Whoa. I’ll be honest, going into election night on Tuesday I really thought Prop 1A was toast. 

Like other Seattle voters, I received multiple full-page mailers featuring our Mayor Bruce Harrell’s smiling visage and signature, promising that by choosing Prop 1B I could have it all: social housing and no new taxes! The Prop 1A mailer was cheery and boasted some confidence-boosting endorsements, from the Building Trades Unions to the Seattle/King County Coalition on Homelessness. But only one arrived, and it was a mere half page. 

Then there was that early February poll from the Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI), which showed a tight race with an edge for Prop 1B among respondents who already voted and those who initially said they were undecided. “The Yes on 1A campaign and House Our Neighbors really has its work cut out for it in these final days of the election,” NPI executive director Andrew Villeneuve concluded.

House Our Neighbors had a ground game, sure, but could it match all that late-breaking cash from Amazon and Microsoft? 

Yes, as it turned out, it could. Despite being outspent in the final stretch, Let’s Build Social Housing’s disciplined, grassroots campaign reached voters where it mattered: at their doors, on the sidewalk, in their communities. Prop 1A is leading by an impressive margin, 60 to 40 percent. Seattleites don’t like their corporate overlords telling them how to vote. They do like social housing, and they want it funded through progressive taxes.

“The election results left no doubt that Seattle voters want our city to act quickly to create permanently affordable social housing for people living on a range of incomes — and we believe that our wealthiest corporations should help pay for it,” said Tiffani McCoy, Co-Executive Director of House Our Neighbors. “This is now the second time that Seattle has told its elected leaders, loud and clear, that we want social housing!”

What lessons can we draw from this victory for the left? Here are three.

First, Harrell is vulnerable. Plastering his mug on all those mailers doesn’t appear to have helped Prop 1B, and it probably didn’t help Harrell, either. No doubt his endorsement was meant to reassure. Instead, it solidified the image of a corporate-backed establishment scheming to undermine a popular initiative. From college football star to cheerleader for Amazon: Not a good look, Bruce!

Indeed, NPI’s recent poll suggests that voters’ view of Harrell’s job performance has dimmed significantly since last fall. In the context of his re-election bid, Harrell was viewed unfavorably by 50 percent of respondents—more so than Councilmember Sara Nelson (44 percent) or City Attorney Ann Davison (31 percent). Only 36 percent of respondents viewed Harrell favorably. His tarnished “brand” may actually have helped to sink the council’s alternative measure. 

Second, the future of social housing in Seattle may depend on electing a mayor who genuinely wants to see the new Seattle Social Housing Developer succeed—in other words, on defeating Harrell. The Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce’s efforts to undermine the developer will not stop with engineering and bankrolling Prop 1B. 

“Despite this clear mandate, we fully expect a legal challenge from the corporate interests who sought to defeat this measure,” said McCoy.

There’s every reason to believe that Harrell and a majority of the current city council will continue to be the Chamber’s willing instruments, creating and magnifying obstacles wherever possible. With four more years of delays and no appreciable results, Seattle’s social housing experiment could start to look like a failure, risking a decline in public support.

Third, and crucially, we should take care of what we conclude from Harrell’s vulnerability. Don’t think for a minute that it will be easy for a progressive challenger to unseat him. Yes, Seattle voters want to tax the rich. Yes, Trump’s reelection has somewhat rekindled the spirit of resistance, which feels notably absent from City Hall these days. But that doesn’t mean voters have stopped caring about homelessness and public safety, the two issues that drove the backlash elections of 2021 and 2023. While NPI’s poll doesn’t reveal the reasons for Harrell’s low approval ratings, my guess is that, above all, some who were initially hopeful about his tenure don’t feel he’s made a difference on the streets. A successful campaign to oust Harrell would have to offer plans that people can believe in. It better have learned some lessons and not merely revert to the lefty bromides of the past decade. Defund the police and stop the sweeps aren’t going to cut it.

There’s another King County city that should draw similar conclusions from this special election. Raise the Wage Burien hammered out a solid victory with 55% of the vote, raising the minimum wage to $21.10 with phase-ins for mid-sized and small employers. (Full disclosure, I helped to coordinate this campaign through my role with the Transit Riders Union.) As in Seattle, this measure was energetically opposed by the City Hall establishment, which worked with business interests to cook up an empty simulacrum of a minimum wage law in an effort to confuse voters. Our campaign even came to the brink of suing the City before it agreed to an accurate and non-prejudicial ballot title and explanatory statement. 

As in Seattle, Burien’s right-leaning council majority was cemented in the 2023 elections and is using its power to do fun things like pointlessly punish the homeless. Unlike Seattle, Burien’s mayor (Kevin Schilling, one of the council members selected by his colleagues) is unfortunately not up for re-election this year. But four of the seven council seats are, opening the way for progressives to retake a majority. Voters’ enthusiasm for raising the minimum wage, despite the City’s shenanigans, suggests that this is possible. But to be successful, candidates will have to inspire confidence that they offer a real way forward on homelessness and public safety.

There’s light on the horizon, Seattle and Burien! Let’s fight the chaos in the other Washington, not with doomscrolling and performative shock at Trump’s antics, but by setting an example of how to govern effectively and with integrity. The centrists have had their turn. This is the year to elect progressive local leaders who believe that government can solve big problems and get shit done. Let’s not squander this opportunity.