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Three key comments -
Seattle voters are the most hacked off bunch of all.
The Democratic Party is as unpopular as itrCOs been in 30 years.
Democrats donrCOt like their own party right now.

from https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/the-switch-that-flipped-in-seattle-politics/

The switch that flipped in Seattle politics

Nov. 1, 2025 at 6:00 am Updated Nov. 1, 2025 at 6:01 am
Tech royalty, including Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk,
gathers for Donald Trump’s inauguration at the U.S. Capitol in Washington in late January. Seattle voters took it to be a bad look, as tech-backed local politicians are learning, writes Seattle Times
columnist Danny Westneat. (Julia Demaree Nikhinson / AP)
T
Danny Westneat By Danny Westneat
Seattle Times columnist
Maybe no image better represents the swirling passions in Seattle
politics right now than one taken nine months ago, 3,000 miles away.

You remember it, IrCOm sure. The tech titans lined up, with Jeff Bezos (Amazon), Mark Zuckerberg (Meta), and Elon Musk (Tesla), preening at the
feet of Donald Trump on the day of his inauguration last January.

It was a historic concentration of immense wealth at the gates of
American democracy.

rCLThat event rCa it was like it flipped a switch.rCY

ThatrCOs the view of Tim Ceis, a Seattle lobbyist and campaign moneyman.
Known as rCLThe SharkrCY for aggressive tactics when he was a deputy mayor
at City Hall 20 years ago, herCOs now trying to save incumbent Mayor Bruce HarrellrCOs political life with a $1.4 million independent ad campaign.

I asked him what is the possible path to a Harrell comeback victory,
after a brutal 9-point loss to upstart challenger Katie Wilson in the
August primary. He outlined a theory for one, which IrCOll get to in a
minute. But first he took the temperature of our city.

rCLVoters here are pretty upset,rCY Ceis said. rCLAnger has continued to show up in the polling. People who self-identify as progressive are the most
angry. You canrCOt overestimate how much TrumprCOs return is influencing
local politics around the country.rCY

ASeattle pollster Stuart Elway agrees. His most recent survey found
voters here are the most disgruntled theyrCOve been in decades. Seattle
voters are the most hacked off bunch of all.

rCLIt means choppy waters ahead for incumbents generally,rCY Elway said.

The Democratic Party is as unpopular as itrCOs been in 30 years. The main reason for the low marks, though, comes from within. Democrats donrCOt
like their own party right now.

Add the capitulation of blue-city tech elites to Trump, along with some
media and universities, and yourCOve got the ingredients for a rCLleft populist backlash surge,rCY says Erik Olsen, professor emeritus of
political science at Seattle University.

WerCOve all heard of rCLdrain the swamp.rCY Now the left wants to do that, too, Olsen says.

rCLItrCOs a version of what happened with MAGA and the Republican Party,rCY he said. rCLThererCOs a palpable frustration now over on the left. ItrCOs the same current charging up the New York City mayorrCOs race.rCY

Enter Katie Wilson, an activist, 43, who hasnrCOt held elected office or
any government post. She had been helping a Seattle social housing push
last winter, and, when it won, she was electrified. That night she
decided to run for mayor.

The Seattle measure gave voters a choice between paying for some housing
out of existing revenues, as Mayor Harrell advocated. Or taxing wealthy corporations, with a new levy on pay packages north of $1 million.

Polls showed a tight vote. After the tech oligarchs lined up at TrumprCOs inaugural, and the Elon Musk DOGE fiasco began to set in, Ceis says the tax-the-rich plan took off.

rCLIt just popped,rCY he says. rCLIt won by 26 points.rCY

Wilson, a socialist in a city cleaved by extreme wealth disparities, was perfectly situated to marshal all the above trends.

rCLThe establishment Democratic party failed to stop the train wreck of TrumprCOs election, and thererCOs been a strong counter reaction to that,rCY Wilson told me last month. rCLPeople are hungry for a new kind of
leadership, whatever label you want to put on it.rCY

HarrellrCOs campaign is exasperated that after years of identity politics, Seattle progressives seem blithely open to swapping out a Black mayor,
from a blue-collar family in the Central District, for a policy activist
who grew up in the ivory tower.

Harrell, though, has been backed by most of the elected power structure
in the state, as well as top corporate executives at Microsoft and Amazon.

It has set up an awkward dynamic. Harrell is The Man. But with the
electorate so restless, he also wants to be seen as a disrupter.

rCLContinue the Change,rCY read one strained slogan tried out by Deputy
Mayor Tim Burgess in an email blast.

rCLA lot of people in Seattle are not necessarily angry at Harrell,rCY
summed up Mark Alan Smith, a UW political scientist, to The New York
Times. rCLBut theyrCOre absolutely angry at politics.rCY

Those are the tremors beneath the surface. So does Harrell have a shot
at dodging an earthquake?

Ceis says the pro-Harrell PAC held some voter focus groups after the
primary. Wilson had pushed some now-radioactive far-left ideas only a
few years ago, such as defunding both the police and the criminal
division of the City AttorneyrCOs Office, which would have made the prosecution of most misdemeanor offenses impossible.

ThatrCOs all stale news, the focus groups said.

Wilson also has proposed up to eight new taxes, on corporations, land
and wealth. Eight is probably a campaign record, even for Seattle. But
it hasnrCOt stuck as a negative issue.

rCLWe tried to show she was too far left, but that fell flat as hell,rCY
Ceis said.

So the campaign pivoted to attacking her lack of experience. Ceis
contends Seattleites know the cityrCOs recovery is fragile. So HarrellrCOs hope is that voters will flinch at putting a newbie at the helm.

rCLKatie Wilson isnrCOt ready to be mayor,rCY reads one of an avalanche of mailers from the PAC, with a copy of WilsonrCOs thin resume.

The experience question can cut two ways, though.

rCLBruce Harrell has been in office 16 of the last 18 years. We know
EXACTLY what werCOll get with four more years,rCY a recent Wilson mailer reads.

rCLThis election, letrCOs not rinse and repeat,rCY reads another pro-Wilson mailer, depicting Harrell and City Council President Sara Nelson in a
rusty old washing machine.

Olsen, of Seattle University, predicts: Advantage Wilson.

The cityrCOs condition has improved under Harrell, but it likely came rCLtoo little, too late,rCY he said. rCLI do think this election will be closer
than the primary. But thererCOs this massive cultural unease, about Trump
and Big Tech dealing for more corporate tax cuts, about the weakness of
the Democrats, and so on. ItrCOs probably too much to overcome.rCY

Amazon dropped an October surprise, announcing major layoffs. Harrell
seized on the bad news to ask his big closing question: Is now really
the moment for Seattle to try another political experiment?

But then Amazon also announced it had raked in record profits, up 38%.
The stock soared. The companyrCOs valuation rocketed up $225 billion rCo
more than the entire valuation of Boeing in a single day rCo raining unfathomable wealth, once again, on elite parts of its home city. A city
still with homeless encampments and a budget deficit.

Remember when they used to say all politics is local? Not anymore.

Danny Westneat: dwestneat@seattletimes.com. Danny Westneat, a metro news columnist at The Seattle Times since 2004, takes an opinionated look at
the Puget Sound region's news, people and politics.
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