Wilson Tuesday afternoon met with media at 20th and Union

Wilson and Harrell debated on First Hill leading up to the election

A week after the first ballots were counted, Seattle’s 2025 race for mayor has a likely winner.

Challenger Katie Wilson claimed her biggest share yet of the daily counts since Election Night and now holds a 1,346-vote lead over incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell.

There could still be a recount. An automatic recount is triggered under state law if the final margin “is less than 2,000 AND also less than one half of one percent of the total votes cast.” Wilson’s percentage lead is currently 0.491%

“Curing” some of the 1,700 challenged ballots from Seattle voters could be enough to put the race out of reach..

King County Elections reported more than 1,700 challenged Seattle ballots as of Tuesday morning — 274 in District 3. By the afternoon, those numbers stood just above 1,500 including 253 in D3. Most are either unsigned or the signature requires verification because it does not match the one on file. Check the status of your ballot here.

Tuesday afternoon, Wilson said she had “hundreds of volunteers” helping to cure ballots and expressed confidence the race is over.

“I really think that we will continue to inch ahead over the last few kind of straggling ballots that get counted, and you know, we’re going to wait for everything to be counted. But I think I feel that we’ve won this race.”

Wilson will gather with supporters and members of the 43rd District Democrats Tuesday night on Capitol Hill at Stoup Brewing at Broadway and Union.

ELECTION 2025

• Election Night: Harrell leads on Election Night as Wilson’s hope lies in later voters
• Day 2: Harrell lead solidifies as Wilson’s math becomes clear
• Day 3: Seattle’s later-voter break hits for Wilson as gap with Harrell narrows
• Day 4: Big later-voter count pushes Wilson within striking distance
• Day 5: It is still Election Night in Seattle as Wilson now holds 91-vote lead

Wilson’s total reverses Election Night when the incumbent Harrell was up seven points in the first count dominated by early voters who tend to be older and more affluent voters.

Wilson, a Capitol Hill resident and progressive organizer, socialist, and leader at the Transit Riders Union who campaigned on her leadership around minimum wage and renter rights campaigns across the region faced a strident attack from Harrell as the incumbent pushed back following a terrible showing in the primary, criticizing WIlson as a child of privilege without adequate experience for City Hall, and claiming his opponent was a leader in the defund the police movement. Wilson painted Harrell as out of touch and focused on her messages around affordability and underserved communities including leading the city with plans to create $1 billion in union-built affordable housing, build 4,000 units of shelter, and expand police alternatives like the Community Assisted Response & Engagement Department’s crisis responders while also fielding smaller initiatives like championing creation of more public restrooms in the city.

Harrell focused his campaign on his long experience serving the city and support from national Democratic leaders while continuing withering negative attacks on Wilson. The Central District-born Harrell was elected mayor in 202. First elected to the Seattle City Council in 2007, Harrell would go on to win two more terms and serve as council president before deciding not to run again in 2019. The 67-year-old was raised in the Central District and briefly served as the city’s first Asian-American mayor in 2017 after Ed Murray resigned.

CHS Survey: What D3 issues are most important to you in your decision?

In an unscientific survey of CHS readers on Election Day, respondents who favored Wilson cited affordability and transit as their top issues in the race while Harrell supporters focused on public safety and homelessness.

The last time an incumbent mayor was reelected in Seattle was in 2005 when Greg Nickels won a second term.

Tuesday after the latest vote counts were announced, Wilson was ready to begin talking transition and early priorities for her administration after she would take office in January.

“I think obviously the homelessness crisis is going to be a very, very top priority for me. We have an aggressive timeline in the first six months of next year, leading up to the FIFA World Cup to really tackle the homelessness crisis as it affects the downtown core and adjacent neighborhoods,” Wilson said, also promising “more announcements coming soon about other priorities.”

Wilson also recognized one core of the later-voter surge — younger voters.

“I think it’s clear that young voters overwhelmingly supported my campaign,” Wilson said on the crisp autumn day in the Central District in front of — appropriately enough — Katy’s Corner Cafe. It was really exciting, especially as we got toward the General Election, to have young people come up to me and tell me that this was the first vote that they were casting and that they were excited to vote for me.”

“It has just really warmed my heart,” Wilson said.

$5 A MONTH TO HELP KEEP CHS PAYWALL-FREE

Subscribe to CHS to help us hire writers and photographers to cover the neighborhood. CHS is a pay what you can community news site with no required sign-in or paywall. To stay that way, we need you. Become a subscriber to help us cover the neighborhood for $5 a month -- or choose your level of support 🖤