Katie Wilson was sworn in as Seattle mayor Friday in a ceremony that marked the beginning of an era at City Hall that will test her core campaign pledge that progressives can deliver results.
Wilson, 43, is the youngest mayor in a generation. She comes to the post not from the corporate world or by scaling political rungs, but through a career of advocacy for higher wages, better transit and more stringent laws to protect renters. Now, she faces an almost perfectly divided city after defeating incumbent Bruce Harrell by roughly 2,000 votes, the closest race in modern Seattle history.
This is your city," Wilson declared in her inaugural address Friday.
She acknowledged the transition she will undergo from someone used to protesting and advocating to leading the city on projects that weren't always part of her fight. With that in mind, Wilson said, she's had a bit of a “crisis of conscience.”
"I'm kind of a rabble-rouser. I campaigned on affordability, on homelessness, on taxing the rich," she said.
But, Wilson explained, she envisions a future in which she will continue to carry those values, while also being "the mayor of the waterfront, of the World Cup and the stadiums, and the Seattle Center and the convention center, and any other centers we might decide to build."
While Wilson's campaign focused primarily on affordability, she knows she will be judged by the city’s progress on homelessness and public safety, particularly as she’s promised 4,000 units of shelter in her term — the most ambitious pledge of any mayor.
She has argued that her vision and coalition-building chops as a political organizer can open previously unseen doors.
She carries the hopes and dreams of a broad swath of mostly progressive volunteers and backers who helped boost her unlikely rise to the mayor’s office and who want real progress on public transit and the cost of rent.
In her speech, she said she hopes for a city “that honors what you're doing when you're not making money.” Where people don't have to work multiple jobs to support their kids, she said, and have time to care for their loved ones and lounge at the park.
“Because we need bread, but we need roses, too,” said Wilson, referencing a popular political slogan in labor circles, to a large round of cheers.
Wilson, a self-described socialist, did not shy away from the label as she ran a campaign focused on taxing corporations and the wealthy to provide services and programs for those struggling to make ends meet.
Those views caught the attention of President Donald Trump, who in November called Wilson a “very, very liberal-slash-communist mayor” while teasing a threat to move the World Cup out of Seattle.
“It’s nice to feel seen,” Wilson joked during her speech.
Friday's ceremony at City Hall came on Wilson's second day on the job. Her term officially began New Year's Day, after taking the oath Dec. 22, a spokesperson said.
Wilson has long been known in city politics as the founder, with husband Scott Myers, of the nonprofit Transit Riders Union, a group that years ago broadened its scope to advocate on a range of issues involving economic inequality. That background permeated the celebration Friday, with talk of organizing, finding ways to battle high costs and fighting the Trump administration.
As Wilson raised her right hand, the oath was administered by Pauline Van Senus, a founding member of the Transit Riders Union and widely known as the “Transit Fairy" for her work clearing trash from bus stops and other public spaces.
Myers emceed the event and gave the first speech, announcing himself as the city's second gentleman and noting what "we" need to accomplish for the city.
Becoming the boss
After years of calling for action across the desk from city lawmakers, Wilson is now in charge. With that comes vast managerial duties — she is the boss of the city’s 39 departments and offices and more than 13,000 employees.
The staff Wilson has assembled thus far is built around experience in City Hall.
Her deputy mayor, Brian Surratt, and Jen Chan, director of departments, both have years of experience in city government. Wilson decided to keep Shon Barnes as police chief, Tanya Kim as head of the Human Services Department and Dwane Chappelle as leader of the education department.
At the Seattle Department of Transportation, she has chosen an interim director, Angela Brady, who has spent more than a decade with the city overseeing the construction of the new waterfront.
Wilson pledged Friday to bring an organizer’s approach to the mayor’s office, whipping support from cross sections of the city.
Among the speakers Friday — in a crowd that included many in shirts and jackets with their union logos — was Ifrah Abshir, who organized as a high schooler with Wilson a decade ago calling for free ORCA cards for low-income students, and Jarvis Capucion, an organizer for Nickelsville who was formerly homeless and lived at Tent City 3 for two years. Capucion spoke of Wilson's years of hands-on advocacy.
Cynthia Anne Green, listed on the program as an eight-decade resident of Seattle, told the crowd that Wilson "did not come from the loudest rooms or the richest donors but from the work of organizing, listening and standing with people who are usually told to wait their turn."
Green, the namesake of the Cynthia A. Green Family Center in Skyway, said Seattle voters were eager not just for change, “but a new vision” from someone who knows firsthand the struggles many families in the city experience — expensive child care, rising rents and waiting for a bus that never comes.
Concluding her speech, Wilson said she aims to govern in a way that continues to make space for community advocates to do the work of pushing our city and our society forward toward realizing our highest and best aspirations.”
“With all of you is where this power lies,” Wilson said.
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