Joe Mallahan

Joe Mallahan ran for election for Mayor of Seattle in Washington. Mallahan lost in the primary on August 5, 2025.

Biography

Joe Mallahan earned a bachelor's degree from the Catholic University of America in 1985, a master's degree the University of Washington in 1990, and an MBA from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 1993. Mallahan's experience includes working as the former vice president of business development at T-Mobile. He was also a 2009 Seattle mayoral candidate.

2025 battleground election

See also: Mayoral election in Seattle, Washington (2025)

Ballotpedia identified the August 5, primary election as a battleground race. The summary below is from our coverage of this election, found here.

Katie Wilson defeated incumbent Bruce Harrell in the November 4 general election for mayor of Seattle.

Although Seattle’s mayoral elections are officially nonpartisan, both candidates were Democrats. This race was one of several 2025 mayoral contests that media outlets and political observers said highlighted splits in the larger Democratic Party, in this case between self-described Democratic socialist Wilson and the more centrist or moderate Harrell.

Wilson, a community activist and executive director of Seattle’s Transit Riders Union, described herself as both a Democratic socialist and a progressive Democrat. Wilson's campaign website said, “The incumbent mayor has been a fixture in city hall since 2008. More people are sleeping unsheltered on our streets than ever before. Working families are struggling to stay afloat. We can do so much better. And as we face unprecedented national threats, we must do better.” Several local Democratic organizations, including the King County Democrats, and Seattle’s 34th, 36th, 37th, and 43rd District Democrats endorsed Wilson. The Transit Riders Union, PROTEC17, and the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 3000 also endorsed Wilson.

Harrell was first elected in 2021, when he defeated M. Lorena González 58.6%-41.2%. Before he was elected mayor, Harrell was a lawyer and a member of the Seattle City Council from 2008 to 2020. According to the Seattle Times, Harrell was the city's longest-serving politician.Media outlets described Harrell as a moderate or centrist Democrat. In interviews, Harrell said he had a record of sponsoring progressive legislation on the city council. Harrell ran on his record. His campaign website said, “We’ve delivered public safety solutions, kept parks and sidewalks open and accessible while moving people into shelter and housing with services, made historic investments in affordable housing, prioritized a transportation system focused on safety, and passed nation-leading climate legislation. But there is more work to do – this is the time for proven leadership.” Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (D), Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson (D), Attorney General Nick Brown (D), and U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D) endorsed Harrell.

Wilson's win made Harrell the city’s fourth consecutive mayor to serve a single term. The last incumbent to win re-election was Greg Nickels in 2005.

Ballotpedia reports: Harrell vs. Wilson, Seattle mayoral election, 2025

On September 11, 2025, City Inside/Out hosted a debate between Wilson and Harrell. During the debate, the candidates discussed housing, public safety, the city budget, and the mayor's role in responding to the Trump Administration's policies.

One issue the candidates differed on was funding for the city's new social housing developer, a public development authority created to develop, own, and maintain social housing in Seattle. On Feb. 11, Seattle voters approved Proposition 1A, a citizen initiative that established a new tax on payroll expenses to fund the social housing developer.

During the debate, Wilson said, "Seattle voters have twice told us now overwhelmingly that they want the city to build permanently-affordable, publicly-owned, mixed-income housing. ...We need city leadership that's going to fight to make it work. And Harrell … has done nothing but try to undermine that project."

Harrell said, "We have supported social housing corporation from the beginning. The only issue was how can it be funded. ... We wanted it to be funded in the existing payroll expense tax because we need those businesses to stay in Seattle."

Another topic the candidates differed on was the proposed use of CCTV surveillance technology in the city, which Harrell supported and Wilson opposed.

Wilson said, “The necessity of fighting Trump and protecting our immigrant and refugee communities and other vulnerable communities is exactly why I have grave concerns about the CCTV surveillance legislation, which our mayor supports and has transmitted to council. Because that proposal is to greatly increase the cameras around our city at a very sensitive time.”

Harrell said, “People of color and people from immigrants and refugees communities … are asking me for tools to become safe. We will address all of the concerns about federal overreach… I will never allow my community to be over-surveilled by government technology. The safeguards are in place… and I will issue another executive order to assure those people that have concerns that their issues are addressed.”

Seattle also held elections for city attorney and city council on November 4, 2025.

The filing deadline for this election was May 9, 2025.

Elections

2025

See also: Mayoral election in Seattle, Washington (2025)

General election

General election for Mayor of Seattle

Katie Wilson defeated incumbent Bruce Harrell in the general election for Mayor of Seattle on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Katie Wilson (Nonpartisan)	50.2	138,931
		Bruce Harrell (Nonpartisan)	49.5	136,920
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	911

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 276,762
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Mayor of Seattle

The following candidates ran in the primary for Mayor of Seattle on August 5, 2025.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Katie Wilson (Nonpartisan)	50.7	98,562
✔		Bruce Harrell (Nonpartisan)	41.2	80,043
		Joe Mallahan (Nonpartisan)	4.4	8,538
		Ry Armstrong (Nonpartisan)	1.1	2,120
		Clinton Bliss (Nonpartisan)	1.1	2,046
	Submit photo	Isaiah Willoughby (Nonpartisan)	0.4	817
		Joe Molloy (Nonpartisan)	0.4	799
	Submit photo	Thaddeus Whelan (Nonpartisan)	0.4	716
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	588

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	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 194,229
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

• Alexander Barickman (Nonpartisan)
• David Tuniman (Nonpartisan)

Polls

See also: Ballotpedia's approach to covering polls

We provide results for polls that are included in polling aggregation from FiveThirtyEight and RealClearPolitics, when available. No polls were available for this election. To notify us of polls published in this election, please email us.

Election campaign finance

Candidates in this election submitted campaign finance reports to the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission. Click here to access those reports.

Satellite spending

See also: Satellite spending

Satellite spending describes political spending not controlled by candidates or their campaigns; that is, any political expenditures made by groups or individuals that are not directly affiliated with a candidate. This includes spending by political party committees, super PACs, trade associations, and 501(c)(4) nonprofit groups.

If available, this section includes links to online resources tracking satellite spending in this election. To notify us of a resource to add, email us.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Mallahan in this election.

Campaign themes

2025

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Joe Mallahan did not complete Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

Other survey responses

Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Mallahan completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.

• VoteWA Profile

See also

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