Harger: Watching Mayor Katie Wilson govern Seattle feels like a body-switching comedy. The reality of the job is catching up to her
May 29, 2026, 6:41 AM | Updated: 12:53 pm
I met Mayor Katie Wilson once before she was the mayor. Briefly interviewed her ahead of the primary in a race full of curious characters. I’ll admit it. I didn’t take her as seriously as I should. Nice person. The resume was thin. Multiple people in the primary had practical experience. At least Wilson didn’t accidentally steal Manda Factor’s phone like one of the other candidates did.
But not taking her candidacy as seriously as I should have in the primary? That’s on me.
As we got closer to the election, it became clear to me she was going to win. She was running as a very progressive candidate in a city that shares her politics. By the time I was consistently pointing to the resume shortcomings and lack of experience in my morning commentaries, the die had been cast.
Katie Wilson’s first weeks: a Starbucks boycott, a wave to high earners, and a council that wasn’t going to play along
At her first big speech after being declared the winner, Wilson urged people to boycott Starbucks. Last month, she dismissively waved “bye” to high-income earners on her way out the door. Fine. Seattle’s left elected her for it.
Then came the troubles.
A fundamental misunderstanding of the separation of powers. The Seattle City Council isn’t there to do the mayor’s bidding. What does Wilson think it is, Donald Trump’s GOP Congress?
Last week, the mayor’s office pushed council members to pull amendments to her shelter expansion bill. Council members called it a “vast overreach,” according to PubliCola. Seattle City Council President Joy Hollingsworth publicly criticized the mayor’s office over its communications.
SPOG president Kent Loux says the mayor’s office threatened him with policy violations over a publicly available CCTV video
Then there’s what happened to Kent Loux this week.
Loux is the president of the Seattle Police Officers Guild. SPOG and City Hall have been at each other’s throats for years. A union president criticizing a Seattle mayor is not, by itself, news around here.
What the mayor’s office did is.
After a Capitol Hill shooting, Loux posted publicly available CCTV video on social media to make a simple point: Surveillance cameras help officers catch violent criminals. He said he got the video from KOMO News. He shortened it. He added a red circle.
The mayor’s office demanded he take it down. They accused him of sharing a private law enforcement video and told him to “pull the post immediately.” When Loux explained the video was public, they doubled down. The argument: because it was edited, only a detective could have made it.
Anyone with a phone and ten minutes can edit a video like that.
The mayor’s office then threatened Loux with policy violations. The problem: SPOG is an independent union, not subject to Seattle Police Department policy.
SPOG sent a cease-and-desist letter threatening federal legal action. The mayor’s office retracted.
The video has now been viewed more than a million times.
Wilson’s chief of staff out, homelessness lead Jon Grant out
A few weeks ago, Wilson moved her chief of staff and longtime friend Kate Brunette Kreuzer to a “special projects” role. Esther Handy, a City Hall veteran, came in to replace her.
Wednesday morning, Jon Grant resigned. He was the chief advisor on homelessness and housing, the person tasked with delivering Wilson’s signature campaign promise: 4,000 new shelter beds, with 1,000 by the end of this year. The Seattle Times reported he was asked to step down.
That is a lot of motion in five months.
Mayor Katie Wilson’s awkward business video, the water bottle covered in stickers, and the high five from a hand off-screen
Wilson is a kind person. There is no edge to her in private, at least not when I met her. She is exactly the sort of person you’d want as a neighbor.
But a few days ago, her office released an official social media video intended to address the business community. She is holding her hands strangely. The shot includes a water bottle covered in stickers. She told business owners she gets them.
“I talk with business owners and corporate leaders all the time who are great civic partners,” Wilson said. “They are committed to our city’s success, and many of them are collaborating with my administration to build new shelter and bring people inside.”
The mayor’s one nice line about Seattle businesses is that she likes them when they’re doing something for her.
And at one point, she gives an awkward high five to a hand that reaches in from off-screen. You never see who it belongs to. A high five. To a disembodied hand.
It was supposed to be charming. It was instead … awkward. It is what happens when somebody around the mayor thinks a viral moment will fix what a press release can’t.
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Why this feels less like a press cycle and more like a body-switching comedy
This is Katie Wilson’s first real job. She ran the Transit Riders Union. She was barely paid. She managed a staff of two.
It is like one of those body-switching comedies from the 80s. “Freaky Friday.” “Big.” The kid wakes up in the adult body and isn’t really sure what they’re doing, but they try their best. The hands don’t know where to go. Everything is a half-beat behind.
Reality is catching up to her in real time. The council. The budget. The press. The business community. The homelessness contractors. The police union. The voters who liked the campaign rhetoric are now watching the city try to function on it.
And I notice I’m doing something I don’t usually do. I’m pulling punches. I’m writing about the mayor of a major American city the way you’d write about somebody’s kid struggling at their first real job.
That should tell you something.
Mayors of major American cities don’t usually invite that kind of treatment. The job is too big. Seattle has more than 800,000 residents, an $8.9 billion city budget, a police department, a homelessness crisis, a fentanyl crisis, and a council that increasingly looks like it’s running the show.
She is awash in it.
What the movies got right
One thing keeps me from writing her off completely.
In those body-switching movies, the kid figures it out. Not all at once. Not gracefully. But eventually. They ask the dumb question that turns out to be the right question. They shake something loose.
I don’t know if that happens here. The early signs are not encouraging. A boycott as an opening move. A chief of staff out. A homelessness lead out. A council that does not feel like a partner. A cease and desist letter from the police union. A video of a high-five to nobody.
Seattle elected her. Seattle owns this. The next four years will tell us whether the kid in the adult body figures out the job or the adults in the room have to start running the city around her.
I am rooting for the first one. I really am. The second one is what we’re watching right now.
Charlie Harger is the host of “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of his stories and commentaries here. Follow Charlie on X and email him here.
