Early returns are in for Seattle’s city council races — see who’s ahead and who’s behind

Moments ago, King Coun­ty Elec­tions pub­lished its first tal­ly of 2023 gen­er­al elec­tion returns, includ­ing results for Seat­tle’s sev­en 2023 city coun­cil dis­trict races. The out­come of these con­tests will deter­mine what kind of coun­cil Seat­tle has for the next four years and what poli­cies it adopts.

Let’s take a look at who’s ahead and who’s behind in these ini­tial returns.

District #1

Dis­trict #1 includes West Seat­tle, SoDo, George­town, and South Park. It is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed by Lisa Her­bold, who is retir­ing after mul­ti­ple terms. The can­di­dates vying to suc­ceed her are Maren Cos­ta and Rob Saka.

Cos­ta is part of the slate endorsed by The Stranger and The Urbanist.

Saka is part of the slate endorsed by The Seat­tle Times.

In this first drop, Saka has a big lead, with 58.65% of the vote. Cos­ta is far behind, with just 40.77%. In the Top Two elec­tion, Cos­ta had a plu­ral­i­ty of the vote (33.13%) and Saka was around nine points back, at 24.12%.

The dynam­ic has def­i­nite­ly shifted:

Elec­tion Night Returns for Seat­tle City Coun­cil Dis­trict #1

	Rob Saka Non­par­ti­san | 10,088 votes	58.65%
	Maren Cos­ta Non­par­ti­san | 7,013 votes	40.77%

Costa’s deficit looks too big to recov­er from. The most like­ly sce­nario: She’ll sig­nif­i­cant­ly nar­row the gap with Saka by cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, but ulti­mate­ly fall short.

“I want to help Seat­tle rise to the chal­lenges of our times,” said Cos­ta in her voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “We must make rapid and mean­ing­ful progress on safe­ty, home­less­ness, afford­abil­i­ty, and cli­mate change. There are more unshel­tered peo­ple on our streets than ever. Imme­di­ate­ly, we need to increase sta­ble per­ma­nent hous­ing and coor­di­nate with region­al part­ners to ensure that those expe­ri­enc­ing home­less­ness have paths to nec­es­sary resources.”

“I believe in safe com­mu­ni­ties and bet­ter polic­ing. Every­one has a right to feel safe in their neigh­bor­hood, free of crime or unequal jus­tice,” said Saka in his voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “We must enact Both effec­tive pre­ven­tion strate­gies And appro­pri­ate response capa­bil­i­ties to meet the real­i­ties of today’s pub­lic safe­ty chal­lenges. […] At City Hall, I’ll nor­mal­ize col­lab­o­rat­ing across dif­fer­ences, find­ing com­mon ground, and get­ting bold things accom­plished that work for everyone.”

District #2

Dis­trict #2 includes Chi­na­town / Inter­na­tion­al Dis­trict (CID) and Yesler Ter­race along with the Rainier Val­ley (Colum­bia City, Oth­el­lo, Rainier Beach, Rainier View), Bea­con Hill, and Mount Bak­er. It is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed by Tam­my Morales, who is seek­ing reelec­tion. Morales is chal­lenged by Tanya Woo.

Morales is part of the slate endorsed by The Stranger and The Urbanist.

Woo is part of the slate endorsed by The Seat­tle Times.

In this first drop, Woo is ahead — but not by a mar­gin that Morales can’t over­come. Woo has 54.24% of the vote now, and Morales has 45.33%. That’s a deficit Morales could poten­tial­ly erase before cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, if there are enough late bal­lots and if those late bal­lots are favor­able to Morales (which they should be).

Elec­tion Night Returns for Seat­tle City Coun­cil Dis­trict #2

	Tanya Woo Oth­er | 7,242 votes	54.24%
	Tam­my J Morales Oth­er | 6,052 votes	45.33%

On Top Two Elec­tion Night, Woo and Morales were pret­ty close to each oth­er. Morales had 48.14% and Woo had 45.41%. By cer­ti­fi­ca­tion, Morales had passed the fifty per­cent mark, with 52.28%. Woo’s share of the vote fell to 42.56%.

“My office has a proven track record of tak­ing action,” said Morales in her voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “I com­mit­ted to invest­ing in his­tor­i­cal­ly under-fund­ed schools, so I fund­ed men­tal health and lead­er­ship pro­grams in Southend schools. I said I would pre­vent dis­place­ment, so we won ten­ant pro­tec­tions, mon­u­men­tal work­er pro­tec­tions — like paid sick leave for gig work­ers — and rent con­trol for small busi­ness­es. I secured per­ma­nent fund­ing for com­mu­ni­ty-dri­ven devel­op­ment, and for the Green New Deal.”

“We can have bet­ter pub­lic safe­ty,” said Woo in her voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “Every week, my watch group works side by side with com­mu­ni­ty and unhoused neigh­bors pro­vid­ing mutu­al aid and help­ing con­nect peo­ple to essen­tial ser­vices. I have admin­is­tered Nar­can, CPR and fought for our most vul­ner­a­ble, mar­gin­al­ized com­mu­ni­ties. We need a bal­anced approach that invests in com­mu­ni­ty pro­grams and works in col­lab­o­ra­tion with city agencies.

District #3

Dis­trict #3 includes Capi­tol Hill, First Hill, Mont­lake, Portage Bay, East­lake, Madi­son Park, Madi­son Val­ley, Madrona, Leschi, and the Cen­tral Dis­trict. It is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed by Kshama Sawant of Social­ist Alter­na­tive, who did not run again. The can­di­dates vying to suc­ceed her are Joy Hollingsworth and Alex Hudson.

Hud­son is part of the slate endorsed by The Stranger and The Urbanist.

Hollingsworth is part of the slate endorsed by The Seat­tle Times.

NPI’s polling found Hollingsworth with an almost 2‑to‑1 lead over Hud­son late last week. 52% of 327 respon­dents to our sur­vey said they had or would be vot­ing for Hollingsworth, while 26% said they had or would be vot­ing for Hud­son. 16% were not sure. It’s ear­ly, but these ini­tial returns sug­gest that our polling did a good job of pick­ing up on the dynam­ics with­in Dis­trict #3:

Elec­tion Night Returns for Seat­tle City Coun­cil Dis­trict #3

	Joy Hollingsworth Oth­er | 10,306 votes	58.28%
	Alex Hud­son Oth­er | 7,313 votes	41.35%

In this first drop, Hollingsworth has a sub­stan­tial lead over Hud­son, just as the poll sug­gest­ed she might. That impres­sive lead could eas­i­ly dwin­dle — pos­si­bly by a lot — in the late bal­lots, but prob­a­bly not enough to change the out­come. Hollingsworth is in a pret­ty com­mand­ing posi­tion in this first tally.

“My roots run deep in Dis­trict 3. I’m a non­prof­it food access leader, small busi­ness own­er, and third gen­er­a­tion Cen­tral Dis­trict neigh­bor,” said Hollingsworth in her voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “I’m also a com­mu­ni­ty con­nec­tor, prob­lem solver, and opti­mist. These are the per­spec­tives — along with need­ed LGBTQIA+ rep­re­sen­ta­tion – I’ll bring to City Coun­cil where I’ll build coali­tions, pro­vide tan­gi­ble goals to mea­sure progress, and ampli­fy voic­es that have been his­tor­i­cal­ly exclud­ed from policymaking.”

“I’m a pro­gres­sive urban­ist with a proven record of find­ing com­mon ground, solv­ing prob­lems, and deliv­er­ing results. I’ve already cre­at­ed pos­i­tive changes in hous­ing and tran­sit, reform­ing enforce­ment and improv­ing neigh­bor­hoods,” said Hud­son in her voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “I offer sub­stan­tive, con­struc­tive solu­tions to com­pli­cat­ed prob­lems like home­less­ness, pub­lic safe­ty, and afford­abil­i­ty. We can build more hous­ing, care for vul­ner­a­ble neigh­bors, and keep every­one safe. I under­stand how to make progress on our challenges.”

District #4

Dis­trict #4 includes Wedg­wood, Walling­ford, the Uni­ver­si­ty Dis­trict, Roo­sevelt, Raven­na, View Ridge, Win­der­mere, and Lau­rel­hurt. It is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed by Alex Ped­er­sen, who decid­ed against seek­ing reelec­tion after serv­ing a sin­gle term. The can­di­dates vying to suc­ceed him are Ron Davis and Mar­itza Rivera.

Davis is part of the slate endorsed by The Stranger and The Urbanist.

Rivera is part of the slate endorsed by The Seat­tle Times.

In this first drop, Rivera is in first place, with 55.33% of the vote.

Davis trails with 44.23%. Rivera is the favorite to win, but Davis can’t be writ­ten off yet. His deficit is sig­nif­i­cant, but it’s not quite as deep as Costa’s or Hudson’s.

Elec­tion Night Returns for Seat­tle City Coun­cil Dis­trict #4

	Mar­itza Rivera Oth­er | 8,281 votes	55.33%
	Ron Davis Oth­er | 6,619 votes	44.23%

“I’ve got a seri­ous plan to build the ambi­tious future we deserve,” said Davis in his voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “Seat­tle should be a place where peo­ple from any back­ground can afford to raise a fam­i­ly, build a career, and age com­fort­ably – and where no one lives on the street. Where it is as easy to get around with­out a car as it is with one, and where tomorrow’s work­force has hous­ing and child­care they can afford in tree-lined neigh­bor­hoods they love.”

“I’ll make pub­lic safe­ty my top pri­or­i­ty,” said Rivera in her voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “Five-minute response times for pri­or­i­ty 911 calls, get guns off our streets, shut down open-air drug mar­kets, help neigh­bor­hood small busi­ness­es recov­er, address addic­tion and the men­tal health cri­sis. It’s also unac­cept­able that three years after the mur­der of George Floyd, Seat­tle still has no alter­na­tive to armed response to 911 calls. Not all sit­u­a­tions require uni­formed police offi­cers, but some do. I’ll pri­or­i­tize mak­ing this happen.”

District #5

Dis­trict #5 includes North Beach, Crown Hill, Blue Ridge, Bit­ter Lake, Haller Lake, Lic­ton Springs, Green­wood, North­gate, Maple Leaf, Pine­hurt, Mead­ow­brook, and Lake City. It is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed by Deb­o­ra Juarez, who is retir­ing. The can­di­dates vying to suc­ceed her are Cathy Moore and Chris­Tiana ObeySumner.

Obey­Sum­n­er is part of the slate endorsed by The Stranger and The Urbanist.

Moore is part of the slate endorsed by The Seat­tle Times.

In this first drop, Moore has 70.14% of the vote, with Obey­Sum­n­er far behind at 29.45%. It’s the most lop­sided result out of all sev­en dis­tricts. This is the one race where it’s already safe to say the out­come is a fore­gone conclusion.

Elec­tion Night Returns for Seat­tle City Coun­cil Dis­trict #5

	Cathy Moore Oth­er | 10,377 votes	70.14%
	Chris­Tiana ObeySumner Oth­er | 4,357 votes	29.45%

“Dis­trict 5 needs an expe­ri­enced leader in City Hall focused on safe­ty, hous­ing, and afford­abil­i­ty,” said Moore in her voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “As a for­mer King Coun­ty Supe­ri­or Court judge, pub­lic defend­er (SEIU 925), and Seat­tle Human Rights Com­mis­sion Chair, I’ve tack­led tough issues, part­nered with first respon­ders, ser­vice providers, and com­mu­ni­ty lead­ers to improve safe­ty, ser­vices, and account­abil­i­ty. I bring proven expe­ri­ence mak­ing and uphold­ing laws, advo­cat­ing for mar­gin­al­ized indi­vid­u­als, and reform­ing bro­ken systems.”

“I am run­ning to pro­mote upstream solu­tions that deliv­er effec­tive, col­lec­tive, and sus­tain­able results,” said Obey­Sum­n­er in their voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “I’m deter­mined to help mend our pol­i­cy sys­tems to be more inter­con­nect­ed. If elect­ed, I will assure that city gov­ern­ment cen­ters and ampli­fies the needs and voic­es of the com­mu­ni­ty. Togeth­er, we’ll make sure Seat­tle works bet­ter for All peo­ple in our city. […] We can find col­lec­tive, effec­tive, and sus­tain­able pol­i­cy solu­tions that get to the heart of the issues fac­ing our district.”

District #6

Dis­trict #6 includes Mag­no­lia, Loy­al Heights, Bal­lard, Law­ton Park, West Wood­land, Phin­ney Ridge, Green Lake, and Fre­mont. It is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed by Dan Strauss, who is seek­ing reelec­tion. His chal­lenger is Pete Hanning.

Strauss is part of the slate endorsed by The Stranger and The Urbanist.

Han­ning is part of the slate endorsed by The Seat­tle Times.

In this first drop, Han­ning has a slight lead over Strauss, with 50.75% of the vote. It prob­a­bly won’t last. Strauss is def­i­nite­ly close enough to over­come his deficit of 409 votes and flip the lead, assum­ing the late bal­lots are favor­able to him.

Elec­tion Night Returns for Seat­tle City Coun­cil Dis­trict #6

	Pete Han­ning Oth­er | 10,136 votes	50.75%
	Dan Strauss Oth­er | 9,727 votes	48.7%

“Raised in Dis­trict 6, I’m com­mit­ted to our community’s suc­cess,” said Strauss in his voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “I want to raise my kids in a neigh­bor­hood that is safer than the one I grew up in. I’ve ded­i­cat­ed my life to pub­lic ser­vice, serv­ing with Ameri­Corps and work­ing to com­bat gun vio­lence. I’ve deliv­ered for our city by bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er to find com­mon ground. Things are bet­ter, but bet­ter’s not good enough.”

“I love Seat­tle. I grew up here and ran Fremont’s icon­ic Red Door for two decades. Now, I serve as Exec­u­tive Direc­tor of the Fre­mont Cham­ber of Com­merce, work­ing on issues for small busi­ness­es and neigh­bors,” said Han­ning in his voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “I under­stand the crit­i­cal ground-lev­el needs in our neigh­bor­hoods. I’ll take bold steps to improve Seat­tle. Sim­ply put, Seat­tle deserves bet­ter leadership.”

District #7

Dis­trict #7 includes the down­town com­mer­cial dis­trict, Bri­ar­cliff, Inter­bay, South­east Mag­no­lia, Queen Anne, South Lake Union, and Bell­town. It is cur­rent­ly rep­re­sent­ed by Andrew Lewis, who is seek­ing reelection.

His chal­lenger is Bob Kettle.

Lewis is part of the slate endorsed by The Stranger and The Urbanist.

Ket­tle is part of the slate endorsed by The Seat­tle Times.

In this first drop, Ket­tle has a more than ten point lead, with 55.79% of the vote. Lewis has 43.81%. The Lewis cam­paign says it expect­ed to be behind on Elec­tion Night, though per­haps not by this much. If the late bal­lots are numer­ous and very favor­able, Lewis might be able to pull a rab­bit out of a hat, but it’ll be tough.

Elec­tion Night Returns for Seat­tle City Coun­cil Dis­trict #7

	Bob Ket­tle Oth­er | 7,490 votes	55.79%
	Andrew J Lewis Oth­er | 5,882 votes	43.81%

“As the par­ent of a nine-month-old, I’m more deter­mined than ever to build a Seat­tle we can be proud to pass on to the next gen­er­a­tion,” said Lewis in his voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “In my first term, I brought togeth­er unlike­ly coali­tions to deliv­er results and I’ll con­tin­ue that work if re-elected.”

“I’m run­ning for Seat­tle City Coun­cil because I’m con­cerned about the incum­bent Council’s inac­tion and fail­ure on the most impor­tant issues fac­ing our com­mu­ni­ty,” said Ket­tle in his voter’s pam­phlet state­ment. “I’ll help lead our city to meet the chal­lenges we face on pub­lic safe­ty, pub­lic health, and home­less­ness. Seat­tle can feel like a thriv­ing, vibrant com­mu­ni­ty again.”

More results will be tabulated tomorrow

The next drop from King Coun­ty Elec­tions will be post­ed tomor­row after­noon. We’ll bring you analy­sis of those returns here on The Cas­ca­dia Advocate.