Who is Katie Wilson, Seattle's Mamdani?

Progressive Katie Wilson won the election for mayor of the city of Seattle, Washington. Although the polls were held last Tuesday, Nov. 4, late votes gave her a victory more than a week later. With a speech that some analysts compared to that of Zohran Mamdani in New York, she defeated incumbent Bruce Harrell, who represented the more moderate faction of the Democratic Party.

According to official results, Wilson beat Harrell by about 2,000 votes out of 275,913 cast, 50.19% to 49.48%. With this data, Decision Desk called the race in her favor.

"This campaign was driven by a deep belief that we need to expand the table to include everyone in the decisions that impact their lives. That is what we will be working to do every day as we set up this new administration," the progressive candidate said in a victory statement.

As mayor, she will have to oversee 41 agencies and manage a $9 billion budget.

Who is Katie Wilson and how did she go from college dropout to Seattle mayor?

The 43-year-old activist was born in New York and studied physics and philosophy at Oxford University in England, but she dropped out six weeks before graduating.

Once in Seattle, she co-founded the nonprofit Transit Riders Union (TRU), which works to defend public transportation and the rights of users of the local transit system.

As reported by The New York Post, she lives with her family in Seattle and has received financial support from her parents for personal expenses.

The Seattle mayoral race was her first political campaign. Although she started far behind in the polls, she had the backing of high-profile progressive figures such as Jamaal Bowman, a former congressman and member of the legislative group 'The Squad'.

Slowly, she gained ground and local recognition, moving from single digits to being neck-and-neck with Mayor Harrell, who at first appeared to be guaranteed re-election. For example, he had the backing of Pete Buttigieg, former Secretary of Transportation, as well as Senator Maria Cantwell.

On Election Day, Harrell led Wilson by eight percentage points, some 10,000 votes. Decision Desk HQ even went so far as to declare the mayor the winner, a decision they had to retract.

Gradually, that margin began to shrink significantly thanks to the arrival of late ballots. Washington is one of the states that has predominantly mail-in voting for many local elections. Local law states that a ballot is valid if it is sealed and postmarked on or before election day, even if it arrives later.

Late ballots are ballots that voters mailed in before or on election day, but that reached the authorities one or more days later. It is precisely these votes that facilitated Wilson's victory.

While she has stated that she does not consider herself a very ideological person, she is comfortable with the description "socialist."

"Yes, I am a socialist. I’m not out here waving a socialist flag, because I’m not a super ideological person. I’m also not sure that label will help me in the general election. But yes, I’m fine with being called a socialist," she declared earlier this year.

On healthy food, she assured that it is a "basic right." "We cannot allow giant grocery chains to stomp all over our communities, close stores that will leave behind food deserts. Together, we can build a Seattle where fresh food is for everyone, not just for those who can afford it," she added.

When it came to talking about Israel, she accused the country of "genocide," which worries some Jewish leaders in the city. According to Jewish Insider, Wilson "echoes hollow narratives about Israeli genocide in Gaza and calling for divestment of any city funds invested in Israel."