While most of the attention has been on New York City’s mayoral race, the Big Apple is not the only city that will elect a socialist mayor.
Seattle’s mayoral race is one of this year’s closest races, with progressive activist Kate Wilson seeking to oust incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell, who was enjoying a healthy lead over his opponent — until now. Both candidates are Democrats.
As mail-in ballots are still being counted, Wilson appears to have closed the gap and could very well become the city’s new mayor, according to KUOW:
Katie Wilson held onto her lead a week into ballot counting in Seattle’s mayoral race.
Wilson was 1,346 votes ahead of incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell after Tuesday’s ballot drop. She'd been up 91 votes the day before.
About 1,400 ballots remain to be counted, according to Halei Waktins, communications director at King County’s election department.
The race is still within the margin for a recount.
The Wilson campaign stopped just short of declaring victory on Tuesday.
"We want to wait until every vote has been counted, but we believe that we've won this race," the campaign said in a statement to KUOW.
The Harrell campaign released the following: "While not the direction we were hoping for, this remains a very close race, and we want to ensure every vote is counted."
County officials will certify the results of this election on Nov. 25. The state certifies the following week. A machine recount would take place after certification, if fewer than 2,000 votes separate the candidate and less than a half a percent of the total votes cast for both.
This is an extraordinary reversal from election night, when Harrell was leading by more than 11,000 votes, which gave him an eight-point advantage. However, Wilson has been chipping away at that gap as mail-in ballots continue to be counted.
The development follows an established electoral trend in Seattle where mail-in ballots typically favor progressive candidates. "I think we see progressive votes coming in late, younger votes coming in late. I think older people get their ballot in the mail, sit down at the kitchen table, and fill it out. Young people wait till the very last minute,” Wilson told KOMO.
Reminder that leading Seattle mayoral candidate and progressive socialist, Katie Wilson, was caught using alleged ANTIFA militants as her security.
— Cam Higby 🇺🇸 (@camhigby) October 31, 2025
This is where we are at. pic.twitter.com/SB2PIaaOiL
For Harrell to bounce back, he would have to win 80 percent of the remaining votes that have not yet been counted. But this is about as likely as former President Joe Biden climbing a flight of stairs without stumbling. Wilson has been winning 55 to 60 percent of recent ballot drops.
Wilson supports the typical socialist policies favored by the likes of Zohran Mamdani and others. She wants publicly owned affordable homes and rent control.
She is also an ardent advocate for public transit and wants to increase public funding for lower fares and policies that make public transit more accessible to residents.
The candidate also wants to raise the minimum wage while strengthening unions. She supports measures to guarantee sick leave, fair scheduling, and safety protections.
I don’t need to tell you she also favors universal childcare and health care, do I?
You will also be less than shocked to find out Wilson supports hiking taxes on big business and wealthy individuals to fund these projects.
Wilson does identify as a socialist, but is not a part of the Democratic Socialists of America, unlike Mamdani. However, she is aligned with several far leftist groups.
However, she indicated that she will pursue a more pragmatic governing strategy. She told CNN that her first four years “may not differ significantly from a progressive Democrat’s approach,” but will seek to introduce the Marxist policies over the long term.