Nov. 14 (UPI) — Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, a career politician who aspired to a second term as the conservative leader of Washington’s largest city, conceded defeated in this week’s mayoral election to Katie Wilson on Thursday night.
The race was officially over Wednesday night when the number of remaining outstanding ballots was smaller than Wilson’s lead. Polling results showed that Wilson, 43, won by 2,000 votes, the thinnest margin for a mayoral race in recent Seattle history.
Harrell said he talked to Wilson on Thursday morning to offer his congratulations, and offered assistance with a transition to her administration.
“The Wilson administration will have new ideas,” Harrell said. “It will have a new vision. By winning the election, they have earned that right. We must listen to the young voters.”
Wilson held her own news conference shortly after Harrell finished speaking and acknowledged the “anxiety and fear” she said some people feel, but pledged to work to ease the uncertainty.
“I am delighted, beyond delighted, to be your next mayor,” Wilson said to a crowd of supporters at Seattle Labor Temple in Sodo. “It is an honor and a privilege that I will do my very best to be worthy of.”
Wilson congratulated Harrell for nearly two decades in public service.
“I know that we are in this together,” she continued. “And we cannot tackle the major challenges facing our city unless we do it together.”
Wilson’s razor thin victory margin belied her 10% victory in the primary election, and made Harrell’s performance somewhat of a surprise.
She is a self-described socialist and has a scant political resume, The New York Times reported. Analysts said voters had a distinct choice between two very different candidates.
“They are almost opposite sides of the same coin in terms of personalities,” said Joe Mizrahi, a Seattle school board member and secretary general of the United Food and Commercial Workers 3000, among the largest unions in the area.
Wilson has pledged to find “progressive” ways to pay for housing and other basic services the city needs, and has said that Seattle has been a “kind of laboratory for progressive policy,” and inferred that her administration will pursue similar ideas in the future.
She has pledged to pursue a $1 million bond to pay for home construction and establish new protections for renters, who make up 56% of people living in the city.