Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell accuses opponent Katie Wilson of darkening photo
Oct 2, 2025, 3:35 PM
Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has accused his opponent, Katie Wilson, of darkening a photo of him.
The photo, posted by Black-led progressive group Common Power, showed Harrell’s skin appearing to have been edited to a different color, PubliCola reported earlier this week. The group used it to promote a debate watch party.
In an email, Harrell’s campaign called the photo “darkened” and included the subheading: “Another chapter in the troubling history of manipulating skin color to dehumanize candidates of color in politics.”
“The altered image of Harrell’s face is several shades darker and more saturated,” Harrell’s campaign wrote.
oh my god. first of all, that’s not Katie Wilson’s campaign, it’s an unrelated group led by Black and brown Seattleites that supports progressive causes and candidates. Second, that isn’t “darkening”—if anything, they could be accused of turning the knob on “Trump orange”
— Erica C. Barnett (@ericacbarnett.bsky.social) September 26, 2025 at 5:44 PM
Harrell’s campaign manager, Marta Johnson, sent a statement to PubliCola.
“We are asking the Wilson Campaign and Common Power to immediately retract the manipulated image and apologize for the clear intent to darken Bruce’s skin tone,” she wrote. “There is no excuse to alter the tone of a candidate’s skin, especially given the troubling history of racist intent behind these types of manipulations.”
During a debate Saturday, Harrell said Wilson used the “tactic to darken my image in a regular picture, to make me look ominous, OK?” according to PubliCola.
Common Power addresses photo of Harrell
Common Power subsequently responded to Harrell’s allegations.
“The claim that we ‘darkened’ Mayor Harrell’s photo is both offensive and untrue. As a Black man leading an organization primarily run by people of color, I know firsthand the harm caused when racial tropes are weaponized in politics,” Executive Director of Common Power Charles Douglas stated, via a news release from Wilson’s campaign.
“To suggest that Common Power engaged in such tactics is a sensationalist smear that reeks of desperation from a mayor who has repeatedly contributed to inequality and hurt the very communities he now claims to represent,” he continued.
However, Common Power replaced the photo of Harrell with a new version.
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Katie Wilson reacts to Harrell’s claims
Katie Wilson told MyNorthwest that her team was not involved with the production of the image, adding that the photo was entirely separate from the campaign.
“We had no role nor knew in advance that either of those organizations would be commenting on this issue publicly,” Wilson’s campaign wrote via email.
Wilson and Harrell will face off again tonight — but will the divisive photo be a topic of conversation?
“We are hopeful that it won’t, given that it was such an obviously manufactured controversy,” Wilson’s campaign stated. “We recognize the long and pernicious history of the darkening of leaders of color’s skin in attack mailers and advertisements, and we unequivocally condemn this tactic. But this simply wasn’t that.
“It’s frustrating that our opponent is resorting to bad-faith attacks to draw attention to his campaign because he’s nine points down, but we will continue to focus on our city’s future and the core issues as we always have,” her campaign continued. “Seattle deserves a public debate focused on the city’s future and the issues people are facing. The moment is too important for anything else.”
Watch the mayoral debate at 7 p.m. live on MyNorthwest or listen on KIRO Newsradio.
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