doing push ups and bends and thrusts in a sand pit. At some point during health and cleanliness inspection, or after taps and the whole squad bay whispers the oath and it’ll give you chills. I honestly believe the DI’s do that for themselves more than anything. They have an incredibly hard life.
““The mayor was not praising them, he was referencing they have an objective reputation as leaders in technology and innovation, and that it is a danger they are in the president’s orbit,” the mayor’s spokesperson told Publicola trying to explain the praise.”
Did the Mayor actually say that they were a danger in his speech, or is that just spin? I suspect the latter, and so his remarks were deplorable. Any hint of praise for Musk is unacceptable, as he is a real danger to our democracy, and deserves only condemnation.
c’mon man…you know it’s spin.
No it’s not. Stop deflecting. Your good side aint showin’
Typo: ‘to cut” twice in Davison’s quote. Thanks for the update.
“seatown” is a plumbing company. You know that right?
Seattle is after a native Chief Sealth.
If you are wondering why people who have been here and built this “town” which is a city, it’s pretty insulting and shows disrespect.
It used to be “Queen City” then “Emerald City” is settled on eventually by osmosis mainly. It was “Jet City” before that. So I’ve been here a while. People like me built this city with our bare hands. Only for the tech bros to come in and monetize Seattle into oblivion and call it “Seatown”. It may actually be appropriate because thes epeople have flushed Seattle down the drain for their wealth..
Try “Jet City” that’s a cool one we do use. Though not as much lately. Queensryche a local band has a great song.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHapAsmvGEU
I see we toned down the look for the MAGA freaks. They don’t like all that extra liberal looking stuff.
“ Capitol Hill shop owner Rachael Savage pleaded on social media this week seeking financial support for her campaign.”
Of course she did. Gotta save the business somehow. Are they all grifters? Is there ONE just ONE right wing politician with great character?
They had them, but we called them all nazis enough that they retired.
When you vote with the Nazi’s? You are the Nazi’s.
The wheelman and the bank robber all get charged the same.
The victimhood of the right is so ridiculous… As if progressives and the left haven’t been subjected to hyperbolic name calling. Pretty weak if that’s all it takes to bow out of ones convictions or public service 🙄
for a real comparison apples to apples?
Look at the Nazi merch vs. progressives merch.
It’s no contest.
Just for context, “Welcoming City” seems to be the new term being used for Sanctuary City among Democrats. If anyone watched the hearing on immigration Wednesday with the mayors of Boston, New York, Colorado, and Chicago, they all used the same term, as did the Democrats asking questions.
So it’s not indicative that Davison is more conservative than the rest of the party simply because she used it. I think Dems are trying a re-brand, since Republicans managed to scare people with the old term.
I wonder how attendance is going at Rachel’s Rebel Saints Meditation Society meetups these days? I went a few times and the folks there were FAR from maga, so I can’t imagine this is being a hit with her meditation group? 🤷♀️ so weird
It’s a grift…”All MAGA send $100″ was the plea on FB…It’s pretty obvious.
Nice to see tech stocks crashing. The bloat is over. Musk is a fascist. No one in Seattle should welcome him. Screw Terdla. Flush hard on that junk!!!