📌PINNED: This is our quick take on the election results. Keep scrolling for more party updates.
HARRELL'S LEADING WITH GONZÁLEZ PROBABLY EVENTUALLY HOPEFULLY RIGHT BEHIND HIM, AND THE CITY ATTORNEY'S RACE IS FUCKING WILD
A couple caveats before we get going: The following results represent a portion of the ballots returned in this election. We're only looking at 17.2% voter turnout right now, and as of 6 pm today King County Elections registered a 24% turnout. King County estimates that this initial drop represents about half of the total ballots left to count, and they'll drop more results every day throughout the week.
At first glance, the biggest news is that batshit Republican Ann Davison is leading the Seattle City Attorney's race by two points over three-term incumbent Pete Holmes, 34.64% to 32.8%. Stranger endorsed abolitionist candidate Nicole Thomas-Kennedy is running a smidge behind Holmes with 32.15% of the current vote share. Unless Holmes's last-minute campaigning moved the needle at all, we expect NTK's numbers to improve over the course of the week, which would give Seattle the choice between an abolitionist and a living and breathing KOMO news segment.
In the race for Seattle mayor, former Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell starts with a 9-point lead over current Seattle City Council President Lorena González, 38% to 29%. Nobody else is even close—former Chief Seattle Club director Colleen Echohawk is running in third with 8%, followed by former State Rep. Jessyn Farrell in fourth (again—she came in 4th on primary night in 2017, though this time it's a close fourth). Guy who's dad used to be mayor Art Langlie is running fifth with 6%, followed by former Seattle Deputy Mayor Casey Sixkiller with 4% and then architect Andrew Grant Houston at 2.6%. In 2017, NIkkita Oliver and Cary Moon didn't move that much—Oliver jumped up a point and Moon inched up less than half a point—but last-minute ballots could go González's way depending on whether the last-minute progressive voter is using our endorsement guide or looking for the left-most candidate in the field. On our end, our highest readership on the post overwhelmingly came in the last three days.
Fremont Brewing co-owner Sara Nelson currently leads the City Council Position 9 race over Nikkita Oliver, 42% to 35%. Wouldn't be surprised if Oliver's numbers jumped up over the course of the next few days. Brianna Thomas, González's chief of staff, will begin the week with 14% of the vote share. She picked up a couple later endorsements, though, so that number could improve as well.
No surprises in City Council Position 8. Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda leads with 55% of the vote, and someone named Kenneth Wilson is second with 18%. We should google him later.
Third-term incumbent Executive Dow Constantine leads state Senator Joe Nguyen 54% to 29.69% (nice). That's decent for Constantine—he cracked 50%—but not a terrible position for Nguyen, who didn't spend nearly as much as the incumbent for his share of the vote so far. We'll be looking at this race second (after the city attorney's races!!!) throughout the week.
Best Starts for Kids, a levy to raise over $870 million to strengthen the county's safety net, will likely coast to victory. The levy is passing right now with 59% of the vote.
Speaking of kids, Vivian Song Maritz is leading her race against incumbent interim school board director Erin Dury and Laura Marie Rivera in District 4; 56% to 11% to 23%, respectively. We guess not enough people cared about her moving into the district and then moving again during the campaign after first moving into another district to run!
And we know who's happy about Michelle Sarju leading the school board race in District 5 with 82% of the vote: her liberal opponent, Crystal S. Liston, who pledged her vote to Sarju during the endorsement meeting with the SECB. Liston somehow pulled in 4% of the votes, with conservative Dan Harder nabbing 14% so far.
The county council races are looking mildly interesting. Nineteen-year incumbent Kathy Lambert is leading Democrat Sarah Perry 41% to 34%. If you add Democrat Joe Cohen's 24% to Perry's total, that's 58% of the district so far choosing someone other than the incumbent. Lots of shit could change, but if we were Lambert, we'd be feeling a little doomed at the moment.
The Democratic challengers running against ancient incumbent Republican Pete von Reichbauer and slightly less ancient incumbent Republican Reagan Dunn don't look as good. PVR leads District 7 with 56% of the vote. Stranger-endorsed candidate Saudia J. Abdullah is running last with 12%, trailing Lydia Assefa-Dawson at 16%, and Dominique Torgerson pulling in second with 16.3%.
Meanwhile, in District 9, Dunn leads with 57% of the vote share, followed by Renton City Councilmember Kim-Khanh Van with 21%, Chris Franco with 16%, and Ubax Gardheere with 5%.
PETE HOLMES IS ALLEGEDLY HAVING A GLASS OF WINE AND WATCHING THE OLYMPICS 9:30 PM
We don't have proof of this yet, but Pete Holmes's comms guy, Matt Wieck, said wine and the games were the three-term incumbent Seattle City Attorney's "gameplan" after the returns came in tonight. (Get it? "Gameplan" and the "games?" SEND THIS MAN TO COMMUNITY COURT.) "That's what you do when you have to go to work tomorrow morning and watch the ballots return" for the rest of the week, Wieck added.
Wieck said the longtime public servant is "feeling alright at this point" with the idea of trailing a batshit Republican by two points and basically tying an abolitionist defense attorney who battled his own prosecutors for four years. Wieck said a definitive outcome is "pretty hard to tell at this point." Given that Ann Davison (the batshit Republican) is leading the race right now with a little less than 35%, we asked Wieck to ask Holmes what he thought a Davison administration might look like. We'll update if we hear back and if we're not doing other posts by then.
32% OF SEATTLE VOTED FOR THE ABOLITION OF MISDEMEANORS 9:25 PM
Nicole Thomas-Kennedy hangs out with supporters of her abolitionist campaign. "Punishment isn't solving the problem. It's fucking stupid."
The party for supporters of Nicole Thomas-Kennedy in her abolitionist race for city attorney soon became a quiet, intimate gathering. Rather than give a speech, NTK chatted individually with supporters and thanked them for their support. Taste of Caribbean owner Carlene Comrie let the SECB know she was delighted to host the celebration for the candidate, who lives just around the corner, in the junction between the International District and the Central District.
The results showed a tight three-way race with Ann Davison leading with around 35% of the current vote, Pete Homes with 33%, and Thomas-Kennedy not far behind with 32%.
“The results seem positive,” Thomas-Kennedy told the SECB, noting that about a third of the Seattle electorate supports not prosecuting non-violent misdemeanors. “That's amazing and encouraging. People are done with this shit.”
“Prosecuting non-violent misdemeanors is counter-intuitive, harmful, and it’s only done in the U.S. It’s not justice,” she said as the party dispersed and people said their goodbyes.
When asked what sort of race it might be if Thomas-Kennedy faced Ann Davison, whose platform calls for increasing prosecutions, Thomas-Kennedy was optimistic she would do well in November. “Because I’m talking about actual solutions, not the same old shit. I just don’t understand these people who say, ‘I want to have compassion but I want to feel safe.’ There’s just no real sense of compassion in that. Punishment isn’t solving the problem. It’s fucking stupid.”
A supporter named Ish agreed: “Yeah, people who commit non-violent crimes don’t need incarceration, they need services and help.”
The results will continue to trickle in throughout the week, with late-breaking votes that trend young and progressive possibly favoring NTK. Whether NTK, longtime city attorney fixture Pete Holmes or Seattle Police Officers Guild-fangirl Ann Davison are on the ballot remains to be seen. It won’t be a boring race in November.
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