Former Councilmember Bruce Harrell enters race for Seattle mayor
A familiar face to Seattle politics has just entered the crowded race for mayor — former Councilmember Bruce Harrell.
“I just think the city is starving for effective leadership, decisive leadership," Harrell told KUOW. "And they are tired of the infighting and the finger pointing. And I think that if there's one thing I do fairly effectively as I get folks together, and I teach us all how to listen, and how to make smart decisions."
Harrell officially announced his campaign Tuesday in a statement and via his resurrected campaign Twitter page that he previously used to run for city council. Harrell says he was raised in Seattle's redlined Central Area by a Black father and a Japanese-American mother. He went on to become a tech industry lawyer.
RELATED: Gonzalez, Echohawk, and Randall run for Seattle mayor
As he embarks on his mayoral campaign, he says homelessness is one of his top issues.
"People are not only frustrated at seeing it, they're frustrated at a lack of a plan and a lack of solution."
If elected Harrell also plans to focus on police reform and job creation.
Harrell is not the only familiar face in the race for Seattle mayor. Current City Councilmember Lorena González is also running. Both Harrell and González have served on the Council at the same time.
Harrell stepped onto the council dais in 2008 and served until January 2020. He left his council role briefly in 2017, for a five-day stint to take over as mayor when Ed Murray stepped down.
RELATED: Bruce Harrell weighs in on the Council's absent Black voice
The primary for Seattle mayor is on August 3. Current Mayor Jenny Durkan is not running for re-election. With Harrell joining the race, there are 14 candidates who are officially running for the city's top office. It is still relatively early to enter the race, with a couple months left before the filing deadline.
Current candidates for Seattle mayor include:
- Jeffrey Applegate
- Henry Clay Dennison
- James Donaldson
- Colleen Echohawk
- Matthew F. Ervin
- Lorena González
- Bruce Harrell
- Rodney Holt
- Andrew Grant Houston
- Asukaa Jaxx
- Thomas W. Kennis
- William Kopatich
- Mona Radheshwar
- Lance Randall
Colleen Echohawk is a former board member of KUOW.
Dyer Oxley contributed to this article.
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David Hyde
Reporter
David’s people-focused politics coverage tracks local and national races. At KUOW, David has also reported for our Hearken Team answering listener questions,and covered a variety of other topics ranging from vaccine hesitancy to climate change.
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