2021 SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL
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Seattle City CouncilThe Seattle City Council is the legislative body of the city of Seattle, Washington. The Council consists of nine members serving four-year terms, seven of which are elected by electoral districts and two of which are elected in citywide at-large positions; all elections are non-partisan. It has the responsibility of approving the city's budget, and passes all legislation related to the city's police, firefighting, parks, libraries, and electricity, water supply, solid waste, and drainage utilities. (The mayor of Seattle is not considered part of council.)
Government and politics of SeattleSeattle is a charter city in the U.S. state of Washington with a mayor–council form of government. The Mayor of Seattle is head of the executive branch of city government, and the Seattle City Council, led by a Council President, is the legislative branch. The mayor of Seattle and two of the nine members of the Seattle City Council are elected at large, rather than by geographic subdivisions. The remaining seven council positions are elected based on the city's seven council districts. The only other elected offices are the city attorney and Municipal Court judges. All offices are non-partisan. Seattle is a predominantly liberal city and tends to elect left-leaning politicians to office. Bruce Harrell was elected as Mayor of Seattle in a municipal election on November 2, 2021, becoming the second Black mayor after Norm Rice, and first-ever of Asian descent.
2021 Seattle mayoral electionThe 2021 Seattle mayoral election was held on November 2, 2021, to elect the Mayor of Seattle. It was won by former Seattle City Council President Bruce Harrell, who defeated then-current President Lorena González; both candidates had advanced from a nonpartisan primary election on August 3. Incumbent mayor Jenny Durkan initially sought reelection to a second term in office in February 2020, but withdrew that December due to backlash from her handling of the economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic in Seattle as well as the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest during the George Floyd protests. Harrell held a 24-point lead over González when she conceded on November 4; his margin of victory was the largest of a non-incumbent candidate in a Seattle mayoral race since the 1969 election of Wesley C. Uhlman. Harrell took over as mayor on January 1, 2022, having previously held the position as acting mayor for five days in September 2017 upon the resignation of Ed Murray; due to a spike in COVID-19 cases, he was sworn in privately the prior week and held a small inauguration ceremony on January 4. The 2021 election was the first in which mayoral candidates were eligible to use Seattle's democracy vouchers program, which has captured the interest of other cities.
2021 Seattle City Council 3rd district recall electionThe 2021 Seattle City Council 3rd district recall election was held on December 7, 2021. Kshama Sawant, a member of the Seattle City Council from the 3rd district, defeated an attempt to recall her. This was the first recall election held in Seattle since the one held against Mayor Wesley C. Uhlman in 1975, and the first for a city councilor in the city's history. Ernie Lou filed a complaint against Sawant on August 18, 2020, to the King County Elections Office to start the recall campaign against her. The complaint against Sawant included allegations that she violated the law through the use of city resources for the promotion of a ballot initiative, the delegation of employment decisions to Socialist Alternative, and encouraging the creation of the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest. Sawant filed a lawsuit against the recall attempt, but the Judge Jim Rogers certified four of the six complaints, and the Washington Supreme Court certified three of those four on appeal. Sawant and her supporters attempted to have the recall held in November by collecting recall signatures themselves. The recall campaign submitted its signatures and were certified on September 30, 2021. The recall lost with 20,656 voting against and 20,346 voting in favor.
2019 Seattle City Council electionThe 2019 Seattle City Council election was held on November 5, 2019. Seven seats of the nine-member Seattle City Council were up for election. Four incumbent members of the city council did not run for reelection, while the remaining three incumbents all won reelection. Sally Bagshaw, Bruce Harrell, Rob Johnson, and Mike O'Brien all announced that they would not seek reelection to the city council. Andrew J. Lewis defeated Jim Pugel to succeed Bagshaw, Tammy Morales defeated Mark Solomon to succeed Harrell, Alex Pedersen defeated Shaun Scott to succeed Johnson, and Dan Strauss defeated Heidi Wills to succeed O'Brien. Incumbent councilors Lisa Herbold, Debora Juarez, and Kshama Sawant ran for and won reelection. The amount of money spent during the campaign doubled from the 2015 election, with Amazon spending $1.5 million to support multiple candidates, including Egan Orion against Sawant and Pedersen's campaign.
2021 Seattle City Council electionThe 2021 Seattle City Council election were held on November 2, 2021. Two seats of the nine-member Seattle City Council were up for election.
2023 Seattle City Council electionThe 2023 Seattle City Council election was held on November 7, 2023, following a primary election on August 1. The seven district-based seats of the nine-member Seattle City Council are up for election; the districts were modified based on the results of the 2020 census. Four incumbent members of the city council did not seek reelection. All seven contests in the general election were between a more moderate candidate endorsed by The Seattle Times and a more progressive candidate endorsed by The Stranger. Seattle Times endorsees won 5 of the 7 races, marking a significant shift from the 2019 Seattle City Council election, in which more progressive Stranger-endorsed candidates won 6 of the 7 contested seats.
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