Mayor Harrell Seems Unbeatable Because His Old Political Opponents Aren’t Trying to Beat Him

Mayor Bruce Harrell recently announced his bid to keep his job as “CEO of Seattle,” aiming to break a nearly 15 year curse in which no Seattle mayor has secured a second term. Despite several high profile departures during his tenure, Harrell has managed to avoid scandals as damaging as those that ended the careers of his predecessors—Ed Murray’s child sex abuse allegations and Jenny Durkan’s missing texts. But now, even in a historically precarious office, the interests that once sought to keep business-backed Harrell out of power, namely organized labor, aren’t currently scouting for a challenger in this election. 

It’s still early. While the powers that be seem cool with Harrell so far, there’s still time for a strong, pro-worker candidate to emerge before the filing deadline in May. Such a candidate’s presence could call into question some progressives’ newfound faith in Harrell and force him to answer for his record on not only labor, but housing, homelessness, and public safety. 

The candidates for the 2021 mayoral race fit neatly into the two familiar lanes of Seattle politics — Harrell represented business, while his opponent, then-City Council President Lorena González, represented labor. The same business interests that paid for Durkan and Murray’s campaigns coalesced around Harrell, spending almost $700,000 in support of him and another $650,000 against Gonzalez, according to the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission.

And it seems Harrell has kept big business happy.

“Mayor Bruce Harrell’s first term has left our community – including the employer community – feeling very optimistic!” says president and CEO of the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce Rachel Smith. 

Smith cites the Chamber’s latest Index report, which found Seattle voters rated their quality of life and optimism higher than in previous reports. According to Smith, this marks the largest increase in these metrics in the report’s history.

Remember, the Chamber doesn’t endorse candidates—they swore off directly organizing PACs after a PR fiasco in which Amazon nakedly tried to buy the 2019 election. But the same donors who supported the Chamber’s previous PACs still pool their money under different banners every year.  

Still, Smith says, the Chamber believes the increase in optimism “shows that Mayor Harrell’s leadership—leadership that is pragmatic, progressive, and focused on getting the basics right—is moving the city in the right direction.”

Smith continues, “Coupled with managing the city budget, helping our community and businesses thrive by addressing public safety and drug use, and seizing opportunities that will benefit the city and region, we’re excited about working with him in 2025 and beyond. In other words, he’s kicking ass.”

On the other hand, labor unions may have changed their tune from Harrell’s last election. 

In 2021, more than 20 progressive unions including UFCW 21 (now UFCW 3000), SEIU 775, Unite Here! Local 8, and the MLK Labor Council endorsed Gonzalez. Unions spent about $440,000 to support her and another $460,000 against Harrell through the Essential Workers For Lorena PAC, SEEC reports. But this time around, labor doesn’t seem so stoked to put up a million dollar fight against Harrell. The reason appears two fold—PACs have limited bandwidth to support candidates and organized labor thinks Harrell’s done an okay job.

Next year, Seattle voters will weigh in on not only the Mayor’s race, but the City Attorney’s race, two Citywide council seats, and now, the newly vacated District Two seat. Out of the two main, moneyed powers that decide local elections, big business has far superior buying power than labor. And so far, Progressive People Power (P3) PAC has yet to realize its promise of serving as a fundraising supplement to labor— most of its money in the recent election came from SEIU 775. 

Labor must choose its battles carefully. UFCW 3000 Secretary-Treasurer Joe Mizrahi says that right now, labor is much more focused on finding someone to run against Council President Sara Nelson, but he’s still interested in who might jump in the Mayor’s race in the coming months. So far, SEIU 775 Secretary-Treasurer Adam Glickman says that he hasn’t heard of labor scouting a challenger for Harrell. 

Labor’s been cozying up with Harrell for some time. In May, MLK Labor Council honored him with a “Labor Oscar” as reward for his “excellent leadership in reaching a deal with the Coalition of City Unions, his support of ‘first-in-the-nation’ workers rights laws in Seattle… his work to ensure that there was a landmark Labor Harmony Agreement on the Seattle Waterfront,” and his “leadership” in passing Building Emissions Performance Standards legislation that will help create hundreds of union jobs.

“So we haven’t started an endorsement process yet in the Mayor’s race,” says Glickman. “But I can say that we really appreciate how the Mayor has repeatedly stood up for low wage workers against efforts by this council to undermine labor standards.” 

He referenced Nelson’s attempt to repeal the gig worker minimum wage and Council Member Joy Hollingsworth’s now-retracted bill to permanently enshrine a tip punishment system. While organized labor has credited Harrell with squashing the council’s attacks on workers’ rights, he never publicly opposed the gig worker minimum wage repeal. And he only called the sunset of the tip punishment system the “right thing for wage fairness” months after Hollingsworth had already withdrawn her bill. 

This is also the same Mayor who offered City workers a measly 1% raise, tried to strike human service cost-of-living adjustments, proposed cuts to the Office of Labor Standards, and faced accusations of trying to influence the City’s wage theft investigation at the Royal Esquire Club, a private social club where he served as board chair. 

But the lack of fire under labor’s ass to replace Harrell is not the only indication that Harrell has carved a wide lane for himself in his reelection campaign. Elected officials who previously endorsed Gonzalez have already come out in support of Harrell, including U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal, the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC) Chair, and State Sen. Joe Nguyen, once dubbed the “AOC” of the Washington State Legislature. Nguyen did not respond to my request for comment.

Jayapal calls Harrell a “great partner” to her and her office. She tells The Stranger: “He made a concerted effort to work with me on ensuring we bring the maximum amount possible of federal funding to Seattle for projects that have helped to build more affordable housing, support transportation and infrastructure, and to fight climate change. Mayor Harrell has also been a partner to me in pushing back on the MAGA extremist characterizations of Seattle, and helped me push the facts about how our city is a diverse, welcoming, and progressive place to live and work.” 

That’s not to say Harrell’s doesn’t have challenges. While he enjoys a relatively high approval rating—43% approval rating in a poll by the Northwest Progressive Institute—he’s also somewhat associated with Republican City Attorney Ann Davison and Nelson, as they ran on a pseudo joint slate in 2021 and have aligned on various issues in recent years. Neither Davison nor Nelson has nearly the popularity, scoring 27% and 22% approval rates respectively in the same poll. Davison has not announced her bid for reelection, so he may not have her baggage to deal with, but Nelson announced her’s earlier this week. Harrell’s campaign did not respond when I asked if he plans to endorse Nelson.

Additionally, Harrell’s pissed off other, less powerful interest groups in his tenure. Urbanists have criticized Harrell for his lackluster and slow-rolling Comprehensive Plan and lefties have criticized his zeal for sweeping the unhoused and his coziness with the cops. Those groups often align with labor, so if they can produce a strong challenger, the solid foundation Harrell seemed to roll out on may start to fracture.