JOHN CURLEY

Seattle mayoral candidates leveraging social media for voter appeal

Oct 18, 2025, 5:00 AM

As the race for Seattle’s next mayor between Bruce Harrell and challenger Katie Wilson continues to intensify, both candidates have prioritized building a strong online social media presence to boost voter appeal. In the August primary, Wilson earned nearly 51% of the vote, compared to Harrell’s 43%.

Wilson shared a post on social media discussing the price of pizza, which garnered more than 96,000 views. This prompted Mayor Harrell to release a campaign video explaining his deep ties to Seattle, accompanied by a touch of music from Nirvana and some pivotal Mariners highlights from recent years.

KIRO host John Curley laid out the two candidates’ participation in social media in full on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio, concluding that Wilson’s success on various social media platforms has led Mayor Harrell to follow suit.

“Apparently, social media is rearing its ugly head, or pretty head, when it comes to the mayoral race in Seattle,” Curley said. “I guess Harrell is slowly starting to make his way into social media, because he realized that Katie Wilson has done so well with that pizza thing she put on TikTok or Instagram, and Bruce decided he’s going to start flexing his Seattle roots on TikTok.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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