Community-organizer Katie Wilson beat incumbent-mayor Bruce Harrell by a mere 2033 votes on Nov. 12, in the Seattle race for mayor. The almost 200,000 Seattleites who voted in the race asked themselves if City Hall should continue to be led by a status quo Democrat, or instead, by a self-described socialist. It is clear that Wilson’s campaign rode the wave of nationwide Democratic Party victories this November by economic populists; the same wave that delivered the New York City mayor’s race to Zohran Mamdani.
Senior Avi Kunins holds doubts about Zohran-like Democrats in positions of power.
“I just am very skeptical when it comes to Democratic-Socialists,” Kunins said. “Socialism has never really proven to work.”
Junior Noah Hall disagrees, arguing that Wilson and socialism are not problems for dealing with Seattle’s major issues, but the solution.
“She’s focused on [challenging] the establishment, because she is inherently a socialist, versus Bruce Harrell, which is, he’s kind of the establishment Democrat,” Hall said.
The Puma Press conducted a poll to determine the upper school student body’s attitudes on Wilson’s victory by measuring respondents on a hopeful-unhopeful 1-10 scale. Out of 30 responders, 36.7% leaned unhopeful, 29.9% leaned hopeful, and 33.3% leaned somewhere in the middle. Students were also asked to share their biggest issue that the city needed to address, and homelessness was at the top of that list, mentioned by 63% of responders.
“I feel like Seattle’s biggest issue is our homelessness crisis,” sophomore Gregor Schuchart said. “We’re known for that.”
Seattle’s homeless population ranks as the fourth largest in United States metropolitan areas. According to the Seattle.gov website, over 16,000 individuals experience homelessness in King County on a single night in 2024. By the end of her first term, Mayor-elect Katie Wilson promised to deliver 4,000 emergency housing units to fight it, according to her campaign website.
Schuchart believes that homelessness is impossible to eradicate, and argues that the issue should instead be addressed more on a numbers basis. Wilson’s campaign echoed this, as mentioned previously.
“We have to limit the numbers [of homeless individuals], which I think is the bigger thing, by finding ways to help those people out, get them off the street, and get them to places where they can get help,” Schuchart said.
Sophomore May Williams is skeptical if Katie Willson will properly address homelessness.
“I wouldn’t say I’m hopeful or unhopeful because I believe these things [homelessness, among other issues] will happen — I’m hopeful because I really want them to happen,” Williams said.
Williams believes that homelessness can be approached by prioritizing safety, and balancing empathy and enforcement.
“It’s hard to get people off the streets if there’s nowhere for them to go. We need more low-income housing, real outreach, and stricter enforcement,” Williams said. “It never feels right to force people to do things, but if it’s a matter of public safety and making the city better for everyone, then it should be considered.”
Sophomore Teo Kiciman is hopeful that affordability and economic conditions of small businesses will improve under Katie Wilson.
“Taxing huge corporations more would allow the easing of taxes on smaller businesses,” Kiciman said.
Kiciman believes that a more progressive tax would give the city a budget for more funding towards issues like affordable housing.
“Washington State ranks, I think, number one or number two in the most regressive tax code in the United States,” Kiciman said. “We have a huge deficit as a state, and that’s definitely in part due to our regressive taxes.”
Similarly to Kiciman, Hall is confident that Katie Wilson will be the mayor that Seattle needs.
“It makes me happy to see somebody who’s really speaking to issues that everybody can see day-to-day walking on the streets of Seattle,” Hall said.
“We don’t live in an affordable city,” Hall said. “Katie Wilson as our mayor means more support for the middle class, more accessibility out of college, and more jobs that can afford to pay people at least $60,000-$80,000.”
In addition to affordability, the issue of public safety was specified as an issue that the city needed to address on the Puma Press poll. The commercial and financial core of Seattle has been a key part of the city’s public safety crisis.
“Safety is a huge issue downtown,” Senior Paige Johnson said. “People make jokes about 3rd and Pike or whatever, but it’s saddening to not be able to spend time and go to live memories downtown.”
Johnson cited that a larger police presence could solve the problem of public safety and would bring more people downtown.
“A larger police presence would be a good thing for the city of Seattle, creating more of a culture of downtown shopping,” Johnson said.
In line with enlarging Seattle’s public police presence, ninth grader Alex Krembs believes that the city of Seattle should be tougher on crime.
“I think that we’re letting out criminals too early without re-educating them or guaranteeing that they’re not a threat to society as a whole,” Krembs said. “Now that Katie Wilson is considered more progressive, I have less confidence in her than Bruce Harrell to do anything with crime.
Although Krembs is less hopeful that Wilson’s progressive agenda would bring harsher enforcement of the law, he still hopes that the city will enforce regulations on substance use and public encampments.
“I want her to be more tough on crime, more tough on drugs. I also want new jails, new police, more police enforcement, and resources for homeless people,” Krembs said.
Katie Wilson is handed the keys to the mayor’s office on the first of January, 2026. Her bold economic and social agenda doesn’t guarantee everything, but it does guarantee change. Students at UPrep and across the city can only hope that Wilson delivers on her promises of lowering costs, fighting homelessness, and improving the lives of the working and middle class.
“I like her platform,” Kiciman said. “ I think that someone new in City Hall is definitely worth a shot at the least.
