In the race for the next mayor of Seattle, Bruce Harrell holds a strong lead over Lorena Gonzalez. In early returns, Harrell has garnered 65% of the votes (84,975) to Gonzalez’ 35% of the vote (46,046). If his lead holds, Harrell will become the second African American, and first bi-racial, to be elected as mayor of Seattle. In city of Seattle races, King County elections has counted 132,667 ballots. There are a total of 489,996 registered voters in Seattle. Historically, King County has had less than a 50% turnout for off-year general elections.
King County Executive Dow Constantine (57.31%) leads Joe Nguyen (41.55%) 169,087 votes to 122,573 in his re-election bid.
Incumbent County Councilmember Kathy Lambert is trailing her opponent, Sarah Perry by 3,415 votes in early returns. Lambert’s campaign has lost a great deal of momentum and support after sending out a racially insensitive campaign flyer featuring King County Councilmember Girmay Zahilay.
Two of the races for Port of Seattle Commissioner are running very tight in early returns. For position 2, incumbent Stephanie Bowman (50.72%) hold a 5,600 vote lead over Hamdi Mohamed (48.74%). For position 4, incumbent Peter Steinbrueck (49.98 %) holds a 1,537 vote lead over Toshiko Grace Hasegawa (49.44 %).
In Seattle School Board races, Michelle Sarju (82.05 %) and Brandon Hershey (91.43 %) have commanding leads in their races. Sarju, running in District 5, would serve her first term if elected, while Hershey, running in District 7, would retain the seat that he was appointed to in September of 2019.
In the City of Tukwila, City Council candidate Mohamed Abdi with 62.78% of the vote appears to be on his way to becoming the youngest African/African American to be elected to public office in Washington state, while De’Sean Quinn (64.32 %) appears to be on his way to serving a fourth term on the Tukwila City Council.
In Tacoma, Mayor Victoria Woodards declared victory in her re-election bid after securing 58% of the vote against Newcomer Steve Haverly. Woodards released the following statement after hearing the election results: “I am grateful to Tacomans for their confidence in my leadership and will not fail them in our mission to build a more resilient equitable economy, end the crisis of gun violence on our streets, and tackle our toughest challenges like homelessness. Together, we will transform Tacoma into the City of Destiny we know in our hearts it can be.”
The Seattle Medium will provide updates to election results throughout the region as they come in.
