Election Fizz: City Employees Back Wilson for Mayor, Harrell Slams "Wilson's Defund Movement,"

At a press conference outside City Hall on Thursday morning, the union that represents thousands of City of Seattle employees, announced that they’re endorsing Katie Wilson for Seattle mayor. The endorsement is particularly monumental given that most of the city employees represented by PROTEC17 work for Mayor Bruce Harrell and are making the case to voters for firing their boss.

“This was not an easy decision for our union, but in these challenging times, PROTEC17 members are looking for a shared vision for a better city and a clear plan for how we’ll get there,” the union’s executive director Karen Estevenin, said. “”PROTEC17 members are deeply concerned with affordability in our city… [and] creating pathways that should have been created years ago for progressive revenue so that we can address the city deficit and prevent the loss of critical services right now.”

Although the largest coalition of local labor unions, the MLK Labor Council, endorsed Harrell, a number of smaller unions, along with the Working Families Party and all of the local Democratic Party groups, have endorsed Wilson—who, as the head of the Transit Riders Union, played a leading role in the passage of higher minimum wage laws around the region, renter protections in Seattle such as caps on move-in costs and late fees, and the JumpStart payroll tax that has saved the city repeatedly from devastating budget cuts.

“It’s not an easy thing to challenge an incumbent mayor who’s been in office a very long time, and I know that it is not an easy thing for people and organizations with skin in the game to support a challenger to such an incumbent, especially when that incumbent is your boss,” Wilson said Thursday. “I believe that we will win this race, and despite the enormous challenges facing our city, from a quarter-billion-dollar budget deficit to an escalating homelessness crisis to attacks from the Trump administration, I feel immensely hopeful for the future of our city.”




https://publicola.com/2025/07/17/election-fizz-city-employees-back-wilson-for-mayor-harrell-slams-wilsons-defund-movement-and-more/