Bruce Harrell Leads By 30 Points In Seattle Mayor's Race

SEATTLE — Bruce Harrell thanked supporters Wednesday morning after election night results showed the former city council president well ahead of his opponent, current council president M. Lorena González.

Following Jenny Durkan's decision not to seek a second term and a crowded primary field, the general election came down to two familiar faces at City Hall. Harrell led the primary, garnering 34 percent among 15 candidates in August. González was a close second, with more than 32 percent of the vote. In Tuesday night's results, that margin shifted significantly in Harrell's favor.

Harrell served three terms on the Seattle City Council and served as its president for his final term. He also served as acting mayor for five days in 2017, following Ed Murray's resignation. Two years later, Harrell opted not to seek reelection to the council.

González has served at the council's ninth position since 2015 and launched a brief campaign for Washington State Attorney General in 2020 before Bob Ferguson announced he would run for reelection.

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Here are the Election Night results for Seattle Mayor (as of 8:10 p.m.):

• Bruce Harrell: 64.63%
• M. Lorena González: 35.02%

Election night results offer just a first glimpse of the final outcome, and tallies are likely to change significantly as later ballots are verified and counted in the coming days. Ballots dropped off on Election Day are not reflected in the earliest results.

According to King County Elections, Tuesday night's counts included 132,667 Seattle ballots. An elections spokesperson gave a rough estimate Wednesday morning that 120,000 Seattle ballots were left to count. Typically, officials said, the second ballot drop is typically smaller, with more significant shifts expected Thursday and Friday, when the rest of the Election Day ballots make it through the stream.

In 2019, some city council races shifted by double digits by the time all ballots were counted, including Kshama Sawant mounting a nearly 13-point comeback.

Catch up on other key Seattle races:

• Seattle City Attorney 2021 Election Results: Davison Leads
• Seattle City Council 2021 Election Results

King County Elections updates its results once per day until each ballot is counted. The next ballot drop will arrive by 4 p.m. Wednesday.