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A little more than a week after socialist New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani took the reins of the nation’s largest city, voters in Seattle elected a socialist that has been compared to Mamdani to lead the West Coast’s fifth-largest city by population.
Katie Wilson, a progressive activist who operates a small nonprofit called the Transit Riders Union, defeated Democratic Mayor Bruce Harrell in an election so tight that it took over a week to determine. Harrell conceded Thursday as the vote totals all but guaranteed a win for Wilson, who, like Mamdani, identifies as a “democratic socialist.”
Like Mamdani, Wilson has faced criticism for past support of defunding the police, most notably through her support of a “Solidarity Budget” which would have cut the Seattle police force by 50%.
“There’s a strong argument for simply disbanding police departments and starting over,” Wilson wrote in a June 2020 op-ed.
Similar to Mamdani, Wilson walked back her past statements on defunding the police and distanced herself from the “abolish the police” movement on a debate stage when pressed by Harrell.
Leading up to Tuesday night’s election, Wilson pledged to “Trump-proof” the City of Seattle and has
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