Time’s running out on this August primary. What’s at stake in Seattle?

The clock is ticking for voters in Washington state to turn in their ballots for today's primary election.

Local mayors, council members, and state legislators are on the ticket, and cities like Seattle could see some big shake-ups.

KUOW politics editor Cat Smith talked to Kim Malcolm about what she’s watching.

This interview has been edited for clarity.

Kim Malcolm: I hear you're expecting to see a little bit of drama here in Seattle. What are you watching for?

Cat Smith: Seattle could potentially see a backlash to the last several years of centrist politicians in charge. The mayor, city attorney, and City Council president are all running to keep their seats. They're all business-friendly moderates who are getting primaried from the left.

Now, these are top-two primaries, so the two candidates with the most primary votes will advance to the general election in November. In each of the three races I mentioned, a handful of candidates are running. If the three incumbents can make it through the primary, each of them are likely to face a challenger who is more progressive this fall.

Let’s start with the Seattle mayoral race. What do we need to know about who is challenging Bruce Harrell?

First, Mayor Harrell is trying to do something that no Seattle mayor has pulled off in about 20 years. He's trying to win a second term. The last few mayors have been single-term only, and this race has not been a cakewalk for Harrell. He has seven challengers in the primary, but only one of them has been close to matching him in fundraising: longtime activist Katie Wilson.

Wilson has been endorsed by a lot of progressive groups, including The Stranger, Fuse Washington, and several labor unions. She's also being compared to New York City's mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani because of her progressive populist views. Katie Wilson has made affordability a central plank of her campaign. She says the city is too expensive for regular people to make ends meet. It's too expensive to buy food, let alone a home. She's also been hammering the mayor for his policy of sweeping homeless people from encampments in an effort to reduce visible homelessness.

Can we tell whether this progressive message might be resonating with voters? Is it?

Well, right now it seems like it is. A recent poll by a left-leaning group found that Wilson and Harrell are basically neck and neck ahead of the primary. We'll see later tonight how voters officially respond to the last few years of Harrell's policies. He's been trying to grow the police force instead of defunding it. He's been trying to address the city's budget problems by cutting spending and freezing hiring and raiding a fund for affordable housing to close that budget hole. Primary night is not necessarily going to tell the full story. Not a lot of people come out to vote, so even if Mayor Harrell has way less votes than Katie Wilson, he will still advance to the primary with her.

There’s another campaign that's getting a lot of attention. That's for King County executive. Can you just give us a quick overview, and who are the leading contenders?

This is really going to be an end of an era in King County. There hasn't been an open race for county executive in 15 years. This was the position that Dow Constantine held until he left to head up Sound Transit earlier this year. I know a lot of people don't always know what the county executive does. It’s actually quite a big job. It oversees the county's jail systems and busses, and they can propose new property taxes. The two top candidates have been King County Councilmembers Girmay Zahilay and Claudia Balducci. They've raised the most money in this race so far. They've largely voted along similar lines and been supportive of Constantine's policies.

Are there differences between Zahilay and Balducci on the issues?

There's not a ton of daylight between these two candidates. I think Claudia Balducci has more experience holding elected office. She also oversaw the county's youth jail in her past. And interestingly, Girmay Zahilay was an advocate of closing that youth jail in 2019, but he changed his tune and voted to keep the jail open in 2024. Balducci has been more consistent on the issue of keeping the youth jail open.

Turnout so far has been kind of low. I just checked the numbers before our interview. Statewide, Washington’s Secretary of State is pegging it at 17.5%. Here in King County, it’s a little over 18%. Remind us why August primary races are important, even if they don't seem to grab our attention.

Officials think participation will probably hit 35% when all said and done. That’s still not great. There's no president on the ballot for this race, no senators, no big House seats. So, it might seem like kind of a snoozer of an election, but these local races are all going to be on the ballot. These are people that can raise or lower your taxes. They can change drug policies. They can create new shelter beds. They can decide how to help or punish people that sleep on the streets.

These elections, they might seem minor, but they are important. And you're going to see a lot of these names again in a few months, since there's a November election coming up, and if a relatively small number of people vote in the primary election, then they get the say who goes on to the November election.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.