Katherine Barrett Wilson (born July 12, 1982) is an American politician and activist serving as the 58th mayor of Seattle since 2026. She is the co-founder and executive director of the Transit Riders Union, a group that focuses on improving public transportation and workers' rights.
Wilson, a democratic socialist, was elected mayor of Seattle in 2025, narrowly defeating incumbent mayor Bruce Harrell.
Early life and activism
Wilson was raised in Binghamton, New York, by her parents, Anne Barrett Clark and David Sloan Wilson, both evolutionary biologists. She graduated in 2000 as salutatorian from Binghamton High School before studying physics and philosophy at Balliol College of Oxford in England. She withdrew from Oxford six weeks before she was scheduled to sit for the examinations in the final honours school for her degree and moved to Seattle in 2004. She worked several jobs after moving, including working in boat repair, construction, and as an office assistant.
In fall 2011, Wilson co-founded the Seattle Transit Riders Union (TRU), a nonprofit 501(c)(4) focused on improving public transportation in Seattle and King County, where she has been a paid, full-time employee since 2019. Tax records show she earned almost $73,000 from the nonprofit in 2022. She also served as Executive Director and the group’s board president, an unpaid position. The TRU is an organization that campaigns and lobbies for progressive causes.
The organization was formed after a proposed 17% cut to King County Metro and an elimination of the fare-free zone in downtown. In 2014, Wilson and the TRU successfully lobbied King County for the creation of the ORCA Lift program, which provided reduced fares for low-income individuals. The TRU previously campaigned for increases to the minimum wage in Burien, SeaTac and Tukwila, as well as greater renters' rights, and better public transport.
In 2020, Wilson played a role in the creation of Seattle's JumpStart tax, a payroll tax on private employers to fund affordable housing. She was critical of Mayor Bruce Harrell for proposing redirecting JumpStart funds to balance the city budget instead of affordable housing projects. Wilson was also a member of Harrell's Seattle Revenue Stabilization Workgroup, which explored and recommended additional progressive revenue to address the city's budget deficit. For several years, Wilson was also a member of the board of the Economic Opportunity Institute.
Wilson has written policy columns for Cascade PBS and The Stranger, and The Urbanist.
Mayor of Seattle 2025 campaign
In March 2025, Wilson announced a campaign to challenge incumbent Bruce Harrell for mayor of Seattle. She cited Harrell's opposition to a February 2025 ballot measure that would fund housing through taxes on businesses as a factor in her decision to run. Wilson, running as a progressive, stated her top three priorities as mayor are housing, homelessness, and protecting Seattle from federal actions. In the primary, she was endorsed by every Democratic party organization in the city, including all six legislative district Democrats, The Stranger, and PROTEC17, a union that represents 3,000 city workers.
In the weeks leading to the primary, polls indicated a close race between Wilson and Harrell, with both raising nearly $500,000. In the August nonpartisan primary, Wilson placed first among a field of eight candidates, with 50.9% of the vote, and advanced to the general election with Harrell who earned 41.3%.
Wilson's campaign was likened to the campaign of Zohran Mamdani in the 2025 New York City mayoral election by several publications, including The Nation and The Stranger. According to The Nation, Wilson created a winning electoral coalition from the precariat of Seattle renters, Sound transit riders, and Democratic Socialists of America members. Fox News credited Wilson's electoral success to her ability to appeal to progressive voters by advocating for city-run grocery stores, taxing the rich, and "Trump-proofing" the city. On the campaign trail, Wilson argued Harrell did not properly address homelessness during his tenure as mayor, and failed to lower the cost of living. Harrell emphasized his administration's efforts on public safety, transportation, and housing affordability, while noting Wilson's previous support for the "Defund the police" movement. During the campaign Wilson did not call for defunding the police, instead arguing that armed officers are not needed to respond to mental health and other non-crime calls that should be handled by other kinds of professionals.
Wilson won by a margin of 0.73 percentage points in the November 4, 2025 general election, the closest mayoral election in Seattle by percentage points since 1906.
Tenure
Wilson's term began on January 1, 2026. She was ceremonially sworn into office on January 2, 2026, with local transit union leader Pauline Van Senus administering the oath of office.
Immigrant community advocacy Since taking office, Wilson has publicly supported Seattle's Somali community and opposed Republican-led oversight committees investigating fraud allegations linked to the Somali immigrant community of Minnesota. Wilson has publicly supported local Seattle immigrant communities and activist networks that oppose ICE arrests in the city.
Artificial intelligence policy In March 2026, Wilson stopped a citywide rollout of the Microsoft Copilot AI chatbot for city employees that had begun under her predecessor. The 500 employees who were already using it were allowed to continue. In May 2026, Wilson lifted the restriction of Microsoft Copilot for day-to-day tasks, but blocked publicly available AI tools, like ChatGPT.
Starbucks boycott comments Shortly after being elected mayor, Wilson joined the Starbucks Workers United picket line outside a Starbucks Reserve in the Capitol Hill neighborhood as part of a larger strike by unionized Starbucks workers around America amid stalled contract negotiations. At the event, Wilson urged Seattleites to boycott the chain, declaring, "I am not buying Starbucks and you shouldn't either," and led a chant in support of striking workers. In May 2026, Wilson told The New York Times that her earlier comments had been counterproductive, and that she wanted to maintain a "multidimensional relationship" with companies like Starbucks. Wilson later told the South Seattle Emerald that she would continue to support unionization efforts, describing Seattle as a 'union town'; however, she noted that she planned to maintain positive relationships with major corporations such as Starbucks, citing the company's million-dollar contribution to the city's 'Shelter Acceleration' program.
Homelessness policy In June 2026, the first batch of single-adult home units, colloquially known as "tiny homes", finished construction in the city's Interbay neighborhood. This community of 75 tiny homes is officially designated as the Bayside Shelter, and currently provides 24/7 transitional housing for homeless individuals living on the streets. In addition to shelter, occupants also have access to behavioral health support. The Bayside Shelter project cost $3.95 million.
Wilson initially announced plans to construct 1,000 tiny homes throughout the city before the end of 2026. Wilson did not meet her previous goal of building five hundred tiny homes before the start of the 2026 FIFA World Cup. During her campaign, Wilson pledged to expand tiny home capacity ahead of the World Cup, later characterizing the timeline as ambitious.
Citing logistical challenges and budget constraints, Wilson scaled down her efforts to build 1,000 new tiny homes for every year of her term; instead, proposing a plan to build 960 in a 2-year period. Addressing the discrepancy between her campaign pledge regarding the number of shelters and subsequent policy outcomes, Wilson remarked in an interview, "The point of putting that big number out there is we need to talk about the scale of the crisis... Numbers catch people’s attention and they force us to deal seriously with the issue." According to the mayor's office, this new initiative will cost $75 million.
Earlier in the year, Jon Grant resigned as Wilson's senior advisor on homelessness policy.
Crime reduction initiatives In an effort to combat open-air drug markets and crime in the city's Little Saigon and the North Beacon Hill neighborhoods, Wilson increased police presence in the area and committed additional city resources to tackle the issue. This included booking individuals caught selling drugs into jail and enrolling them in the city's L.E.A.D. diversion program. As of June 2026, Seattle plans to spend $1.1 million on additional neighborhood services, including outreach staff and mobile overdose treatment and prevention teams, along with additional training for police officers. In a statement to KING-TV, Wilson said, "we must disrupt the drug dealing, public disorder, and other illegal activity that has destabilized this community."
Wilson also expressed desire for a citywide shift to a neighborhood policing model, one that could help build collaborative relationships between the police and community members.
In response to sex trafficking and gun violence, residents marched down Aurora Avenue, demanding more police intervention. Residents also installed makeshift road barriers to close residential side streets. Wilson stated residents sent a clear message, saying "the status quo was not working" when they took matters into their own hands. The city removed the resident-made barriers and installed temporary traffic calming devices on 4 streets along Aurora Ave.
Seattle's budget deficit Upon taking office, Wilson inherited a steep budget shortfall. By June 2026, the city of Seattle had a budget deficit of around $175 million, or about 10% of the overall budget. As a potential solution, Wilson proposed implementing a city-wide capital gains tax, in addition to the state's existing capital gains tax. When asked by Fox 13 Seattle whether or not she would expand the existing payroll tax, a tax that Wilson herself had supported, Wilson responded by saying, "Nothing is off the table."
In September 2026, Wilson announced a $9.1 billion dollar budget proposal for the 2027 and 2028 fiscal years. The proposed budget includes a $50 million dollar reduction in general revenue fund spending, the elimination of 15 currently filled full-time city positions, a $68 million dollar net increase to the Seattle Police Department budget, and $183 million dollars allocated to addressing homelessness. Wilson claims her budget proposal can be accomplished without raising city taxes. The proposal must be approved by City Council before it can be implemented.
Surveillance and privacy policy
In March 2026, Wilson announced that she would pause the expansion of the city's CCTV network, which included installing cameras near Garfield High School and around Capitol Hill, while installing, but not turning on, the cameras in the Stadium district around Lumen Field and T-Mobile Park. This expansion will remain paused until an independent audit of the city's surveillance system has been completed. Wilson, in her decision, expressed concern that the cameras could be used by the federal government to enforce immigration law or carry out abortion-related investigations. She also turned off a camera that faced a clinic that provided reproductive and gender affirming care.