By Aaron Allen, The Seattle medium
Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson has been accused of deceptive campaign practices by utilizing the image of a prominent member Seattle’s Black community on a social media post that implies that he is supporting her campaign.
Claude Burfect, former vice president of the Seattle King County NAACP, claims he was shocked to see his name and image used by the Wilson campaign for an endorsement post on social media.
Burfect claims that he has not endorsed Wilson’s campaign for mayor. In a recent social media post, he said, “I never endorsed Katie Wilson, she was too far to the left.”
However, Wilson tells a much different story, claiming that Burfect did endorse her and now appears to have changed his mind.
“I don’t know what to do except tell you the truth,” said Wilson. “I had a nice long phone conversation with Claude, he endorsed me. And it’s fine if he changed his mind, people changed their minds, but we put that endorsement out, having gotten that endorsement and gotten that confirmed over email.”
The controversy has many community members outraged and alleging that the “false endorsement claim” by Wilson is not only disrespectful to Burfect but to the Black community as a whole.
“She’s deceptive,” said local Black entrepreneur Jim Buchanan. “She’ll do anything to win. This is not a mistake or a one off, but a pattern. It’s not about politics, it’s about the person, and she hurt the Black community.”
“You (Wilson) hijacked a photo of a community leader, Claude Burfect, and Mayor Bruce Harrell, and cropped the mayor out of the photo and used the picture of Claude to post on the internet claiming he endorsed you,” said Buchanan. “We have a written statement from [Claude] verifying, ‘he did not endorse you,’ nor did he give you permission to hijack his photo, name and reputation to post on the internet saying that he did.”
Former state Rep. Dawn Mason described the incident as a reflection of Katie Wilson’s political inexperience and questioned her fitness to serve as mayor.
“Katie Wilson, who seeks to captain our city through turbulent waters, has shown herself to be a leader lacking integrity. A Photoshopped image falsely claiming endorsement from a respected Black community member is not just misleading, it’s a lie,” said Mason.
“A picture may be worth a thousand words, but a cropped photo is worth none,” Mason added.
Wilson, a native of upstate New York, moved to Seattle in 2004 with her husband. Wilson said that her decision to run for mayor was motivated by her experience watching the city undergo significant changes over the past two decades.
“I moved to Seattle in 2004. I grew up in upstate New York but have been living here for over 20 years,” said Wilson. “I have a daughter now who’s two years old, and over that time I’ve just watched the city transform. It’s a very different city since back in 2004.”
Wilson pointed to Seattle’s development and affordability crisis as the driving force behind her campaign.
“I just kind of watched this population boom and development. There’s been some good things, but it’s also made Seattle so hard to afford,” said Wilson. “We’ve seen displacement, especially in the last few years coming out of the pandemic, with high increases in rent and the cost of living. People are struggling. I’m a renter myself, and I think people need relief.”
While Wilson’s campaign has received a lot of attention since her surprise showing in the primary election, this most recent controversy has many leaders in the Black community speaking out and engaging a broader coalition of their political allies about what they believe is best for the city.
“We’re going through turbulence, and we have an experienced pilot in the cockpit,” said Mason. “Changing the pilot in the middle of this storm for a passenger who’s never even been in the cockpit, doesn’t know the controls — that’s dangerous.”
“It’s alarming that she’s convinced people she should be running the largest corporation in Seattle,” Mason said.
Katie Wilson addressed the controversy surrounding Claude Burfect’s alleged endorsement and expressed disappointment over how the situation has unfolded.
“I wish him nothing but the best. I don’t want to be criticizing him here,” said Wilson. “It is unfortunate that people are spreading this stuff around.”
Editor’s note: The Seattle Medium has reached out to Claude Burfect for comment and asked Wilson to provide copies of the email correspondence with Burfect where she claims to have verified his endorsement of her campaign. Neither party has responded prior to press time.
