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Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, a Democrat, was cruising towards re-election earlier this year in the heavily blue city in the Pacific Northwest, hoping to become Seattle’s first mayor to win re-election in two decades.
However, Harrell’s path to securing a second term became much steeper after longtime progressive organizer Katie Wilson jumped into the race in March.
Wilson, who political pundits have compared to New York City’s Zohran Mamdani, soon became the frontrunner among the mayor’s many challengers.
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Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell faces off against eight challengers in the city’s Aug. 5, 2025 primary. (Mat Hayward/Getty Images)
Tuesday’s primary will whittle the current nine-candidate field down to two for November’s general election.
“My re-election is supported by 100+ current and former elected officials, labor, as well as affordable housing, environmental, community, and transportation leaders,” Harrell wrote on social media last week. “I’m proud of the broad and diverse coalition we’ve built to keep Seattle moving forward.”
Harrell was elected in 2021, as Seattle was starting to recover from the COVID pandemic and the violent protests and riots that rocked the city following the murder of George Floyd.
He has worked during his tenure as mayor to improve public safety, tackle homelessness and help struggling businesses recover. The mayor has highlighted the decrease in citywide crime since he took office.
However, Wilson, a transit activist and co-founder of the Transit Riders Union, has criticized Harrell, arguing that he’s focused more on dismantling homeless encampments than boosting shelters. Wilson claims that Harrell, who served three terms on the city council before winning election as mayor, is part of the political status quo that has allowed the city’s cost of living to skyrocket.
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Similar to democratic socialist Mamdani, who rocked the nation’s political world by topping former Gov. Andrew Cuomo and nine other candidates in late June to win New York City’s Democratic Party mayoral primary, Wilson is spotlighting affordability.
“Housing costs have doubled since Bruce Harrell first took office,” she highlights in a social media post.
However, unlike Mamdani, Wilson does not identify as a democratic socialist.
Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, seen at a news conference on July 30, 2025, rocked the nation’s political world with his come-from-behind victory in late June to win the Democratic Party mayoral primary in New York City. (Photo by Kyle Mazza/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Wilson has stayed competitive with the incumbent mayor in the battle for campaign cash. The most recent polling in the race indicated a close contest between Harrell and Wilson, with former T-Mobile executive and 2009 mayoral candidate Joe Mallahan a very distant third.
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Ry Armstrong, an actor and environmental nonprofit executive director who is running a progressive campaign, and five other candidates on the ballot, barely registered in recent polling.
