Seattle, WA is a bustling city with an active political landscape. The city has a mayor-council form of government with the mayor and nine councilmembers representing different parts of the city. The mayor is elected at-large for a four-year term while councilmembers are elected from districts to serve four year terms. The political activity in Seattle is shaped by numerous issues such as housing affordability, homelessness, poverty, public transportation, economic development, and environmental sustainability. Local politicians represent their constituents through efforts to find solutions to these issues which are important to many Seattleites. In recent years major local initiatives have included innovative solutions to homelessness, tax reform initiatives that seek to provide relief for those struggling with soaring property taxes, and public safety improvements such as investments in police body cameras and evidence-based policing strategies. With strong representation from all levels of government and its citizens in the mix as well, Seattle's politics remain dynamic and ever-evolving.
The political climate in Seattle, WA is strongly liberal.
King County, WA is very liberal. In King County, WA 75.0% of the people voted Democrat in the last presidential election, 22.2% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 2.8% voted Independent.
In the last Presidential election, King county remained overwhelmingly Democratic, 75.0% to 22.2%.
King county voted Democratic in every Presidential election since 2000.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
Seattle, WA is strongly liberal.
King County, Washington is very liberal.
Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue Metro Area is very liberal.
Washington is moderately liberal.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
Seattle, Washington: D D D D D D
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D if the Democratic Party candidate won and I if the Independent Party candidate won. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last three elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in Seattle, WA
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 256,296 contributions totaling $48,761,825 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $190 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 11,703 contributions totaling $5,825,506 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $498 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)