(The Center Square) – Primary results from Tuesday night point to a more progressive swing for the Seattle City Council next year.
Progressive Democrat Nilu Jenks garnered 49.7% of the vote in Tuesday’s primary, with a more moderate Democratic candidate, Julie Kang, receiving 36.4% of the vote.
A third candidate, Dimitri Georgakopoulos, received 8.9% of the vote and a fourth candidate, Silas James, received 4.8% of the vote.
Jenks and Kang will face each other in the November elections.
The nine-member city council, all Democrats, currently has three progressive members and six that take a more moderate view.
The winner of the election in the Fifth District will replace Debora Juarez, one of the moderate officeholders.
Suarez chose not to run for reelection after was appointed to her position on July 28, 2025, to fill the vacant District 5 seat left by resigning Councilmember Cathy Moore.
Like Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, Jenks is running on an affordability platform. She wants 1,000 new units of affordable housing during her term.
She has said on her campaign website and in interviews that she will emphasize making Seattle more “child-friendly” by expanding childcare access. She also wants to improve transit and make streets safer.
She has also emphasized equity in education, noting that she co-wrote a racial equity curriculum that is being facilitated after school by the Urban League of Metropolitan Seattle at Roosevelt and Garfield High Schools in Seattle.
Jenks is political director with FairVote Washington, an organization that advocates for ranked-choice voting.
She came in third in the primary for the District 5 seat in 2023.
Kang had served as director of Seattle University’s English language learner endorsement program, according to her campaign website.
Her platform calls for more police officers and a step-up of law enforcement activity on Aurora Avenue, where gun violence stemming from prostitution activity has caused concern among residents.
Aurora Avenue is in District 5.
Kang is endorsed by City Council President Hollingsworth, Bob Kettle and Maritza Rivera, three of the moderate members of the city council, while Jenks is endorsed by Mercedes Alexis Rinck, a progressive member of the council.
Neither Jenks nor King responded to requests for comment from The Center Square.
Since the moderate takeover of City Hall following the departure of prominent socialist councilmember Kshama Sawant in 2023, the council has started moving back to more progressive lawmakers.
In November 2024, City Council President and moderate Sara Nelson was defeated by progressive Dionne Foster.
Nelson’s term on the city council focused on crime and homelessness, including 14 public safety bills approved and signed into law in 2014, and ordinances which intend to disrupt drug-related crime and sex trafficking crimes in the Aurora area neighborhood and other parts of Seattle.
Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck easily won the Position 8 seat with 79% of the votes over Republican Challenger Rachael Savage’s 20.5% in the November 2024 elections.
Rinck has been the most progressive representative on the city council since taking office. Her most notable impact was getting a business and occupation tax, or B&O tax, restructure approved by voters.
Eddie Lin, another progressive, who was an assistant city attorney for Seattle, won 69% of the votes in the November 2024 elections.
He beat Seattle Transportation Department Communications and Policy Adviser Adonis Duckworth with 31% of the votes.