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ESTABLISHMENT DEMOCRATS TRIED TO DERAIL KATIE WILSON’S
CAMPAIGN—AND FAILED
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John Burbank and Megan Burbank
November 17, 2025
The Nation
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_ The precariat rose up, with passion, desire for change, and votes.
The issue was an excess compensation tax on corporations to fund
social, economically integrated, affordable housing across Seattle
which earlier had passed with a 26 percent margin. _
Seattle mayor-elect Katie Wilson speaks to Starbucks employees and
supporters as they gather to strike in front of the former Starbucks
Reserve Roastery that closed earlier on November 13 in Seattle,
Washington., Photo: Lindsey Wasson / AP Photo // The Nation
After a nail-biter contest that dragged out a week after election day,
Katie Wilson is set to be Seattle’s next mayor. Wilson, a small-S
socialist, built her campaign on progressive populism, and won the
support of Gen Z and millennial voters—voters who graduated with
massive college debt, who have navigated a dire job market and an even
worse scramble for housing, who don’t know how they can afford to
pay for childcare on top of their student loans, who know what it’s
like to buy business attire at Goodwill, and who had little interest
in retaining Seattle’s business-backed incumbent mayor, Bruce
Harrell.
Nine months ago, Katie Wilson wasn’t even considering a run for any
elected office. Harrell had sewed up endorsements from labor,
business, mainstream Democrats including Governor Bob Ferguson, and
progressive Democrats, including Pramila Jayapal. There was no
alternative to Harrell, who at best was a transactional politician
with bows to progressive initiatives when it was convenient.
But it was a progressive initiative opposed by Harrell, at the behest
of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, Amazon, and Microsoft, which set
the stage for Katie’s entry and Harrell’s defeat. This initiative
created an excess compensation tax on corporations to fund social,
economically integrated, and affordable housing across Seattle.
Harrell’s face was plastered on every piece of campaign literature
opposing the initiative. After all the votes were counted, the
initiative passed with a 26 percent margin.
The door opened up, and Katie walked in. She had just come in from
another of her successful minimum wage campaigns in the Seattle
suburbs, this one winning with 58 percent yes vote. Over the previous
15 years, Katie led the efforts for employer-sponsored free bus
passes, free busing for kids, and subsidized busing for disabled
people. Wilson thought up and then led the Trump-Proof Seattle
campaign immediately after the first Trump election, which resulted in
unanimous city council support for an income tax in Seattle (including
a yea vote from Bruce Harrell). She cajoled the city council to enact
a progressive payroll expense tax on the city’s largest businesses.
This may seem like a narrative about a progressive policy wonk. It is.
But that is not enough to win. Katie also touched the lives and hearts
of Seattle voters, especially the precariat, with her grassroots work.
Voters were drawn to Wilson not for her polish or charisma, but for
the opposite: her authenticity, her care, her sharp policy mind, and
even her awkwardness. This is what made her such an appealing
candidate, and it’s also why, when establishment Democrats launched
attacks on her candidacy, they failed.
But they certainly tried: After Wilson won handily in the August
primary, the Harrell campaign went negative, pushing the narrative
that Wilson was an inexperienced outsider unfit for public office. In
an election when voters wanted to see progressive change, this was the
only thing that seemed to stick, but not enough. Indeed, many voters
had enough of politicians with experience.
Harrell also shifted left after the primary, proposing to exempt small
and medium-sized businesses from Seattle’s gross receipts tax and
increasing this tax for companies with revenue exceeding $10 million.
This was the ultimate transactional candidate, following the voters
for their votes, not their hearts.
The Harrell campaign opined that Wilson’s parents had helped her pay
for her child’s daycare. For millennials, this only made Wilson’s
appeal more obvious. There was no need for the Harrell campaign to
tell them that Wilson quite relatably needs help paying for childcare,
which is too expensive for everyone, and that she might actually have
cause to do something about it at city hall.
True to the Pacific Northwest’s slow, process-based politics, the
procrastination of voting by millennials, and our robust mail-in
voting system, Wilson’s win wasn’t a done deal last Tuesday.
Initially, Harrell took the lead, suggesting that his attack ads had
pulled some support from the more centrist voters who typically cast
their votes earliest in Seattle elections.
But as the late ballot drops arrived over the days that followed,
ballots counted exceeded 55 percent of registered voters (compare this
to 42 percent in the NYC mayor’s election). Wilson’s share of the
vote grew. It became clear on Tuesday that Seattle’s young people,
marching to the ballot box, had risen up and voted.
Wilson’s win was one of many for progressive candidates in Seattle,
where voters ousted the conservative city attorney with two-thirds
vote of support for Erika Evans [[link removed]], the
granddaughter of Black Power leader and Olympian medalist Lee Evans.
They replaced the city council president, who had tried to roll back
the minimum wage, with a progressive opponent, Dionne Foster
[[link removed]]. And the youngest and most progressive
current city council member, Alexis Rinck
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percent of the vote.
In fact, progressive Democrats handily beat business Democrats in
every special state legislative election in Washington. In Tacoma,
Washington’s second-largest city, the progressive who ran on a
platform of affordable housing, childcare, and utilities won the
mayor’s office by 14 percent against a business Democrat.
Progressives swept the slate for the city council in Burien. Its
current mayor, who tried to prevent Burien’s minimum-wage initiative
from taking effect, lost his race for the state legislature.
When Mamdani carried New York, the media asked if he was the new face
of the Democratic Party. The same question is asked here in Washington
State. The Democrats are going to need to a big tent to beat back
fascism. With leaders like Mamdani and Katie Wilson they will build
that tent, winning younger voters to the Democrats and passing
universal social democratic policy into law. That’s how we can
return to power.
_[JOHN BURBANK is former executive director of the Economic
Opportunity Institute._
_MEGAN BURBANK is a writer and editor based in Seattle. Her reporting
and commentary have been published by The New Republic, NPR, Teen
Vogue, and alt weeklies and daily newspapers across the country. She
writes about politics and culture in her weekly newsletter, Burbank
Industries.]_
_Copyright c 2025 The Nation. Reprinted with permission. May not be
reprinted without__ permission_
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Distributed by__ PARS International Corp_
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