Seattle has elected its first democratic socialist mayor, echoing the recent victory of Zohran Mamdani in New York City‘s mayoral contest.
Katie Wilson, 43, had a nearly 2,000-vote lead over incumbent Bruce Harrell as of Wednesday, making it impossible for him to close the gap with just over 1,300 remaining votes to be counted.
Like Mamdani, Wilson ran on a campaign characterized by promises to increase affordability in the city. Another core part of her platform is addressing Seattle’s homelessness crisis, which is one of the worst in the country.
Critics have called Wilson privileged and out of touch, as she regularly receives checks from her professor parents to pay for childcare.
Those critics also highlight that Wilson dropped out of Oxford University just six weeks shy of graduation, leaving the school without debt thanks to her parents.
Harrell’s reelection website featured a quote from Carolyn Riley-Payne, former Seattle King County NAACP President, saying: ‘It’s hard to trust a candidate running on their challenges with affordability when her family’s wealth shields her from actual consequences and financial stress.
‘Wilson chose to not graduate from college, and now chooses to rely on parental subsidy to avoid financial hardship.’
Wilson and her husband spend $2,200 per month on daycare for their toddler and another $2,200 to rent their apartment.
Katie Wilson, 43, ran on a campaign characterized by promises to increase affordability in the city. She had admitted to regularly receiving checks from her parents
Another core part of Wilson’s platform is addressing Seattle’s homelessness crisis, which is one of the worst in the country
She told KUOW that when she moved to Seattle in 2004, she cut herself off from her parents’ money and ‘worked a bunch of working-class jobs.’
‘Psychologically, it really did something to me,’ Wilson said.
In 2011, she founded the Transit Riders Union, a nonprofit focused on improving public transportation in Seattle and Kings County. Tax records show she earned close to $73,000 from the nonprofit in 2022 while working 55-hour weeks.
Currently, her husband does not have a paying job. That means the couple’s household income is below what would be considered enough money to support themselves and their child in Seattle.
‘It just speaks to how expensive and unaffordable it is, right?’ she told KUOW.
‘If you’re lucky enough to have parents who can pitch in a little bit, that’s not something to be embarrassed about.’
A spokesperson for Wilson’s campaign previously told the Daily Mail: ‘Families from all different kinds of economic backgrounds support each other in all different kinds of ways.’
In August, Wilson won the mayoral primary by 9.5 points. Turnout at the primary this year was slightly lower than the last election in 2021, according to Ballotpedia.
Wilson said that when she moved to Seattle, she cut herself off from her parents’ money and ‘worked a bunch of working-class jobs.’ ‘Psychologically, it really did something to me,’ she explained
In August, Wilson won the mayoral primary by 9.5 points. Turnout at the primary this year was slightly lower than the last election in 2021
Lower voter turnout in Seattle represented a stark difference with New York City’s mayoral election, which Zohran Mamdani (pictured) handily won after 2 million votes were cast
Unofficial King’s County election results last updated on Friday showed that about 40,000 more registered voters cast their ballots in the general election than in the primary.
That represented about 46 percent of the city’s registered voters, which is lower than the 2021 turnout of 54.6 percent in the 2021 general election. Every vote in the tight race is thus highly important.
That lower turnout also represents a stark difference with New York City’s mayoral election, where 2 million votes were cast – the most by raw number since 1969 and the highest percentage of registered voters to engage in the election since 2001.
