The final margin will be around 2,017 votes but — especially in our new era of highly optimized political campaigns driven by data and block by block analysis — a win is a win.
With King County Elections set Tuesday to certify the results of Mayor-elect Katie Wilson’s November victory in Seattle, here is a look at how the political battle played out in maps of Seattle and the neighborhoods around Capitol Hill and the Central District.
We also have a few maps showing the borders for the month’s other progressive victories including a few neighbor vs. neighbor political battlefronts.
This summer as we examined mapping of the August primary, CHS asked, “Who didn’t vote for Katie Wilson on Capitol Hill?” after the Capitol Hill renter’s impressive showing in the neighborhood helped drive an even more impressive top showing in the primary.
Today, as the mayor-elect is forming her transition team, laying out first priorities around homelessness, and preparing to work with an also-new city council, Wilson is preparing to take office in a city where the mayoral vote seemed to split across precincts by lines that delineate differences around wealth, ownership, and equity. Her summer trend held on in November but the Capitol Hill and Central District border skirmishes with incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell supporters made for a less decisive victory in Wilson’s home area in November.
Looking closely at the results precinct by precinct shows where the incumbent Harrell successfully maintained and grew his strength in the city’s wealthier waterfront ring while also doing well with voters in the city’s more single family-home dominated neighborhoods. Harrell flipped many border precincts including a handful in areas of Capitol Hill near Miller Park and Madrona while also wiping out an island of Wilson-majority support in Montlake.
Wilson, meanwhile, held onto much of her core primary-won territory in the most densely populated areas of Capitol Hill and the Central District while also centering her win around precincts mostly dominated by recent multifamily development.
In a change that might also add evidence to those crediting young voters with Wilson’s ability to hold off Harrell, Wilson was able to turn the precinct covering the Seattle University campus to her majority after the area went Harrell’s way over the summer. Let the debate commence.
MAPPING THE OTHER PROGRESSIVE WINS
Meanwhile, the city’s other progressive victories in November including nonprofit executive and former community organizer and policy advisor Dionne Foster’s defeat, above, of Council President Sara Nelson and the win, below, for former federal prosecutor Erika Evans over incumbent Seattle City Attorney Ann Davison mostly show more clear delineations of Seattle’s classic political borders that ebb and flow from year to year.
The exception is Alexis Mercedes Rinck’s landslide victory, below, for the Position 8 citywide seat. As you can see, her challenger Rachael Savage, a Republican and owner of Broadway crystal shop The Vajra, almost walked away without winning a single precinct. She is now the mayor of Broadmoor.
At the county level, mapping the battle for the King County Executive’s office shows how Girmay Zahilay big wins in the city was enough to win the day for “the first millennial, immigrant, or refugee” to fill the office.
You can zoom in and explore the maps here thanks to the Washington Community Alliance.
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The coastal wealthy gets their panties in a wad if they hear that we are going to elect someone who protects workers, renters, and impoverished. No surprise here.
You could set a watch to these maps, and even if we’re in a city together, people on the shores act the least like it.
“mayor of Broadmoor” I’m dying. Bye Rachel.
And Bruce is still the mayor of Seward Park. In fairness we should let him keep at least that :-)
What’s most amusing to me is how late the Wilson votes came in. She really is the champion of the “I don’t have my shit together” coalition.
sick burn, to bad you lost, loser!
What’s “amusing”?
The sour grapes when MAGA loses. They IMEADIATLY start in before ANYTHING happens. Then say they are “pragmatic” and vote MAGA with the folks in MAGA.
Look at the maps.
Seems like the late voters took their time and gave more thought to their votes.
You’re dreaming. Most of them voted for Wilson, in knee-jerk fashion, just because she was “progressive,” without much thought at all. And also because of the “trump effect.”
Most of them voted for Wilson because Harrell and his cronies are so bloody horrible
Watching the cops get all distressed over Harrell’s loss is hilarious. I hope this progressive energy maintains so we can kick Bob Kettle out in the next election.
he’s gone
Cops are such pussies. Let them bonus hop.
It doesn’t matter if a voter turns in their vote early, or at the last hour of election day. It’s all a single event; the only thing that happens after that is counting. It’s so useless and counterproductive to frame elections as “horseraces”, with somebody “leading” and someone else “coming from behind”. The “race” finished at 8pm on that Tuesday.
If the vote was counted, that means the voter turned in their ballot on time. What part of turning your ballot in on time means you don’t have your shit together?
Do you even live in D3?
Lived here for going on 20 years.
Clearly I’ve struck a nerve, look at all these replies ;)
We’re all happy cause Katie won lol I think you struck our winner nerve. And I turned in my ballot 1 day before election day exactly because I wanted to contribute to the come from behind victory that you can’t stop going on about…but we already know!! WE voted her in! Thanks for noticing though, Noticer.
Lazy individual voting for the know-nothing white privilege candidate, classic Seattle!
Oh boy, you can troll people you live amongst.
like algorithms for idiots? From all over the world pretending to be American’s for a paycheck
That’s an interesting take on the working class vote and says much more about you than it does about them.
I personally live near the drop box in Capitol Hill and enjoy the tradition of voting on election day itself. Looking at the map, many of the areas that voted for Harrell don’t have a convenient drop box nearby, and are likely used to mailing in their votes earlier to avoid any issues.
This is a ton of us – I had a tradition with my wife to eat lunch at Panera, fill out our ballots and drop them off. Now we go to Stoup, have a beer, vote and then grab a bite on the way home
They are not MAGA. They just vote for the same candidates. Totally different!
Hyperbole much? America has always been great for the rich. Find a better excuse to hate your neighbors.
That was sarcasm man…lol
It’s okay…I am a little sharp unless I do the *sarc* thingy. I get to flying around so fast and getting up and down too much and just mail it in…lol
You can always tell if I am joking or not. The joke is always wayyy out there and reduckalus. When I am serious? I really offends whomever I am shooting at. I get super on point with my hyper balls.
I apologize for that. I’ll do better and not just mail it in…lol
dude, what?
Look, I want her to succeed since I live here but she won by a small margin. Let’s not pretend she has some sort of sweeping approval.
I agree . Let’s see what she does. Didn’t vote for her but let’s see. Harrell unappealing . She better figure out the open drug use and encampments in the parks though cuz I am fucking sick of it. NOT OK!
I’d love to see her succeed too – but as she’s on record opposing moving people out of encampments, I don’t have a lot of hope.. I do not believe the Pollyanna notion that all people need a basic living and everyone will be happy, healthy, perfect citizens… It ignores the stark reality that some people are simply not good, are never satisfied with what they have and will always feel entitled to take from others… young people aren’t shooting each other over money to pay for rent and food – they are doing it over money to buy fancy cars and designer sneakers.
wow..quite the twisted logic there. You mean the top .1% owning 50% of the wealth at the expense of others? Polluter subsidies? Military industry? Pharma? Insurance? Farm subsidies?
“It ignores the stark reality that some people are simply not good, are never satisfied with what they have and will always feel entitled to take from others”
Get some therapy Smooth..
A nasty response that deflects is MAGA. Can’t respond to facts? MAGA as well.
She has actually said that sweeps will continue to be needed. People are hearing what they want to hear.
No, she hasn’t.. She’s danced around it or remained silent..
Here’s one stellar answer she gave when asked if people should be removed from parks..
“Um… I am going to pass on this one. I can’t really answer yes or no.”
and another
“Should people be allowed to sleep in parks? The answer is no but the answer is that it is much more complicated than enforcing a law.”
I fully expect the parks will fill back up with tents after she takes over.
and if that doesn’t happen? You’ll be here with this same line.
I’m not the nasty one Smooth…
2000 votes. No mandate. And weird she has claimed one. Nope nope and nope.
This has been hashed out already in previous articles! Her policies winning out in the face of massive outspending by Harrell is precisely the mandate being referred to here. It’s not a claim of a win by overwhelming voting numbers. Not complicated!
They think they get 1/2 the say when they lose. Trump does the same thing.
This reminds of an often used quote from a movie…”You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.”
Confirms Bruce Harrell was the candidate for the money. And not the candidate for less wealthy minorities, either.
Im sorry but anyone who thinks this socialist halfwit has any answers to Seattle’s problems you are too dumb to cast a vote.
I’d love to see an income overlay
Let me guess. Wealthier people generally vote for Bruce because they don’t want someone taking their money and giving it to others. Less wealthy people generally vote for Katie because they like the idea of taking money from wealthy people and getting free things like childcare, etc. Is that what you would expect to conclude if you were able to see an income overlay?
soooo? The .1% owning 50% of America’s wealth is what?
I am surprised you haven’t posted any comments about the cute squirrels. Not interested in the struggles of native squirrels to maintain and assert themselves amidst habitat loss and encroaching urbanization?
It’s easy to deflect and denigrate. Much harder to argue the facts.
Just because you can’t actually make a coherent argument? You do this instead. You LOVE to talk at people. But an actual convo is beneath you when challenged.
To be fair…Rich people like taking poor people for the purpose of paying for cops and jails to incarcerate the poor people. Thats why Harrell raised sales tax this year.
Someone who is poor is supposed to allow themselves be victimized by violence? They are supposed to just “take it?”
“geek” you might want to start questioning your biases. Calls to 911 aren’t just made by people who are “rich people”.