Katie Wilson, the frontrunner in Seattle's mayoral race, puts housing at center of campaign

"This is not what I expected to be doing this year," Katie Wilson said, sitting in the Business Journal's conference room five weeks after her shocking Aug. 5 primary win over Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell.

To those not of the activist class, she seemed to come out of nowhere, in a city where she landed in 2004 during a cross-country Greyhound bus tour with her newlywed husband Scott. In their early 20s, they came wanting to get involved in community organizing.

"We wanted to change the world," she said.

Twenty-one summers later, she is an established community organizer and the surprising frontrunner in Seattle's mayoral race. She counts among her endorsers former Seattle councilmember Tammy Morales, who vacated her seat late last year, frustrated with the direction of the city council.

https://www.bizjournals.com/seattle/news/2025/09/22/katie-wilson-seattle-mayor-race-leader-harrell.html