Shall we say it? We will say it. Last night, SECB experienced what Chic called “good times,” with the exception of Bruce Harrell, who is still very much in the race. He claimed a 7-point lead on the first drop (53.3 percent to Katie Wilson’s 46.18 percent). But yet his allies suffered what can only be described as disastrous results.
- In District 9, Dionne Foster is in a cushy lead against incumbent Sara Nelson. Foster came away with 57.9 percent. Nelson with 41.6 percent.
- Over in District 8, Alexis Mercedes Rinck essentially saged the city of Rachael Savage’s presence, winning a dominant 78.7 percent to Savage’s 20.5 percent.
- In District 2, Eddie Lin will be the new city councilmember. He left election night with 68.6 percent of the vote. Adonis Ducksworth took 30.9 percent. We’ll still get you that skate park, buddy. Don’t you worry.
- As for City Attorney, it’s safe to say that Ann Davison is history. She will be seen as a kind of relic of the post-COVID years, while Erika Evans, who has a 25-point lead (62.5 percent to Davison’s 37.1 percent), is calling the shots as Seattle’s top lawyer.
- The County Executive Race is still neck and neck. Girmay Zahilay has a slight lead with 50.1 percent to Claudia Balducci’s 48.4 percent. A lot can shift in that second ballot drop.
Expect Katie Wilson to shrink a good part of Harrell’s lead in the coming days. The question at present is: Will it be enough? My guess? Expect a nailbiter. Voter turnout was lagging in the days before the election, but last night, at 7:59 p.m. in front of the Seattle Central ballot box, an election worker told us that they’d been doing this for five years, and they’d “never seen lines this long, not even for the last presidential election.” A comeback is possible. Kshama Sawant came back. Tammy Morales came back. It’s difficult from a math standpoint, but she can pull it out. Watch for our ballot drop update after 4 p.m. today.
This is the guy? You guys are cool with this? There was a lot to be happy about last night, but a perplexing amount of voters seem really chill about having four more years of Harrell. With the progressive ticket winning in droves, but Katie Wilson lagging seven points behind, it makes you wonder: How in the world were these people voting? To vote for a more progressive city council but to select a moderate mayor is to vote for continued dysfunction. The people voting for Harrell are the ones who like the status quo, sure, but they’re also the ones who like to bitch and moan about ineffective governance. Picking a mayor and a council that are at odds with each other is a recipe for another four years of stalemates and lost possibility. It opens the door for an election cycle where people can lambast the progressives on council for being ineffective and we will start this whole “backlash” song and dance all over again. The jukebox is always playing “The Boys Are Back in Town” but the boys here are bad mayors.
Just in Time, Another Harrell Scandal: At the eleventh hour, KUOW released a real humdinger of a story. Back when Bruce Harrell was city council president and while he was the board chair of the Royal Esquire Club, a Black men’s social club in Columbia City, he allegedly blocked a wage theft investigation into the place. He also allegedly made his council staff do secretarial work on behalf of the Royal Esquire Club. Our mayor is cool and ethical! Let’s elect him again? The story broke just in time for it to be really fucking weird that Harrell’s election night party was being held there. But not in time for any Harrell voters to change their minds. Not that they would have.
The State Legislative races look good, mostly. Democratic State Senate incumbents Vandana Slatter (D-Bellevue), and Victoria Hunt, (D-Issaquah), both seem like they’ll come out ahead of their challengers. For Slatter, that means besting her former House seatmate, moderate Dem Rep. Amy Walen with 56 percent to 42.3 percent of the vote. And Hunt will best Republican forever candidate Chad Magendanz leading 54.5 percent to 45.3 percent.
But one state leg race will be a fight to the finish. Rep. Edwin Obras (D-SeaTac), is defending his seat against Brandi Kruse’s favorite Democrat, evil Burien Mayor Kevin Schilling. As of last night, Schilling led with 50.2 percent to Obras’ 47.2 percent. It’s still within reach for Obras, but for now, it looks like all of Schilling’s attack mailers made a mark.
For more results, and a play by play of last night, visit General Election Night 2025.
Mayor Mamdani: Zohran Mamdani is the next mayor of New York City. Mamdani and handily defeated Andrew Cuomo. He earned the most votes of any candidate since 1969 with his vision of an affordable New York with rent-stabilized apartments, free childcare, and fast and free buses. Without the support of the Democratic establishment, Mamdani captured the hearts, minds, and, most importantly, the hope of the U.S.’s biggest city. If you have the time, watch his victory speech. It will coax a few tears out of even the most heartless among you. He’s really that guy.
That Speech: Mamdani opened with words from Eugene Debs, the socialist who ran for president five times. “I can see the dawn of a better day for humanity,” Mamdani said. “New York will remain a city of immigrants, a city built by immigrants, powered by immigrants, and as of tonight, led by an immigrant,” Mamdani said. Mamdani stood firm against Trump, telling him he knew he was watching and that he had four words for him: “Turn the volume up.”
Bomb threats that were emailed to several polling stations in New Jersey were not enough to stop that state’s voters from giving Trump a huge middle finger. And boy was it big. With 95 percent of the votes counted, Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill is nearly 13 points ahead of Donald Trump-endorsed Jack Ciattarelli (56 percent for the former; 43 percent for the latter). And, yes, Donnie, this was all about you and your goons, who can now only find sleep at military bases.
Prop 50 Passes: Californians love gerrymandering! Voters easily approved Proposition 50, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to redraw California’s Congressional maps for the 2026, 2028, and 2030 elections to gain up to five new sorely-needed seats for Democrats. Republicans have been redrawing Congressional districts to their benefit for decades while Democrats have twiddled their thumbs abiding by “the rules.” The playbook has changed. Might as well go on offense if we don’t want a Fourth Reich.
How will Donald Trump respond to this obvious defeat? He will of course do what he always does: double down. We no longer live in a world of facts, with regards to the White House and the GOP in general. Even if you are wrong, you must not concede, you must not change your mind and change course. You must double down. (Recall what the greatest economist of the 20th century, John Maynard Keynes, once said: “When the facts change, I change my mind—what do you do, sir?”) So, sane America, this is by no means over. Expect hell to pay with increased ICE raids and all manner of crimes. Expect more lies about Antifa and what have you. And expect an increase of American troops in our cities.
That said, Trump really was wounded last night, and so there’s blood in the waters of American politics. It will be—even as he does the double down thing—a little hard for capitalists and conservatives to bend to his will. In short, we may have left the age of certainty for Trump and entered that of vacillation? And exactly what do I mean by that? Spinoza offers this excellent explanation in his philosophical masterpiece Ethics: “[A] disposition of the mind, which arises from two contrary emotions, is called vacillation…”
The blood is in that water, yo:
WE GOT OUR ASSES HANDED TO US – Vivek Ramaswamy
— Raider (@iwillnotbesilenced.bsky.social) November 5, 2025 at 7:09 AM
Once again, the devil (for Trump) is in the details. Last night, Mississippi Dems broke the GOP’s supermajority by “flipping 3 legislative seats.” This is huge. Republicans in this deep red state have enjoyed absolute power for 13 years. It’s now over. Mississippi will resume a politics of “checks and balances.”
Weather: Rain, mainly before 4 p.m. Then showers and thunderstorms after 4 p.m. Tonight, you guessed it, more rain. And the leaves will fall in the rain, and we will dream of the dead as the rain and leaves fall on this city, which is really, if one thinks about it, a lake city.
A Plane Exploded: A UPS cargo plane crashed in a fireball on the runway in Louisville, Kentucky, killing 7 people and injuring 11 more. Video shows the plane taking off with a smoking, flaming left wing, lifting off the ground ever so slightly, and slamming back down to earth. The resulting fireball was enormous and shocking to see. Over 200 responders were on the scene last night.
WATCH: Dashcam footage shows truck driver reacting to deadly UPS plane crash in Louisville, Kentucky.
— AZ Intel (@azintel.bsky.social) November 4, 2025 at 9:57 PM
New Helltool for Demonfingers: The watchful Feds have released the facial recognition app Mobile Identify so local law enforcement can help them round up immigrants. Handing “this powerful tech to police is like asking a 16-year old who just failed their drivers exams to pick a dozen classmates to hand car keys to,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Center for Democracy & Technology’s Security and Surveillance Project, told 404 Media.
Child-LIKE? France put a damper on fast-fashion retailer Shein’s first physical store opening in Paris this morning by suspending its online platform until it gets to the bottom of the sex dolls with a “childlike appearance” found for sale on its site. These dolls are not child-like, or ambiguous at all. They look like children. They’re short. They’re prepubescent. They’re physically hard to look at. Shein said it is investigating how these child sex dolls slipped past its screening measures, and has temporarily removed its adult products for review. Why the fuck is a fast-fashion retailer selling sex toys anyway?? Get out of Spencer’s lane. I need a place to buy more lava lamps.
BTW: Shein has always sucked. Don’t buy their shitty clothes if you support workers. But, maybe you can’t even afford to make an unethical decision. According to the New York Times, almost half of all US imports have steep tariffs. They’re expected to dig into Shein’s massive profits this year.
On Tariffs: Today, the Supreme Court is hearing a case about the legality of Trump’s tariff spree. He’s been leaning on his emergency economic powers. He may not be able to do that, and he’s lost traditional conservatives on this. But with Justices like these, what is the law? Trump called the case “LIFE OR DEATH for our Country.” If only.
By the way, Dick Cheney, who died yesterday (the day of the UPS plane crash, and the day a socialist became of New York City), was, for 20 months of his life, something of a Darth Vader. Before he received a meaty transplant in March of 2012, his heart was basically a machine (LVAD device), which resulted in him living with no pulse. Indeed, he even feared terrorists would hack his robot heart. Cheney experienced 5 heart attacks during his time in spacetime.
Sandwich Trial: The man who hurled a Subway footlong at a federal immigration officer in Washington, D.C. is on trial. The officer who he hit, CBP Agent Gregory Lairmore, took the stand Tuesday to describe the incident. He said he felt the impact of the sub as it hit his ballistic vest. The sandwich “kind of exploded,” he said, “I could smell the onions and mustard.” Apparently, some of the ill-effects of being hit with a sandwich include that his coworkers got him gag gifts like a Subway sandwich plush toy. It reads like an I Think You Should Leave sketch.
The defense team presses Lairmore on whether the sandwich really ‘exploded.’ They return to the photo of the sandwich and wrapper on the ground.
“That sandwich hasn’t exploded at all, has it?” defense asks.
“It looks like a little bit is coming out towards the bottom,” Lairmore replies.
— Dave Jamieson (@jamieson.bsky.social) November 4, 2025 at 8:37 AM
In Other Important News: Tom Brady cloned his dog. Now he can kiss it on the lips for eternity. Lua died in 2023. Lua 2, named Junie, was made with the same technology used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996. Brady invests in the company, Colossal Biosciences, that made it possible. You may remember their dire wolf that wasn’t really a dire wolf, but was close enough to be really cool. And “close” is all a clone will ever be, Tom. You can’t bring your dog back, I’m sorry. Death is a heartbreaker, isn’t it? I’m sure you’re a loyal Slog reader, so here is a recommendation: listen to this classic This American Life episode about a man, a cloned bull, and what that cloned bull does to the man. If you and your dog had a special thing with peanut butter, don’t try it.
Conservatives rn:
Wilson will win. In citywide races there’s a minimum 8-point swing toward the Leftie candidate in post-Election Day ballot drops.
Other than one of the school board elections, the thumpus slate looks set to sweep! Go me! 😁
If Wilson loses, I suspect it will be due to the votes she lost when passing on the question of allowing homeless to camp in our parks. She still got my vote, but I guarantee it swayed a few folks.
“How in the world were these people voting? To vote for a more progressive city council but to select a moderate mayor is to vote for continued dysfunction. The people voting for Harrell are the ones who like the status quo, sure, but they’re also the ones who like to bitch and moan about ineffective governance. “
Mercy, such arrogance as think as a 9 layer Triple Chocolate Mousse Torte!
“How in the world were these people voting? To vote for a more progressive city council but to select a moderate mayor is to vote for continued dysfunction”
or as Charles states later in the Slog, its to vote for checks and balances. There are many people who may have voted for the progressive slate to poke the eye of Trump and what the Federal government is doing but that doesn’t mean they necessarily support some of the unrealistic policy positions being espoused. I do think @1 is right though and Wilson will make up the necessary ground so Charles will get his wish to see Seattle go full progressive. Should be an interesting and turbulent four years.
One more legislative race: in LD26, Dem Krishnadasan leads Rep Caldier 52.7-47.3.
@2 Wow. you voted the entire Stranger slate except for voting for Harrell. Who knew you were such a socialist?!
@3 I really doubt anyone for whom that response was a major issue was going to vote for her anyway. The “homeless shouldn’t be allowed to exist anywhere” set was already all in for Bruce, and anyone else should be able to respect a politician being unwilling to reduce a complex situation into a binary choice.
@6: most of their candidates were fine, and the ones who weren’t had opponents who were worse! 🤣
boatgeek @6: “@2 Wow. you voted the entire Stranger slate except for voting for Harrell. Who knew you were such a socialist?!”
I don’t believe AIPAC issued any endorsements in our local elections this year. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Anyway, agreed with DOUG. @1, I expect Wilson to squeak out a win. If Harrell hangs on, it’s going to take some anomalous late voter behavior.
I’m not too bent out of shape about this. I’m just disappointed that Claudia Balducci, who in my mind was our best local candidate in years, won’t be our next county executive. But even then, it’s not like I’m freaking out about a Girmay administration. The guy’s got his act together.
Or maybe I’m just basking in the glow of Mikie Sherrill crushin’ it in NJ. That’s the race where there was a serious threat of a MAGA win–and in a blueish state at that.
The engine FELL OFF that UPS Jet during liftoff.
The poor people on board and on the ground. A jet fuel fire is not a good way to go.
@8 Balducci was worse in your mind than Zahilay? Wild. You think you know a person and then they go and do a progressive 180 on you.
The Bellevue Chamber of Commerce is pulling for you, Katie!
“How in the world were these people voting? To vote for a more progressive city council but to select a moderate mayor is to vote for continued dysfunction”
I thought the TV Commercials that the Harrell campaign ran were very effective: One in which Harrell posed a question to Wilson about whether she ever managed a budget of millions of dollars whereby Wilson looked like a “deer in the headlights”. Also the commercials with Harrell dressed in a casual manner and speaking cheerfully about the past of his youth with a big fro. Made him come off as very personable to people who don’t slot into the very progressive and responsible in terms of budgetary spending, even if they don’t agree with all of the priorities.
While I was living Merida Mexico, I took advantage of the passport “stamp free” flights to Havana, and armed with a hot tome in 2000 (Hernando de Soto’s “The Mystery of Capital”), was able to get a glimpse at the dystopia that is Cuba. Impoverished doctors driving mini cabs to earn some scrap, aging fleets of cars belching smog across the city, families opening up restaurants in their homes courtesy of state approval – it was fascinating to witness a society that knew it’s political economy was a shambles and yet could not liberate itself from “theory over reality.”
It’s nice to know that now, after an easy flight to New York city, anyone can have the same experience. Schools doing economics coursework are highly encouraged to organize field trips there in the coming months and years. While Mamdani almost certainly be a failure as a mayor, given time, he may turn out to be one of his generations most influential educators.
Cue the final landscape shot from the original Planet of the Apes.
Not sure how I follow your logic RE the Seattle City Council. There will still be at least 6 moderate Councilmembers: D1’s Rob Saka, D3’s Joy Hollingsworth, D4’s Martiza Rivera, D5’s Debora Juarez, D6’s Dan Strauss, D7’s Bob Kettle. These people can stop Katie Wilson’s agenda, should she win; if she loses, they will continue to support Bruce Harrell’s agenda.
@14 I visited Havana and Cienfuegos in 2018. It is not how you described, though things have apparently gotten much worse there since, largely thanks to Trump. Also, New York is not Havana.
@14: I love it when people make up fairy stories to make themselves feel better. It’s nice to see you coping so well.
I think we should all keep our more conservative commentators in our thoughts right now. Today is a difficult day for them.
Colossal is a terrible company of liars and carnival barkers. Also, Brady did not clone his dog, he “worked with Colossal and leveraged their non-invasive cloning technology through a simple blood draw of our family’s elderly dog “. Go back to PR school Tom, learn better words. Also, of course, “clones” definitely don’t have the same personality but they don’t even tend to look the same. Environment has a big contribution!
@9: “I don’t believe AIPAC issued any endorsements in our local elections this year. 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣”
They didn’t? That’s weird. According to progressives, “those people” secretly control America! 😉
Lessons learned?
1. Gerrymandering is OK.
At least when it’s being done by the left
2. You can wish for the death of your political opponents as well as their children and still be elected.
NYC will be fun to watch as folks start to flee to avoid the tax increases. The tax the wealthy thing will turn into tax everyone pretty fast.
@17: On what grounds do you think it was made up?
@16: Even if Havana is more like @14 than what you saw, it doesn’t negate your argument.
@14 “It’s nice to know that now, after an easy flight to New York city, anyone can have the same experience.”
You think the US is going to impose sanctions and trade embargoes on NYC to “prove” socialism doesn’t work? Do you think they’ll also have the CIA incompetently try to invade?
@21 “Lessons learned?
1. Gerrymandering is OK.
At least when it’s being done by the left”
No, the lesson was, Republicans are going to do fuck shit regardless so Democrats might as well fight fire with fire. It’s a welcome change.
@21: “Lessons learned?
1. Gerrymandering is OK.
At least when it’s being done by the left”
Very well said. I’m sure you will wholeheartedly support Governor Gavin Newsom’s call for a nationwide redistricting commission to put an end to gerrymandering once and for all.
BTW, if anyone wants to see some gerrymandering that our friend ASaxman5537 is not offended by, check out Frank Bruni’s October 27 New York Times opinion column, “For Shame, North Carolina. For Shame.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/27/opinion/north-carolina-gerrymander-republicans.html
One particularly egregious example was provided by a commenter about the Ohio stage legislature: “Ohio is generally ~55% Republican and ~45% Democrat yet Republicans hold the house by 62-37 and Republicans hold the Senate by 24-9.”
21 impossible to tell if this kind of conservative pearl clutching we’re getting today is performative or if your heads are even further up your asses than it might already appear
If Katie Wilson loses it is because she sucks at politics. Allowed Harrell to run attack ads and no pushback (or maybe should have attacked first), really shitty answers about homeless in parks (it’s a cookie, Katie–just always answer you are going to kick them the fuck out) and a whole vibe that is sort of weak and shrewish that let Harrell walk all over her.
@28: those sound like rookie mistakes, maybe more experience would have helped? 😂
@27 – It’s always whatever you say it is barth, so it’s your call.
@28: But if she wins it is because she’s successful at propagandizing the gullible.
@28 or voters just didn’t like her policies?
@7 “unwilling to reduce a complex situation into a binary choice.” basically like you did with this response?
Bruce on the flop! Looks like Katie Wilson won’t be too busy this winter, maybe she can go back to Balliol and finish her degree 😂
One fascist Dick down, one Orange Nazi Turd and its MAGA minions to go.
Hell is reserved for RepubliKKKans.
@31: No, Calvin dear. If Katie Wilson is elected Mayor of Seattle it is because she is by far the better candidate and wise choice in this election. A lot of Seattle voters have grown tired of Bruce Harrell’s lies, weak promises, and caving to the insanely wealthy.
I’ve noticed that Taco Donaldo, on the other hand, propagandizes you quite easily. Gullible is your middle name.
How much out of your weekly allowance have you paid his lawyers?
Making yourself any more idiotic than you already are is nothing to be proud of. “Taking one for the team” is as inane as they come. Taco Donaldo is LAUGHING UPROARIOUSLY AT YOU. Get a clue.
@28, @29, @30, @31, and @32: Wow. The idea of Katie Wilson as Mayor of Seattle scares you cowardly little boys that much?
@33: Votes are still being counted, Trumpfus.
We voted later in the afternoon on Election Day (so ours probably went out with the last ballot box pick-up) and the system still doesn’t show our ballots as received when it normally would by now. So that supports the view that the election workers are flooded over there … and after much discussion, we went with Katie and Girmay. So they do have more late-show votes coming in.
@36 i.e. we’re probably statistically representative of a certain group of voters.
@35: “Votes are still being counted, Trumpfus.”
Yeah, counting them all the way to BRUCETOWN! 😂
“Ann Davison is history. She will be seen as a kind of relic of the post-COVID years”
Gladly it looks like progressives learned the lesson that running an out abolitionist won’t fly even in left leaning Seattle. In most cases, the slate of winning candidates were strong – the lone exception was Wilson, and she’s behind (and I don’t think she’s coming back – 8 points is a lot to make up after the first two ballot drops).
@34: If you’re looking for your purse, try the Mar-a-Lago Lost and Found.
@14
I was outraged when I visited Norway recently and there were no homeless people to make me feel better about being one class above them. And horrified to learn that the truly rich have to pay a wealth tax that makes them pay out on even their unearned but realizable stock portfolios. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wealth_tax
And those crazies insisted on functioning public transport. in a largely rural area, that brought me to an airport in the same zone as the city center.
And yet they have a equitable system with very little downside. And they just voted in a socialist.
A beer was at least $12, so there were downsides.
I will never understand why low information voters believe they benefit from a lousy gini coeffficient. Man up, you’re not going to join the elite any time soon. They just need you to believe you could. and you perform as they require.
All the information any voter knows is unknowable, and to not know that only comes from low-information elites like in @41.
@38: We’ll see. Votes are still being counted, Trumpfus.
@40: You’re the one who’s lost, Calvin. Did the EMTS finally pull your head and flashlight out of your ass?
No?? Gull-darned “pre-existing conditions”!
@angryone
I’m pissed, too
that those on the
Edge, which’s about 60%
of our Citizenry, believe they’re
just maybe Weeks away from Wealthy
when in fact
it’s an Elitist Club
they’ll Never See the Inside
of, unless it’s to Clean the motherfucker
But
Yeah
fucking
BRAVISSIMO
for Pointing Out
that, Yeah, a Much Better
World IS Fucking Possible —
but not when we’ve Sold America
off to the Cunning
and the Ruthless
an Notion
KkKlueless
KKKoollie’ll
NOT Acknowledge
Never in a Million Years
he’s been Brainwashed
and to admit it means
he’s merely a Tool for
the one-percenter’s KKKlub
@44: brushing up on you talking points again?
Just wait till your rich 1% born blowhard realizes he can’t raise taxes with his decrees alone.
41 they’re not all low information voters, a lot of them are assholes
@46
as long
as Someone
Else’s getting even
Shittier Treatment, those
MAGATypes could Not be MORE Pleased!
whilst they eat their shit sammys
with EXTRA MUSTARD to try
n’ help Disguise the
Disgusting Taste
of djt’s Fascism
‘Mmmmmmmmm!
they say~at Least
it Ain’t Diarrhea!’
@41: “And yet they have an equitable system with very little downside. And they just voted in a socialist.”
Yeah, it’s not like they have any natural advantage over other countries.
“The oil and gas industries play a dominant role in the Norwegian economy, providing a source of finance for the Norwegian welfare state through direct ownership of oil fields, dividends from its shares in Equinor, and licensure fees and taxes. The oil and gas industry is Norway’s largest in terms of government revenue and value-added.”
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Economy_of_Norway)
Drill, baby, drill! Is that your message here?