The Army veteran and husband of a former Congressional candidate has been detained by ICE since August. If he's detained much longer, he could lose his eyesight.

For some weekend reading, @thestranger.com partnered with The Guardian to explore what it means to run a winning mayoral campaign as a community organizer.

ICE raids are rising, and Seattle says SPD cannot help. Advocates call Harrell’s order mostly symbolic, so the council is pushing SPD to spell out how officers will respond, what they can refuse, and how they will protect residents if federal agents overreach.

- Marjorie Taylor Greene Is Out - Trump Has a New Crush - The Olympic Pipeline Could Screw Over Your Holiday Plans Get this news and more at The Stranger!

King County Council Saved the Sound Stage, but It’s Only Funded for the Next Six Months

Took a brief break from the news to rip my horrible couch to shreds www.thestranger.com/arts/2025/11...

The disingenuous whiners at the Seattle Times ed board actually suggested that Katie Wilson—mayor-elect and the founder of the Transit Riders Union (who used to do outreach at the bus stop on Third and Union)—doesn't know that the county, not the city, runs the buses. Cry harder, losers

During his concession speech, Harrell said: "A lot of people were saying that I shouldn’t concede and that there were anomalies, differences, and stuff." There was no evidence of irregularities. At all. Why imply this? He didn't say. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/11...

Katie Wilson explicitly called herself a socialist in her victory speech. Can't wait for the conservative media frenzy from that soundbite.

In the lobby of City Hall, waiting for Bruce Harrell's speech where we expect him to concede the mayor's race in a couple minutes.

It's official: Katie Wilson is the next mayor of Seattle!

The results are in. Katie Wilson is up by 1,976 votes and 0.72 percent of the vote. It’s tight, but we’re outside of recount territory. Katie Wilson will be Seattle’s next mayor.

For those wondering why the ballot counts didn't quite add up today (ballots counted were less than total votes and write-ins went down), King County Elections says they go through all the write-in ballots by hand and some of those were for one of the two candidates, so those got added to the totals

With this new ballot drop, Katie Wilson is very likely our next mayor.

This will be dragging on..... "We are currently not planning to work the weekend but will be back at it on Monday and working and posting results on Tuesday over the Veterans Day holiday as well."

Head's up from King County Elections on today's ballot drop: "We are planning to add about 100,000 ballots to the counts (countywide) in today’s results update around 4 pm. We expect about half of those to be Seattle ballots."

Your ballot might not have counted!

Thursday's ballot drop just happened. So, who's our new mayor? Ha! Good question. We don't know. Nobody knows. Wilson shrank the gap between her and Harrell, but he's still in the lead. More ballots will be counted tomorrow. Stay tuned? www.thestranger.com/news/2025/11...

This is the election equivalent of a 15-inning ALCS game jfc

this county taking a cue from the mariners and edging us

As of 10:00am today, King County Elections is reporting that turnout in the City of Seattle has reached 37.96% with 191,827 ballots received. 118,043 ballots were counted as of last night. Turnout numbers will increase as more ballots are received.

Allow small apartment buildings everywhere. Yes, everywhere. www.sightline.org/2025/10/28/t...

This.

Still not over Mayor Bruce Harrell wanting a 10 foot wall with an AI MLK, Jr. so you could ask him what he had for breakfast.

NEW // Wilson Maintains Lead over Harrell, Two New Polls Indicate Story by Doug Trumm @metropolitanglide.bsky.social via @theurbanist.org www.theurbanist.org/2025/10/24/w...

This is backup in our polling data as well. 65% of the respondents between 30 and 44 plan to vote for Wilson, and 59% of respondents 18-29. But it's all about turnout. When we narrow the sample just to likely voters, this race gets tight. www.thestranger.com/stranger-pol...

Sometimes a candidate gets so focused on landing a hit on their opponent that they end up criticizing something a lot of people actually live through. At that point, it’s not really an attack on their opponent. It’s an attack on voters. It makes them look small and out of touch.

Washington state is one of only 5 states that have a 100% vote by mail system in place, but some new USPS rules may affect when your vote actually gets counted in time.

Two weeks out from the election, the mayor took the mic to announce a tentative deal with the police union that would let the CARE crisis team double in size. The trade-off? SPD walks away with more money.

Our November general election endorsements are hot off the press!

Imagine this story being written about Harrell, or any other male politician: writing condescendingly about how his parents contribute to the care of their grandchildren; sniping at his spouse for not being gainfully employed; talking about having a "toddler on his hip." www.kuow.org/stories/kati...

I explained why this looks like a violation of campaign finance law: “They are getting information from and about the campaign that is not available to the general public—that's inside information that they're then using to electioneer on Bruce’s behalf,” Fincher says.

"It Was Cold": Mothers Who Lost Children to Gun Violence Say Harrell Ignored Their Pleas for Help “What mothers go through in crisis is not a one-time opportunity—it’s ongoing." publicola.com/2025/10/16/i...

During the game is fine too.

This seems fake but it's completely real: Audio of Seattle's current Mayor dreaming of a giant computer-simulated Martin Luther King, something the King family has explicitly asked people not to do. Big thanks to Erica Barnett for being the only reporter in town covering these events so closely!

Relatedly from just the other day… www.bet.com/article/n9fz...

Harrell has said a lot of wild things during this campaign, but this one might take the cake.

When she announced her campaign, Wilson was unknown to most Seattleites. Then she won the primary in a landslide that no one expected, not even her. We at The Stranger thought it was time we got to know her better. My takeaway: I don’t think Harrell has any idea what he’s up against.

The city is obsessed with shutting down unlicensed taco trucks and people selling fruit from tables, saying they've gotten complaints from vendors who paid their fees and got to be vendors the right way. I'm 100% with Charles on this one: Unauthorized vendors are a feature of real cities.

Seattle mayoral candidate Katie Wilson is really fucking interesting. This stunning profile by @hmwinter.bsky.social takes a look inside who Wilson is and what shaped her. Give it a read: www.thestranger.com/news/2025/10...

Hey!!!! People (and real estate development groups) are trying to buy the mayoral election again: www.thestranger.com/news/2025/09...

"In explaining the rationale behind the lane’s planned removal to The Urbanist, the department was open about the fact that it was driven by property owners in the area, not nearby residents or people who frequently use these transit connections." Ugh this is my bus and my neighborhood booooooo

In his closing statement, Harrell said, "This is not the time for hope. Passion and great ideas and inexperience is just not going to get us there. Trump will walk all over a person without experience, period."

Earlier this month, three trans women were beaten by a group of young men in Seattle's gay neighborhood. According to the county prosecutor's office, there's been at least four more group beatings since June 2024. In one case, strangers joined in. The kicker? www.thestranger.com/news/2025/09...

Seattle City Council voted 7–2 to expand police surveillance cameras to Capitol Hill, SoDo, and Garfield High School. Civil rights groups and 17 state legislators warned this hands Trump’s feds a tool to track immigrants, queer people, abortion seekers, and activists.

Seattle Children's is eliminating 5 percent of its staff (155 filled roles, 350 open ones) over Trump's Medicaid cuts. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/09...

MLK Labor just voted to convert their sole Bruce Harrell endorsement into a dual endorsement of Harrell + Katie Wilson. The decision "shows both candidates have earned meaningful support from working people and accurately reflects the views of union members across Seattle," they said in a statement.

Wrote about the manifold splendors of the late John Whitson's legendary Holy Mountain label for @thetonearm.com . This one really meant a lot to me, and I thank editor Michael Donaldson for the opportunity. www.thetonearm.com/requiem-for-...

They're looking at you to keep you safe, even if research shows it won't keep you safe. More on a vibes-based conservative council here. www.thestranger.com/news/2025/09...