(GeekWire Photo / Monica Nickelsburg)
Former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan will become Seattle’s next mayor, leading the booming city as it grapples with the challenges and opportunities of its rapid growth and continued emergence as an international technology hub.
Urban planner Cary Moon conceded the race this afternoon after a new round of election returns showed Durkan widening her lead. Her announcement came after Associated Press called the election for Durkan. The Seattle Times and KING5 declared Durkan the winner Tuesday night.
SEATTLE (AP) — Former U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan elected mayor of Seattle.
— AP Seattle (@apseattle) November 9, 2017
Moon released this statement Wednesday evening.
“I ran for Mayor because I felt an immense duty and responsibility to ensure Seattle — our beautiful, vibrant, diverse city — works for everyone.
While the election results will probably continue to tighten, the outcome is unlikely to be what we hoped. We should not let that discourage us. Despite being outspent 3:1, we ran a strong, transparent, and honest campaign about vision and solutions. We drove the conversation around housing affordability, real estate speculation, municipal broadband, and wealth inequality.
l have offered my congratulations to Jenny Durkan, Seattle’s first woman mayor in 90 years. I urge her to boldly confront the challenges facing our city and to remember that Seattle’s prosperity should provide shared opportunity and success for everyone, not just the wealthy few.
To our supporters who may feel disappointed, I feel disappointed too. But I will not let the future of our city be sunk by status quo thinking and politics as usual. There is too much at stake.
That is why I ask you to join me in making sure the promises made during this campaign are actualized. We must ensure our homeless neighbors can move back inside, that people of all income levels have a place in our city, and that our elected leaders share power across race, gender, and class in our government.
Thank you for all you have done for this campaign. We all belong here, and deserve a voice in shaping our city’s future. I know you won’t stop fighting for what you believe is right, and I won’t stop fighting either.
Durkan’s campaign donations far outpaced Moon’s in the historic Seattle mayoral race. The former U.S. attorney curried favor with many leaders in the tech community. The Chamber’s Civic Alliance for a Sound Economy (CASE) committee contributed $525,000 to a group called People for Jenny Durkan. Amazon donated $350,000 over the last few months to CASE through a series of donations — marking the company’s biggest political funding effort ever in Washington state.
