First candidates concede as November showdown for Seattle mayor takes shape

A handful of Seattle mayoral frontrunners have officially bowed out of the race, leaving early leaders Bruce Harrell and Lorena Gonzalez as the likely candidates facing off in November’s general election.

Bruce Harrell, Lorena Gonzalez leading in Seattle mayoral primary

With a large portion of votes already counted, Harrell and Gonzalez are out to a commanding lead over the rest of the field at 37% and 29%, respectively. Chief Seattle Club Executive Director and homelessness advocate Colleen Echohawk trails behind the pair in third at 9%, followed by former state lawmaker Jessyn Farrell at 7%.

Farrell was the first to concede, making the announcement after Wednesday night’s results were released by King County Elections.

“While the voters of Seattle have not chosen me to advance to the general election, it has been a privilege to talk with voters about the issues like gun violence prevention, the climate crisis and so much more,” she said on Twitter. “This is a moment for everyone in Seattle to get off the sidelines to do our part to transform structures of money and power and I’m not going back to the bench.”

Farrell served as a Democrat in the state House for four years between 2013 and 2017. She left office to run for Seattle mayor in 2017, garnering over 21,000 votes and placing fourth in the August primaries behind Jenny Durkan, Cary Moon, and Nikkita Oliver. More recently, she’s served as senior vice president at the Civic Ventures policy firm.

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Echohawk and Andrew Grant Houston were the next dominoes to fall this week, announcing their concessions Thursday evening.

“Despite these trying times, we came together to push the mayoral race and the conversation around it further left,” Houston said in a statement published to his campaign website. “… The fight doesn’t end here. And this campaign was bigger than myself. But for now, our campaign ends.”

Echohawk led all candidates in fundraising throughout the election cycle, having brought in over $500,000 across nearly 6,000 individual donors. She emphasized the need for the remaining mayoral candidates to focus on solving Seattle’s homelessness crisis in her own concession posted to Twitter.

“I hope that every voter looks at all the candidate’s stands and plans on homelessness,” she said. “I will continue to push our candidates and our city to lay out specific plans and proposals to get our 12,000 homeless off the streets and into shelter.”

Houston and Farrell’s fundraising efforts were similarly strong, with the former receiving the most Democracy Vouchers of any candidate across all Seattle primary races, but receiving the seventh most votes so far at 2.5%.

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