Week in Review: August 8, 2025 - with Josh Cohen

American Cancer Society Recommendations for the Early Detection of Breast Cancer

Cancer Lifeline

Hacks & Wonks 2025 Post-Primary Election Roundtable - Livestream on YouTube Tuesday, August 12th, 7:30-9p

August 2025 Primary Election Results | King County Elections

“Wilson leads over incumbent Harrell in Seattle mayoral primary” by Josh Cohen from Cascade PBS

“Evans up 14% over incumbent Davison in Seattle City Attorney race” by Josh Cohen from Cascade PBS

“Progressives take big lead in Seattle City Council primary races” by Josh Cohen from Cascade PBS

“Councilmembers Zahilay, Balducci lead in King County Exec primary” by Venice Buhain from Cascade PBS

“Seattle voters appear poised to renew Democracy Voucher program” by Nate Sanford from Cascade PBS

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[00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm your host, Crystal Fincher. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work, with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it.

So I want to take a moment to talk to you about why we haven't had shows in the past couple of weeks and what's been going on behind-the-scenes. Many of you know Shannon Cheng, who is a producer of the show. She does the editing, but also is just instrumental to so much else that happens with the show. The show would not exist if Shannon wasn't here. And Shannon and I have worked together for five years now. She worked with me on the political side, and now is with me at the radio station.

But Shannon is truly one of the best people I know. And, like - pick a metric, pick a type of best, and she just - it fits. One of the most intelligent people I've ever met in my entire life, just incredibly intelligent - literally multiple-degrees-from-MIT intelligent. But also one of just the kindest and most compassionate people I've ever met, emotionally intelligent people I've ever met. She's just great in every single way. She's an orienteering champion - like drop her off with a compass and a map in literally the middle of nowhere, like on a mountain. And 24 hours later, she's like a national champion, literally.

So she's great in every way. And she was recently diagnosed with breast cancer. Shannon and I are about the same age. When you just think about it, it feels too young to be dealing with breast cancer. But, as we know, this is affecting people of all different ages. I have had a cousin who was diagnosed with breast cancer in her early 20s. And so just a very scary diagnosis, scary for Shannon to have to be going through it. But things are looking bright. Shannon just went through surgery and fortunately caught it early. And so the prognosis is very good, does not look like it has spread. But certainly, this is a jarring thing for her to be going through. And certainly, you know, so many people love Shannon. And so, so many people are supporting her.

We talked about talking about it on this show. And so, please also support Shannon. But her biggest thing that she wanted to express was just make sure you get your preventative screenings. Get those mammograms. Get those ultrasounds. Those are really important - and how she caught hers early. And those are easy to put off - it's easy to be late and just not get around to it. But please just make the effort to be on time, get around to it - because we've seen the recent reports and studies that younger people are increasingly dealing with various types of cancers. And it's just really important - catching it early can save your life, it can make the treatment plan so much easier. She's dealing with kind of a lot of, you know, hopefully best-case-scenario-type of things. But, you know, the whole course of treatment is invasive and traumatic, and just a lot to deal with and process.

And so, that's what's been going on. Shannon was out, but just returned. She's doing well - as she does. But just really wanted to convey - please get your screenings. Get on top of that. Talk with your primary care physicians about what is recommended and needed. And do your self exams monthly in the shower as they're recommended, because it could literally save your life. And it probably did with Shannon.

And with that said, we'll continue with the rest of the program. Just needed to let you know - because I love Shannon, and many of you love Shannon, and that's what's going on.

Next Tuesday evening, we'll be livestreaming our Hacks & Wonks Post-Primary Election Roundtable to YouTube and Facebook. Tune in at 7.30 pm for sharp political analysis of this week's primary elections, with a panel of political consultants - including me!

Today, we are continuing our Friday week-in-review shows, where we review the news of the week with a co-host. Welcome back to the program, friend of the show and today's co-host: Cascade PBS's excellent city reporter, covering Seattle government, politics, and the issues that shape life in the city - Josh Cohen. Hey!

[00:05:06] Josh Cohen: Hey, thanks for having me - good week to be here.

[00:05:09] Crystal Fincher: Good week to be here. We have a lot to discuss because we just had the primary election on Tuesday of this week. We have gotten results. We are still getting daily results. But I think what a lot of people may not have expected was for so many races to be conclusively settled, as far as who was going to be progressing to the general election - knowing a lot of that just on Night One. Because, as we know, our Election Nights are kind of more like Election Weeks or beyond. The counting starts on Election Night, but a lot of times, you know, around half of the ballots are in. And then, over the succeeding days, we get updates on the counts. So we will have a much better idea of where things ultimately stand because those numbers can move a little bit after the first night. But we know a lot so far.

So we'll start talking about the City of Seattle - starting with the mayor's race, where Katie Wilson is leading all people in the race, including incumbent Mayor Bruce Harrell. Katie Wilson has 47.97% of the vote as of Thursday morning - we don't have the Thursday afternoon update yet. Bruce Harrell trailing behind - 43.49%. Out of all the other people in the race, no one got more than 4% - that was Joe Mallahan. And so Katie Wilson and Bruce Harrell will be proceeding to the general election. But Katie seems to have a strong lead - it's not out of the realm of possibility that she finishes above 50% by the time all of the votes are counted. Wow, this is a strong showing. How did you see this result?

[00:07:04] Josh Cohen: I mean, I'd be lying if I said I saw this result coming in the primary. Katie Wilson has been around City Hall for at least a decade, and a longtime progressive organizer - and has been involved in a bunch of progressive policy, both in Seattle and in South King County cities, stuff like minimum wage increases and renters' protections. And she was very central to the crafting and implementation of the JumpStart Payroll tax, which is our tax on big businesses like Amazon. And so, a very real figure in Seattle progressive politics and policy, but like, you take a step beyond the sort of wonky nerds that pay attention to Seattle City Hall on the regular, and I think Katie Wilson was largely an unknown. And so, yeah, I think you get a mayor like Bruce Harrell that has not ruffled too many feathers with the general populace - again, the people who pay attention to City Hall have different feelings about that. But I think if you asked your average Seattleite what they thought of Bruce Harrell, I think they'd be like - Oh, he's fine, I don't know that much about him. So, with all of that said, I thought Harrell would come out of the primary ahead and Wilson would have an uphill battle going into November to get her name out there and get her platform out there. And here we are on Election Week with Harrell in second. And I think that gap is certain to widen by the time the count is finished next week. And so all of a sudden - yeah, a very different dynamic for the mayor's race.

[00:08:43] Crystal Fincher: Definitely a dynamic for the mayor's race. You know, it's interesting - I am not actually surprised by this result. And I think a lot of it is the indications - and I'm actually going to disagree a little bit. I think the average Seattle resident - not the odd wonks who pay attention to this stuff like me, but the average resident - it's not like they're looking at Bruce Harrell and personally disliking him. But I think that they did listen when Bruce Harrell, Sara Nelson - who we'll talk about in a little bit - both demonized people who were working on the problems that have been plaguing Seattle. And promised and assured everyone they would do better, they would have it handled, they're the adults in the room, they'll get it done. And then people just watch those problems languish, and in some situations get worse. And in ways that impact them personally. The rent is too high and so many people are reeling from that. Watching services just get more expensive or disappear from the city. Being told that they have to deal with programs and services that they use - that they counted on the city for - that those needed to get cut. But watching expenditures in other places that they didn't view as priorities, seeing things happen to a degree that they weren't expecting - I think was challenging.

And I think there was also a sense - in stuff that penetrated to the regular population - were some of these wealthy people have a lot of power in Seattle. And there were some specific instances. But those really bothering people - maybe in a way that they hadn't before, kind of like when there was the backlash to Amazon and its big donations, other big, powerful donors. Seeing those types of donors and people have influence in this administration and feeling that people representing their interests didn't - I think that's part of the dynamic going on here. And that's made worse and made people pay more attention to it because of what's happening at the national level. And people just going - This is not working for me. And especially because what's happening at the national level, it's even more important to have local leadership who's going to push back against that, who's going to move in a more progressive direction. You made the point - when we were talking earlier - that candidates who have not been pro-taxation of wealth are suffering in these primary elections. And certainly Bruce Harrell, certainly those on the Council have been much more cautious in those areas. So the energy felt similar to a lot of different places.

And the other thing that was kind of unusual - we've had three other elections in the past year that gave indications that this is where voters were at. This primary election was the fourth election in a year where Seattle voters made plain that they preferred more progressive governance here in the city. So this doesn't feel like an anomaly, this doesn't feel like a shift. Voters have been clearly giving this signal - in last year's primary election with Alexis Mercedes Rinck, again in the general with the Social Housing election - which Bruce Harrell was the face of for 1B, which went down handily. And so I think that there were signals indicating this. But wow, this was pretty conclusive, I think.

[00:12:10] Josh Cohen: I do think you're correct that a lot of those sort of negative stories about Harrell probably did penetrate a little bit more, given the Trump environment. And certainly the 30-year-old story about him flashing a gun in a parking lot at a woman over a parking space. And the accusations of toxic workplace and fallout with his niece, who was a deputy mayor. I do think those probably played a role as much as policy stuff did. I also - the addendum to like how much regular Seattleites feel one way or another about Harrell - it is worth noting that we're at what, 20% turnout. The King County Elections expects us to get to maybe 35% turnout. That is your wonkier Seattleites who are paying attention to City Hall on the regular voting in this election, I think, a lot more than your average Joe voting. And so, A] I think that does account for some of what we're seeing in the primary. And B] it'll be interesting to see what happens in November, when you have a bigger base voting. And you've had - I think we can safely assume that there's about to be a flood of donations to the PAC that's backing Harrell and that there's going to be some big money in the race. And so, yeah, I think we're coming out of the primary with Katie Wilson in a lot stronger position than I think, certainly, I expected. And yeah, it'll be interesting to see how things shake out over the next couple months of general election campaigning.

[00:13:45] Crystal Fincher: So what's interesting about this is with the low turnout - this is absolutely a low turnout primary election. This low turnout is one of the reasons why there is such a strong campaign for even-year elections going on, to get more regular participation in these things. But as it stands now, I think one of the things that's surprising to a lot of people is that these results are happening in a low turnout primary. Because usually in Seattle, a low turnout electorate looks significantly more moderate than the general election larger electorate. When we have our highest turnout elections in Seattle - this is not across the board in Washington, but speaking about Seattle - the results get significantly more progressive. And that's why, even as more votes get counted - those late votes, whether it's a primary or general, tend to trend in the more progressive direction. And why people are thinking Katie Wilson has a chance to get over 50% - don't know that it will definitely happen, but it could based on the way numbers trend. But I think what's surprising is that I do think people were expecting to see lower numbers, much closer races - especially on the first night in this low turnout primary. And so, for the essentially progressive non-incumbents to be ahead - you got Erika Evans and Dionne Foster over 50% so far - just a very sweeping indictment of what people think of the current administration and policies. And an absolute, conclusive desire for change - which Bruce Harrell cited in his primary night speech. Kind of said - Hey, Seattle voters have clearly said they want change. He then followed that up by saying - So I need to tell them more about what I've accomplished. Not sure that that's going to get the job done, but Seattle voters did say that they want a change.

Now in the Seattle City Attorney race - also, another very striking result with Erika Evans receiving - right now, she's at 52.98%, 53%. Wouldn't be impossible for her to hit 55% by the time this is done. Republican Ann Davison, the incumbent, is at 35.76%. Nathan Rouse and Rory O'Sullivan didn't pass the 6% threshold. This was a really interesting race - again, was an anomaly in Seattle politics for a Republican to get through into office, that was kind of an odd year when she came in. But Seattle voters do not seem in the mood for her agenda to continue. What did you see with this?

[00:16:32] Josh Cohen: Again, I expected a closer race between Davison and Erika Evans. Davison had the backing of tons of big-name Democrats - locally and regionally, and in the state. But yeah, I think first and foremost, very hard for her to overcome the fact that she ran for Lieutenant Governor - switching parties to be a Republican in 2020. That's a tough sell to Seattle voters during the second Trump administration. And I think a theme through the Mayor and Position 9 and the City Attorney races - like, we're in just such a different place than we were in 2021. You know, take yourself back to 2021, when we're-

[00:17:19] Crystal Fincher: Where life had changed.

[00:17:21] Josh Cohen: Yeah, still in COVID. Street homelessness in Seattle had exploded with closure of shelters. There was this sense of sort of disorder that's going along with the growing fentanyl crisis at the time. And so these candidates who were promising tough-on-crime, law-and-order approaches to governance, a move away from "progressive policy experimentation" to just sort of back-to-the-basics - all of those things, I think, resonated with a Seattle base at the time that was genuinely concerned about just the world around them and how different Seattle felt in the moment. And now, four years later, things are largely back to normal. They're not perfect. But I think that those messages of like - You need a strong leader to crack down on disorder to bring back the Seattle you love - I don't think that resonates as much with voters. And then, at the same time, again - keying in on the City Attorney's race, like it was not a blowout for Ann Davison. I have to remind myself that, looking back at 2021 results.

[00:18:27] Crystal Fincher: It was a very close race with Nicole Thomas Kennedy.

[00:18:30] Josh Cohen: It was like a 4% or 5% race. And I think if you had an Erika Evans-type, who is - her background is as a prosecutor, both at the city level and at the U.S. Attorney's office. Her platform is - We need to balance punitive approaches to crime along with investing in services to help break that cycle of re-offense. I think that message really resonates a lot more with Seattleites who probably don't want to be spending all of their money on low-level misdemeanor, revolving door, in-and-out of jail and court. And Seattleites have shown in poll after poll that they really want more services and more support for people to help them escape poverty. And so, yeah, I think if you had somebody with a platform like Erika Evans, you had somebody with the experience of Erika Evans in 2021 - they probably would have won, as opposed to this sort of anomalous election where a Republican wins city office in Seattle. But that's a counterfactual. But we can tell - in this election, at least in the primary, again, a long way to go 'til the general - Seattleites have really shown that they are not necessarily interested anymore in Davison's tough-on-crime platform and approach to the office.

[00:19:54] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. And Erika Evans has cleared that 50% threshold. Already having half of the electorate - even though it's a smaller primary electorate and the general election electorate will be larger - is basically the point at which it looks like victory is inevitable. Obviously, anything can happen. Weird, funky things can happen. But as a general rule - if a candidate in the primary surpasses 50 percent, they absolutely have an extremely strong advantage and are almost assured the win in November, particularly in cities like Seattle, where the general election voters are generally more progressive than primary election voters as a whole. And I will say, in this race, also having Rory O'Sullivan and Nathan Rouse, this was an interesting race - because there was Ann Davison, the incumbent, and three credible, qualified opponents. In a lot of races, you'll have some people who aren't really campaigning, they aren't serious candidates. But this was a race where all three challengers were competent, qualified, quality candidates - and only one was likely to get through against the incumbent. Incumbents have a huge advantage when it comes to name ID. And it's very odd, very unusual to see an incumbent not get through a primary election when they're up for reelection. But I do hope - in this and other races that we've seen, we just talked about the mayor's race, I think of Ry Armstrong - that there are some really quality people who have done great things for Seattle and continue to do so. And so I hope to see the candidates that didn't get through to the general election, that they stay engaged and involved - because I think Seattle will be better for it.

Moving on to the Position 9 race - citywide City Council seat currently held by Seattle City Council President Sara Nelson - wow, just another very conclusive result where Seattle voters said, We need change. Dionne Foster currently at 55.57% leading the incumbent Sara Nelson, who has 37.65% of the vote. The other candidates in this race - Connor Nash and Mia Jacobson - did not clear 3.3%. So just, wow, very strong, very conclusive voter call for change here with this result. How did you see it?

[00:22:33] Josh Cohen: Yeah, another - just in keeping with the theme of tough night for moderate incumbents. Sara Nelson's time as Council President - you know, some of her marquee things have been raising salaries and hiring bonuses for police. She fought to roll back the newly implemented minimum wage for gig worker drivers. She has fought against other new taxation. Again, as you mentioned, the very popular Social Housing initiative and the tax that came with it, Nelson and her moderate colleagues did their best to stop that tax from moving forward and introduced a competing measure. And yeah, I think, again, if taxation is the theme or a theme of this election, Sara Nelson's approach to city governance has been sort of anti-taxation - I think it's fair to say. And I think she is in a lot of trouble going into November. 37.6% is a tough, tough position for an incumbent to be in coming out of the primary. And this is not necessarily a race with a ton of votes from other people in the primary that will go to Foster or Nelson. If we look at - back to the City Attorney's race - I think fair to assume that O'Sullivan and Rouse's votes are all going to go to Erika Evans. They were much more aligned than they were with Davison. But in this race, there's no well of third place votes that are going to come bail out Nelson.

[00:24:17] Crystal Fincher: There don't appear to be. This is one of those vote percentages - I mean, Dionne Foster at 55% as a challenger to an incumbent. And a challenger who's not run for office before - obviously has a long resume behind them, great reputation in the community, and lots of great work done. But name ID was really low - non-existent before this. And so to have been able to make her case as effectively as she did to the people of Seattle. And for them to have been so dissatisfied with Sara Nelson that they were ready for the change, to the tune of 55% of primary voters saying - Yeah, change, time for change, in a completely different direction. Very strong contrast between these two candidates. Pretty incredible result there.

Now, there was another citywide race for City Council that turned out very differently. And this one was really interesting to me. This is the race where Alexis Mercedes Rinck is running for re-election. And one that I think a number of people were looking at - because we did have a number of signs, particularly over the past year, that people were in the mood for change, that people wanted to move in a different direction in terms of governance. So a lot of people were going - Hmm, I wonder how that's going to turn out for Alexis Mercedes Rinck. She is a very strong, vocal, progressive leader on the Council - has taken heat from her colleagues for being progressive and being painted by them as out of touch or too idealistic. But Alexis has just continued to move forward to advance policy and just be boldly, unapologetically progressive. And really standing up for the policies that she feels will help the people, which look different than what her colleagues may feel.

[00:26:20] Josh Cohen: Yeah, no surprise to me that Alexis sailed through the primary. I mean, for one, she didn't have any real strong opponents that were out there campaigning.

[00:26:34] Crystal Fincher: Well, and I should mention - Alexis Mercedes Rinck is currently sitting at 76.56% of the vote. Her closest opponent does not have more than 14%. Rachael Savage has 14.12%, as we sit here on Thursday morning. But wow, talk about unambiguously clear approval of what she's doing - standing in stark contrast to the rest of the results of the moderate incumbents.

[00:27:03] Josh Cohen: Yeah, again - no huge surprise for me. Like, if we look back just a year ago - she was elected to finish out the final year of Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda's term, after Mosqueda went to the King County Council. Alexis won - I want to say, 17% over Tanya Woo, who had been appointed to that seat. And Woo, as your listeners probably know - very aligned with the current moderate Council. And again, yeah - Rinck has been out there pro-social housing tax, pro-supporting the social housing developer. Has just pushed, along with Mayor Bruce Harrell, the B&O tax reform. And so she has done all these things that I think really resonate. Oh, and has been, I think, the sort of loudest voice on the Council - thinking about how Seattle can respond to the Trump administration. She was the one who helped create the committee on the Council to have a place to talk about the impact we're feeling from budget cuts and other policies from the Trump administration. And so, yeah, I think there's all these things that definitely resonate with Seattle voters right now. And clearly resonate with Seattle voters right now, with 76% coming out of the primary.

And then, again - coupled with no real strong opponents in the race who were out there campaigning heavily. I'm actually kind of surprised that Bishop Ray Rogers didn't make it through to the general, because I think he was campaigning the most of anyone in that race besides Alexis. He did have an endorsement from Council President Sara Nelson, also former appointed Councilmember Tanya Woo. And so, yeah, if I had been putting money on the race, I would have guessed Rogers would have headed to the general, But instead, we have Capitol Hill business owner Rachael Savage, who also, I think is going to face that Ann Davison problem of - she announced that she was switching to the Republican Party a few years ago because she thinks Democrats are failing on drugs and homelessness and public disorder. And she is working on a voter initiative for making street encampments illegal at the moment. So I think about as far from Alexis Rinck as a candidate can be in Seattle City elections.

[00:29:27] Crystal Fincher: Well, certainly, her result on Tuesday does not seem to bode very well for whatever initiatives or policies she is working on. I think this race to me - one, just wow, what a resounding reinforcement of approval that Alexis Mercedes Rinck is representing her constituents well, according to their estimation and votes. But also, I think - even already post-election, have heard some analysis of this election that - You know, this is just an anti-incumbent, throw all the bums out, really doesn't matter. You know, it's not really a repudiation of moderate policies. Voters were just unhappy at everything. And things at the federal level are making them unhappy, so they just are in the mood for change. And I don't think you can credibly say that looking at this result. Especially on the Council, where the Council a lot of times is spoken of as one entity, when really there's like the Council majority and Council minority. A lot of times it's like - Ah, the Council. So it's easy for even a progressive incumbent, or someone who is not in the majority, to get caught up in the characterization of the Council as a whole. And people, regular people, are not tracking individual councilmembers very closely, generally. And so, to see this result - voters are making a differentiation here. Voters - if they just wanted change, we'd be seeing a much broader distribution of votes. Alexis Mercedes Rinck would not be at above 75%. And we would see - maybe not huge percentages, but certainly more distributed among these candidates and alternatives.

And like you talked about, Ray Rogers had the endorsement of Sara Nelson. Rachael Savage has put herself in the spotlight and tried to gain attention in a variety of ways. But voters just kind of said - Absolutely no. I mean, Sara Nelson's endorsement of Ray Rogers resulted in 4.66% of the vote, which is just incredible to see it that low, actually. And so just a really, really interesting race. And I think makes very clear exactly where Seattle voters are at and what they want to see.

Now, also, I want to talk about the District 2 race. So we've talked about citywide results so far, but Southeast Seattle's District 2 had an open seat with four candidates. And so in that race, we had an interesting result. Eddie Lin finished in the lead, currently at 46.03%, followed by Adonis Ducksworth at 30.09%. Then Jeanie Chunn at 12.73%. And in fourth place, Jamie Fackler at 10.6%. How did you see this race?

[00:32:29] Josh Cohen: Yeah, I mean, this was also a super interesting result to me. I'm not surprised - I thought that Ducksworth and Lin were probably the frontrunners. They notched The Seattle Times and Stranger endorsements, respectively - and we can talk about how those are still powerful endorsements in this town. D2 was super interesting - going to some D2 candidate forums and speaking to the candidates, like, none of them had drastically different platforms, at least in the primary. It'll be interesting to see how things sharpen in the general. A lot of folks saying sort of - Yes, and... on the affordable housing approach - we need to loosen zoning and do as much as we can with the Comp Plan, but also invest in our affordable housing providers and also support social housing. Although off the top of my head, I can't remember where Ducksworth lands on social housing. But a lot of people talking about traffic safety in the South End, since obviously Rainier and MLK are nightmares for traffic safety. But yeah, I mean, Adonis Ducksworth was more of the establishment candidate. He's been at SDOT, the Seattle Department of Transportation, for many years and then was working in Mayor Harrell's office as a policy advisor on transportation. Harrell didn't endorse him in this race, but Ducksworth did have a lot of endorsements from the current City Council and some other sort of prominent Dem figures. So, yeah, again, I kind of expected him as that more establishment pick. I thought he would be leading on Election Night, possibly, and Eddie Lin has a strong lead over him as the more left-lane candidate now.

So honestly, I think this race really was an illustration of the power of The Stranger endorsement still in this town. I was at a birthday party a couple weekends ago and a number of people were like - I just pulled up The Stranger website and I voted straight Stranger recommendations. And so I think a lot of Eddie Lin's platform probably resonates with people. He has spoken a lot about taxation - again, a theme of this election - recognizing that a lot of our tax issues are state issues. He still wants to do what he can at the city level and lobby at the state level to make change. But I don't know that a ton of people knew a ton about the D2 candidates going into Tuesday night. And so I think he benefited greatly from that Stranger endorsement.

[00:35:10] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I think The Stranger endorsement absolutely mattered. I think he ran a good campaign. I think he connected with a lot of people. And this was another race where it wasn't like there was one good candidate, one serious candidate, and the rest were unserious. This was a race packed with quality candidates - real, credible people who are running. And so it will be interesting to see how this goes. I do think that there's going to definitely be some differentiation between Adonis Ducksworth and Eddie Lin. I think one thing that is surprising to a lot of people - and that probably goes to how important the endorsements are - is that given, kind of similar to the City Attorney race, given that there were multiple credible, serious candidates in this race, it wouldn't have been odd to see the third and fourth place finishers with much larger vote totals and to see the vote total distributed a little bit more evenly among some of these candidates. Particularly looking at the amount raised and spent, the amount of communication that there was - to see larger percentages and totals for third and fourth place. But there was absolutely a consolidation behind the person viewed as the more progressive candidate in this race. And then you saw people who, I think, clocked that - especially with The Seattle Times endorsement - Adonis Ducksworth is probably more aligned with the current administration, the more moderate element of the Council. And so it turned there.

But strong win for Eddie Lin here. And I do think he's built up good working relationships with people. It's one thing to get the endorsement - and it is a huge advantage to have in Seattle - but to wind up with that total in that kind of race, you also have to run a good campaign too. And I think Eddie Lin also delivered on that. So we'll see how that race turns out. That's going to be interesting in the general as well, because even though Adonis is at 30%, it'll be interesting to see how Jamie Fackler's 10.6%, Jeanie Chunn's 12.73% divides. I think it's fairly safe to say a majority of those will probably move in the progressive direction - those are certainly more progressive candidates. But this could be an interesting race, particularly down in Southeast Seattle. And we'll see how that continues. But I think everybody would certainly view that Eddie Lin has the advantage - a strong advantage - going into the general election. So those were the city of Seattle candidate races.

There was also a ballot measure on the ballot to renew Democracy Vouchers. And Seattle voters said - Absolutely yes, give me more Democracy Vouchers. We want it. And it is finishing at - with over 57% of the vote, Democracy Vouchers is passing. Seattle voters want to renew, keep the Democracy Voucher program. They see the value in it. And I think what's really interesting about this is that The Seattle Times editorial board - oddly - recommended against approving this. And voters just said - Yeah, no, we still want it. How did you see this and what do you think this says for the city?

[00:38:28] Josh Cohen: Again, no surprise here. I mean, Democracy Vouchers, just on its face, is a thing that resonates with Seattle voters. I think people just like the idea of it. And also, Seattle voters have rarely met a property tax that they won't approve at the ballot. And especially - relatively - I think it's something like $15 a year for somebody who has a house valued at, appraised at a million dollars. But yeah, I think the interesting thing about Democracy Vouchers in this race is a ton of candidates in the race qualified and were receiving Democracy Vouchers, and I think really helped with fundraising. But especially in the mayor's race, you know, Wilson has said that Democracy Vouchers are what enabled her to compete on fundraising in the primary. Both she and Harrell hit the fundraising cap for the primary for candidates participating in the Democracy Voucher program - which is, I think, $450,000. But Wilson got there with a lot more Democracy Vouchers than individual donors. And no surprise for me that Seattleites like the Democracy Voucher program. And I think we are seeing more candidates participating in primary elections because of the Democracy Voucher programs in recent years. The analysis from academics of the program has shown it has broadened the pool of political participants, even if it hasn't radically reshaped the sort of demographic makeup of who's donating. The analysis shows that - yes, it shifted it a little bit, but it is still largely wealthier, whiter donors giving their Democracy Vouchers to candidates. But that we are seeing more candidates in the race and a broader array of candidates in the race because of the program.

[00:40:28] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, absolutely. And so Seattle will continue with Democracy Vouchers. I think, like you, totally expected that result - and we'll see how that continues.

Now, there were also some King County races. The race for King County Executive was one watched closely by a lot of people. I don't think it's any surprise for people to hear that Girmay Zahilay and Claudia Balducci made it through to the general election - Girmay with 41.62% of the vote, Claudia Balducci at 30.09% of the vote here. There were several other candidates. John Wilson, who is the King County Assessor and made lots of news for stalking allegations against his former partner, finished at 8.92%. But pretty conclusive result - not too far apart. This is going to be a race in the general election. I think most people would rather be Girmay than Claudia, but this race is by no means settled and a lock for anyone. How did you see this race?

[00:41:37] Josh Cohen: I thought it was going to be closer on Election Night. They both have name recognition, they both done a lot in County politics, both heavily involved in Sound Transit stuff. I think my main takeaway is I thought they would be closer to neck-and-neck - and maybe there were just so many candidates in the race that the vote got split a little bit more - but I would have expected Zahilay and Balducci right there within a few percentage points. And I don't know if I could have guessed who would be on top between that. So I'd say a little bit surprised by the primary result. Like you said, I think it'll be a close race coming into the fall. I think we'll see a fair bit of money go into that race, too. And yeah, it'll be an interesting one to watch. Again, keep hearkening back to the power of The Stranger endorsement in Seattle. If I'm not totally forgetting things, Girmay had The Stranger's endorsement, Balducci had The Seattle Times endorsement - and here we are, Zahilay up 10-ish percent on Balducci coming out of the primary.

[00:42:50] Crystal Fincher: You know, this is an interesting one for me. And in this race, especially being countywide - I mean, I will say, Stranger endorsement absolutely matters in Seattle. Outside of Seattle, I don't think it moves the needle much. I think it's very much a Seattle phenomenon and very much not that outside of Seattle. There may be some people who disagree with that - that's where I'm at. And so, especially with a countywide footprint - and endorsements make the biggest difference when voters are not familiar with any of the candidates. So they're like - I don't know who this person is. What do other people have to say about them? In this case, we had two sitting King County Councilmembers who have been on the Council, who have been visible in the public. Certainly, Claudia on the Eastside, with the work that she has done in Bellevue - playing such a big role in bringing transit to the Eastside. Girmay - in so many areas - working, especially in unincorporated areas of King County, to bring investment in many underinvested areas, standing up for the rights of people, has been there. And is real good at connecting with people, I think - which I think is a really useful skill for people in elected office. I do think that a lot of people expected this to be a close race. It was hard to see differentiators. And really, I - at this point, I'm not even comfortable speculating, like, coming to a conclusion about what made the difference in this primary result. I'm really eager to see precinct result data - not the first night, but like when we get the final certified maps - really curious to see what the support map looks like and who gravitated towards Claudia and who towards Girmay. So I think there may be some surprising things that we see in there. If I were to guess, I might say that - especially with the backdrop of what's happening nationally and people in Seattle being very unhappy with where they see things going nationally, they might come to the conclusion that Girmay is just better poised to be a leader in the face of what is happening and coming from the Trump administration. I do think that was on people's minds. Whether that pans out, we'll see. We'll have to see what communication penetrated and all that kind of stuff. I think the campaigns are furiously trying to figure that out right now. But really interesting race, and this will be a close one - and for a very consequential position. This is one of the biggest jurisdictions in the state - kind of behind the Governor, this is the next most major populous position and jurisdiction there is. So very consequential. We will see what that turns out to be.

I will also address, I know a lot of people are going - Who the heck are these 8-10% of people who voted for John Wilson knowing his arrest for stalking allegations, the history there, watching his own behavior in the face of this. And I will just say - one, it is so easy, especially for people who pay attention to this stuff and who are aware of it, to assume that everyone was aware of these allegations because it was covered in media. It is so easy for people not to be aware of news, for regular people not to be aware of news. I would not be surprised at all if those people - the majority of them - just didn't know. Read the voter pamphlet description, maybe checked out his website and thought - Hey, this seems like what I'm aligned with. So in all of this, I think a lot of times people who pay attention are just like - Well, clearly they know this about this candidate and that about that candidate. And that's always a bad assumption to make - that people know something, anything about the candidate, particularly if it's something that's been in the news there. Now, I'm not saying people may not know and agree with that - we see what's happening at the federal law, all that kind of stuff, and the type of people who are getting approved and supported. Having a problematic history is not a deal breaker for a lot of people, but just wanted to throw that in there for that result.

And then, finally, we have the King County District 5 race. This is to replace the seat that was held by King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove, who was elected to be the State Public Lands Commissioner. And in this race - this was one that a lot of people didn't know what to do with - I wasn't sure how this was going to turn out. But probably one of the most competitive races that we're seeing between the county and city of Seattle. So this has Peter Kwon finishing in first place - SeaTac City councilmember currently - with 28.25% of the vote. Followed by Steffanie Fain at 24.53% of the vote, followed by Kim-Khanh Van - who's a Renton City Councilmember - at 21.5% of the vote. And then next after that is Ryan McIrvin, 12.1% of the vote. So this is one where - close race for the second place person to get through to the general election, but it looks probably pretty clear that Peter Kwon and Steffanie Fain are making it through to the general election. Any thoughts on this race?

[00:48:19] Josh Cohen: You know, if I'm being honest, I was pretty heads-down on all the Seattle races and did not pay super close attention to King County 5. As I understand it, we basically have a moderate and a moderate-to-conservative candidate making it through. Is that fair to say, Kwon and Fain - neither one necessarily fills the left-lane progressive candidate?

[00:48:43] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, we do not have a left-lane progressive candidate. The people who were left-lane candidates were Kim-Khanh Van and Ryan McIrvin - and they essentially split the vote. If that would have been more consolidated, we would have had a left-lane person get through. That was not a more consolidated vote like we saw in the city of Seattle elections. And so with that, there were multiple moderate to conservative candidates. Peter Kwon does not call himself a Republican, has not called himself a Republican, but is definitely known as a moderate to conservative, especially for the area. Steffanie Fain does not officially call herself a Republican now - definitely moderate at most, and is the wife to a very visible Republican, former Republican elected Joe Fain, who was formerly a state Senator and who is now the head of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce. I just saw a post that he was talking about how great - talking about the benefits of Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill locally. I think that's a pretty bold stance to be taking in King County. And probably not the type of thing, especially for someone as politically savvy as Joe Fain, who lost his reelection under allegations of sexual misconduct, sexual assault. But he's a very politically savvy person, currently the head of the Bellevue Chamber of Commerce. And I don't think he would be saying those if he felt that was risky for his wife, who is currently running for office. So it'll be real interesting to see exactly where they stand. I think it's probably fair to say the majority of people don't know exactly where they stand on the moderate to conservative range. So we're about to find that out in the general election. And I think there will be work done for people on the progressive side to figure out how to more effectively contest this seat and seats like it to - for them, avoid being shut out of the general election.

So those are the races we'll talk about today. There are plenty more. We'll get to those on the Post-Primary Roundtable that we have next Tuesday evening. So tune in to that livestream or catch it following. We'll also air those on the podcast. But what are some of your general takeaways so far from the primary election?

[00:51:06] Josh Cohen: I think my number one takeaway is that 2021, 2023 elections in Seattle really affirmed for a certain political set that we were shifting rightward in our politics, really moving away from the progressive politics and policies of the 20-teens. And I think this primary signals that Seattle's voters have not totally abandoned progressivism - that they still want to push for progressive policy and progressive taxation. And yeah, I think it'll be interesting to see how that shapes both the messaging from the moderate incumbents in this general. And maybe just shapes what the more moderate City Council does in the next two years of their terms. But yeah, I think it's a lesson for all of us that you can't make too, too many definitive statements about where people are at during these upheaval elections like 2021. That, yes, a lot changed. It was a change election, to be sure, but I don't know if it signaled that Seattle voters were permanently on a rightward trajectory.

[00:52:29] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, if you talk to all the political consultants in the area, perhaps, I probably have a position - especially in the aftermath of that - was in the minority. But I have maintained it the entire time, I believe data has borne me out that - yes, it was a change election, but it wasn't a philosophical, ideological change from the Seattle electorate. Just because someone is progressive does not mean that they don't want to see results. Voters do want to see results. And to me - I think pretty conclusively - when we saw that moderate shift, there were a number of things behind it. Obviously, there was quite a bit of money behind it, which translates to communication - that matters. But what they were tapping into was people being frustrated that they weren't seeing the type of change that they wanted to see. They do want to see results. No one wants to feel good by hearing the right words while seeing things languishing in front of their eyes. And so they're like - Hey, well, if that didn't get the job done, let's try this.

But I think it's very important to continue to reinforce that, although we know who Sara Nelson is today, or Maritza Rivera, or Bob Kettle, or Rob Saka, they did not get elected by saying - We're going to go after the tip minimum wage. We're going to go after gig drivers' minimum wages. We are absolutely going to oppose progressive taxation. We're going to look at cutting services for everywhere else before we look at what we're doing in the police department. They didn't say any of that. They actually parroted progressive talking points to get elected. Sara Nelson ran on being a pragmatic progressive, not this moderate to conservative. So voters needed to hear that to be comfortable voting in that direction. They thought they were getting generally progressive governance, maybe just a shift instead of a complete turn. That's certainly how those people ran for office, and they got real creative on ways to dodge the - Do you support progressive taxation? question - "I'm interested in looking into that." But lots of things where they were vague or didn't commit one way or another. But certainly did not indicate to the Seattle population and voters that they would oppose it. And so I think part of this outcome that we see right now is that voters felt misled by these people. They felt like it was a bait and switch. It absolutely was noticed by Seattle voters when one of the first actions Sara Nelson did was be like - Hey, no new taxes, we're about to crack down. People are like - What is this? And then going after the minimum wage - in the city of Seattle - not a popular thing to do. And you saw their approvals tank following that. And then several other things kind of in that same vein.

So I think it's just a mistake to not recognize that Seattle voters, I think, have been consistent for a very long time - that gets expressed in different ways. And it's always complicated to try and map everybody's ideologies onto where two candidates happen to be at one particular time and the very specific set of policy proposals. Those are imperfect. That's a ground for imperfect takeaways all the time, because ideologies don't map neatly like that - but you can get an idea. I always feel just compelled to say that, because people - Oh, it's a conservative swing. They're conservative now. They're moderate. They're progressive. And Seattle voters are pretty consistent. And working in politics in Seattle, talking about politics in Seattle gets simpler when you kind of realize that. Okay, well, yeah, they're standing there, but so what are they dissatisfied with? Are they not seeing results? Are they feeling misled? What's going wrong? And it becomes easier to diagnose that.

That said, one of my takeaways is - man, these incumbents have a tough job over the next three months. Really hard to see how they make the case. But I think one thing that is clear is that they have run on their records and Seattle voters said - We don't like it. We want something different. And so if they are to move forward, the only chance they really have involves trying to take down, tear down and attack their challenger. I think we're going to see some pretty bold and ugly attacks coming in this general election against these challengers to the incumbents. I think the risk that they run and the needle that they have to try and thread is one that we're seeing threaded poorly in New York right now. Where - because they're starting from what is objectively an unpopular position now, that their critiques of the popular candidate and popular positions may make them look more out of touch than if they didn't attack them at all. It's kind of noticeable, looking at that Zohran Mamdani versus Cuomo, Eric Adams race - is that the Cuomo and Adams attacks of Mamdani almost seem like they're comical. And some of the things that they say kind of paint them in a more attractive light to the people who are there. Like - Oh, you know, they want to freeze rent. And they're saying that to people who are - the majority of them are currently rent burdened. And they're going - Okay, you're saying that he wants to freeze my rent, as if that's a bad thing. I would like to not pay more rent - that's actually a reason for me to vote for people. Talking about city-owned grocery stores being more inexpensive, as if that's a bad thing. If I can pay less for groceries, that's a bonus to me - which seems very similar to the conversation we had about social housing. Oh, you know, public social housing, that's scary. It's social, you know, who knows? People here are going - My rent is too high. If there's something that brings that down, that's attractive to me. So it'll be interesting to see what those attacks are, how they land in this race.

I think another takeaway I have is just considering endorsements and looking at The Seattle Times. Exactly zero of the people who they endorsed in City of Seattle races were leading their races. Even the Proposition that they recommended voting against passed easily. It is worth them examining - and I wonder if they're going to examine - how they fell so out of touch with where the majority of certainly Seattle residents are and how they're going to deal with that. Because, especially in this time, where we're seeing so much media absorbed by billionaires, essentially, and take stances - it's less common to have a local paper that is owned locally. And I think for the residents of Seattle, they want it to do better. And it is hurting their own credibility to see the paper take these stances. And people are going - What are you talking about, Vote against Democracy Vouchers? What are you talking about, Stick with Sara Nelson. Like, what are you talking about? That doesn't make no sense. I can see with my eyes and it doesn't work. And so, it's - it's a risk to The Seattle Times credibility for their editorial board to continue to move this way, I think. And there's definitely some reckoning that they have to do if they want to seem relevant, and if they want their endorsement to be something that candidates are proud of instead of feeling like a mark of death at this point. So really interesting - we'll see what happens with that.

And with that, thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks on this Friday, August 8th, 2025. The producer of Hacks & Wonks is Shannon Cheng. Our insightful co-host today was Cascade PBS city reporter, covering Seattle government, politics, and the issues that shape life in the city, Josh Cohen. Thank you so much for joining us today and your insight - really appreciate it - and it's sharp, as always. You can find Josh on Bluesky at @jcohenwrites - J-C-O-H-E-N-W-R-I-T-E-S. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Bluesky at @HacksAndWonks. You can find me on Bluesky at @finchfrii, that's F-I-N-C-H-F-R-I-I. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever else you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday week-in-review shows and our Tuesday topical shows delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com.

Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.