First term Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda is on track for reelection this autumn and is likely to cruise to a second term in November past a crowd of opponents who simply aren’t getting any traction among Seattle voters, a new poll conducted for the Northwest Progressive Institute suggests.
26% of likely August 2021 Seattle voters said they were voting for Mosqueda, while 55% said they were not sure. The remaining respondents said either that they would not vote (3%) or picked one of Mosqueda’s opponents.
The challenger who looks most likely to get through to November and face Mosqueda is activist Kate Martin, perhaps best known for the unsuccessful “Park My Viaduct” ballot measure that Seattle voters overwhelmingly rejected a few years ago. 6% of respondents said they were voting for Martin.

A visual of NPI’s poll finding for Seattle City Council Position #8, 2021
Martin’s campaign is running ads that ask Seattleites if they’ve “had enough,” but most of the voters who have formed an opinion about the field of candidates vying for City Council Position #8 evidently don’t agree.
Mosqueda’s other challengers are all under five percent.
Paul Felipe Glumaz and Bobby Lindsey Miller are tied for third place with 3% each. The other candidates either got 1% or received no support in our poll, which was conducted by Change Research for the Northwest Progressive Institute.
Our 2021 Top Two Seattle survey has a modeled margin of error of 4.3% at the 95% confidence interval. All 617 respondents participated online. The poll was in the field from Monday, July 12th, 2021 through Thursday, July 15th, 2021.
Here are the exact questions that we asked, and the responses that we received:
QUESTION: The candidates for City Council Position #8 this year are listed below in the order that they will appear on the August Top Two ballot. Who are you voting for?
[See list of candidates as it was shown to respondents]
ANSWERS:
- Not sure: 69%
- Teresa Mosqueda: 19%
- Kate Martin: 5%
- Paul Felipe Glumaz: 2%
- Bobby Lindsey Miller: 2%
- Alexander White: 1%
- Kenneth Wilson: 1%
- Jordan Elizabeth Fisher: 1%
- Jesse James: 0%
- Alex Tsimerman: 0%
- George Freeman: 0%
- Brian Fahey: 0%
FOLLOW-UP QUESTION ASKED OF UNDECIDED VOTERS ONLY: If you had to choose, who would you vote for?
ANSWERS:
- Not sure: 81%
- Teresa Mosqueda: 9%
- Kate Martin: 2%
- Bobby Lindsey Miller: 1%
- Paul Felipe Glumaz: 1%
- Kenneth Wilson: 1%
- Jesse James: 1%
- Alexander White: 0%
- Alex Tsimerman: 0%
- Brian Fahey: 0%
- Jordan Elizabeth Fisher: 0%
- George Freeman: 0%
- Would not vote: 4%
COMBINED ANSWERS, BOTH QUESTIONS:
- Not sure: 55%
- Teresa Mosqueda: 26%
- Kate Martin: 6%
- Paul Felipe Glumaz: 3%
- Bobby Lindsey Miller: 3%
- Alexander White: 1%
- Kenneth Wilson: 1%
- Jesse James: 1%
- Jordan Elizabeth Fisher: 1%
- Alex Tsimerman: 1%
- George Freeman: 0%
- Brian Fahey: 0%
- Would not vote: 3%
Teresa Mosqueda — who has a long and distinguished history of involvement in Washington’s labor movement — was first elected to the Seattle City Council in 2017, easily defeating rival Jon Grant. She received 121,192 votes (59.85%), while Grant received 81,302 votes (40.15%).
Mosqueda has broad and deep support among labor, Democratic, and progressive organizations for her reelection bid, with a long list of endorsements.
A testimonial from U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal, perhaps the most popular officeholder in Seattle, graces the front page of Mosqueda’s reelection website, which has an Accomplishments page in addition to a Priorities page.
Mosqueda’s top accomplishment is the enactment of the Jumpstart Seattle revenue recovery plan, which levied a tax on large employers with payrolls of $7 million or more to fund essential public services under financial duress due to the coronavirus pandemic. The tax has so far withstood a challenge from Seattle’s business community, which has contended that it is unconstitutional. A King County Superior Court judge disagreed; that ruling is being appealed.
The Stranger, which endorsed Grant four years ago, is now an enthusiastic backer of Team Teresa, with The Stranger Election Control Board writing:
“In our endorsement of her competition in 2017, we called Teresa Mosqueda a ‘self-styled consensus builder’ who would ‘ride into city hall on bold promises only to disappear into milquetoast centrism.’ In her four years on the council, Mosqueda has proven us all wrong. We will eat crow, but not in front of other crows, as we fear they may keep harassing SECB member Charles Mudede.”
The Seattle Times, meanwhile, published a widely criticized editorial earlier this week saying that it was making no endorsement in the race, but nevertheless offering some praise for Mosqueda’s first term on the Council.
“To her credit, Mosqueda has a reputation for listening to the business interests antagonized by other far-left council members,” the Times editorial board wrote in its commentary on the Position #8 race, which was promptly dubbed a non-endorsement endorsement by several commenters.
“She pushed to provide pandemic emergency resources to residents, small businesses and childcare sites. Before joining the council, she helped write the successful initiative for a higher state minimum wage, which this editorial page supported. She speaks up for port commerce, which happens to rely on union jobs. Mosqueda has enviable political skills, but this list of positives is too short to merit reelection when the count of wrongheaded moves is so long.”
Having concluded that none of Mosqueda’s rivals are credible opponents, the Times ended its commentary with a line that acknowledges the editorial board expects Mosqueda to be reelected this autumn to a second term: “Seattle deserves better. Mosqueda ought to try delivering it more often.”
Mosqueda’s supporters say she has already delivered for the people of Seattle and will continue to if she is reelected. She is the only candidate listed in Fuse’s Progressive Voters Guide for Seattle City Council Position #8.
Though most voters in our survey said they were undecided, we anticipate the vast majority will ultimately back Mosqueda when they go to vote.
Ballots in the August Top Two election are due back by Tuesday, August 3rd at 8 PM. A list of drop box locations in Seattle and across Martin Luther King Jr. County is available from King County Elections. Ballots can also be returned through the United States Mail, but we recommend using a drop box.
NPI does not endorse candidates for office and is not aligned with any of the candidates running for elected positions in Seattle this year. No campaigns were involved in the design or execution of this survey.
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