Sawant lead grows in Seattle City Council race
Nov 14, 2013, 4:22 PM | Updated: Nov 15, 2013, 7:40 am
In the latest election results released Thursday, socialist Kshama Sawant leads in the Seattle City Council race by 1,148 votes over Richard Conlin.
Her campaign hopes she gains enough votes to avoid an automatic recount, which is triggered if a candidate’s lead is less than half a percentage point of total ballots cast. She crossed that threshold on Thursday.
On election night, Sawant was losing by four percentage points, but ballots counted after election day skewed heavily toward her.
Sawant mounted the most successful campaign of any socialist candidates in Seattle’s history. The last socialist candidate to make it into the general election was in 1991 and was defeated easily.
Sawant campaigned on focused inequality issues, including supporting a $15 minimum wage and taxing the wealthy.
Meanwhile, in SeaTac, the minimum wage measure is passing by only 53 votes.
The election results will be certified on Nov. 26.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
