Joy Hollingsworth, Bob Kettle win Seattle City Council races

Bob Kettle and Joy Hollingsworth clenched victories in their Seattle City Council races Friday as results begin to codify wins for moderates.

Nonprofit worker and former basketball player Hollingsworth will represent District 3 on after her opponent, transportation advocate Alex Hudson, conceded the race Friday morning. Not long after, District 7 Councilmember Andrew Lewis posted to social media, conceding his contentious race to Kettle.

After vying to take the seat held by three-term Councilmember Kshama Sawant, Hudson put out a statement conceding to Hollingsworth while lagging by nearly 13 percentage points, even after a slight boost Thursday.

“This was a hard fought campaign, but also a civil and substantive one, and I want to publicly congratulate Joy on her victory. Of course it hurts to lose, but Joy ran a stellar campaign, and I have no doubt she will be a strong and effective representative for the people of District 3,” Hudson said, also thanking her supporters, in an emailed statement.

Hollingsworth similarly commended Hudson on her “phenomenal” campaign, but told The Seattle Times that results across the seven council district races show shared priorities from voters.

“I think everyone in the city wants a livable city. They want people to be housed, they want affordability, they want it to be safe, clean, healthy,” Hollingsworth said Friday.

“I think that’s why there’s commonality between the candidates [who are ahead],” she added.

Lewis posted to X, the platform previously known as Twitter, Friday afternoon saying he had called Kettle to concede.

The single-term council member, one of just three sitting members to seek reelection, congratulated Kettle on a “hard-fought” campaign. Kettle repeatedly questioned Lewis’ leadership on downtown recovery and public safety issues.

Kettle, who was up 7.2 percentage points in Thursday’s vote count, was not immediately available for comment. Lewis will remain in office through the end of the year.

Throughout the week, candidates who, like Hollingsworth and Kettle, are closer to the center than their opponents have been ahead in the election overall, with the exception of District 6 Councilmember Dan Strauss, who took a narrow lead over restaurateur Pete Hanning in the most recent ballot count shared late Thursday.

Though Hudson and Lewis conceded and The Seattle Times called the District 5 race on Tuesday for Former King County Superior Court Judge Cathy Moore over equity consultant ChrisTiana ObeySumner, progressive candidates have gained points in recent counts, leaving the other five districts undecided.

The next vote count from King County Elections is expected Friday afternoon.