By less than one percent, progressive candidate Katie Wilson defeated incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell in Seattle’s 2025 mayoral race, which was first projected on Wednesday as remaining ballots are still being counted.
Bruce Harrell conceded the election Thursday afternoon.
In September, TPUSA Frontlines reported on one aspect of Wilson’s campaign, that is, a series of false endorsements from civil rights leaders and community organizers among Seattle’s black community. Claude Burfect, who marched with Martin Luther King Jr., and other civil rights figures in the Seattle area, expressed frustration over the matter.
“I never endorsed her, she was too far to the left,” Burfect told TPUSA Frontlines reporter Jonathan Choe. Wilson never apologized to him, who at the time of the election race wished she had dropped out. He is now pursuing legal action against Wilson.
“I called her what she is: it’s shady Katie,” said community organizer Jim Buchanan. “She’s deceptive, she lies, she’ll do anything to win.”
During her campaign, Wilson took photos with other black leaders in the region without their permission, making it seem as though they endorsed her later as they were posted online. These were eventually deleted from Wilson’s campaign website and social media accounts upon the complaints of the leaders she took pictures with.
“I don’t know you,” one woman told her during a candidate’s forum, mentioning she had asked others in the “black community” for information on Wilson.
Wilson was confronted by Choe with questions regarding these false endorsements, only to be met with no response from the now mayor.
