‘I’m Always on the Bus’: How Transit Advocacy Helped Katie Wilson Become Seattle’s Next Mayor

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When Katie Wilson pulled off an upset win in the primary race to be Seattle’s next mayor, she set off a firestorm of speculation about whether the first-time candidate could persuade the public she was ready for office — and do it largely off the strength of a long resume as a transit organizer with no previous experience in electoral politics.

Now that she’s poised to move into City Hall next month, some say the 43-year-old Transit Riders Union co-founder, renter, cyclist, bus rider, and mom has proved that running on a bold vision for transportation reform is a recipe for success. And while the firestorm hasn’t stopped — outlets like Fox News and the Washington Post have questioned her for saying she’s “fine with being called a Democratic socialist” and lampooned her for being one of the 70 percent of U.S. parents who struggle to pay for childcare without outside help — her supporters argue that Wilson is exactly the kind of transit nerd Seattle needs to translate a bold vision into hard policy.

Streetsblog Senior Editor Kea Wilson (no relation) sat down with the mayor-elect to talk about her journey. The following has been edited for clarity and length.

Streetsblog: Before I get started, do you have any questions about what Streetsblog is and what we do?

Katie Wilson: No, no, I’m familiar. Very glad to be here and glad to meet you; I love your work.

Streetsblog: I’m honored! So let’s dive right in. The world knows you as an underdog candidate and now, mayor-elect of Seattle, who pulled out a historic win against incumbent Bruce Harrell in November. But I think a lot of Seattleites know you first and foremost as the co-founder of the Transit Riders Union in your region. For advocates elsewhere who might not know, tell me a little bit more bout your background as a transportation reform advocate.

Wilson: I don’t own a car. I’ve never owned a car. Now, my security detail drives me around, so that’s very weird. [Laughs.]

But yes; I co-founded the transit riders union back in 2011. That was a few years after the global financial crisis, and we were in that period of austerity after the Great Recession. Transit agencies around the country were facing large budget shortfalls, and our King County Metro was looking at deep service cuts. So I got involved in a fight to save bus service.

And out of that fight to save bus service grew [a broader] anti-austerity, pro public service, democratic, membership-based organization. We were organizing transit riders to fight for adequate funding for our transit system, for transit expansion, for transit access and transit affordability.

Photo: Nathantain, Flickr, via The Urbanist

One of the things that the transit agency had done to try to make up some of their funding deficit was to raise fares several times in the space of a few years. So a lot of our early work focused on fighting for reduced or free fare programs, especially for lower-income riders — and we were involved in winning a bunch of them.

Over the years, TRU grew into more of a multi-issue economic justice organization. But transit has remained close to the organization’s heart and close to my heart, especially in the couple years since my daughter was born. I used to ride my bike everywhere, because it was almost always faster than taking public transit. But after my daughter was born, we just ride transit everywhere. I’m always on the bus, I’m always on the train; I love our transit system.

Streetsblog: How did that background influence your mayoral campaign?

Wilson: Obviously, affordability is a big theme of the campaign. But another big theme is just government that works — and I really think that our public transit system is such a big part of people’s daily experience of government. When you’re standing there for half an hour waiting for a bus that’s supposed to come and it doesn’t, that’s super demoralizing. It gives you the sense that things aren’t working.

I think it’s so important that we have a vision for our city, and part of that is having a vision for our transportation system and our transit system. We deserve a world class mass transit system in Seattle. That’s a significant part of why I ran; to try to help move forward that kind of visionary change.

Streetsblog: Another major element of your vision had to do with housing. You’ve told other journalists that what pushed you into the race was your predecessor opposing a tax on the very wealthy to fund social housing. In your words, why is the fight for better and more housing choices connected to the fight for better and more transportation choice — and how did those issues marry together to become a winning platform for you?

Wilson: They’re just inextricably linked, right? We know that public transit is most successful, cost effective, and efficient. when it’s serving dense neighborhoods. The more that we can be adding that urban density and creating livable, walkable neighborhoods, the more people will be able to not own cars — or at least not drive everywhere —and choose our transit system instead.

And so encouraging affordable and abundant housing production on all fronts — both in the private market and in subsidized housing production, which, as you mentioned, was the reason that I jumped into this race — it’s absolutely key to being able to build out a successful mass transit system that can dramatically shift the way that people get around our city. We’re in a growing region; people are going to keep moving here. We just can’t keep adding cars to the road.

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This is something that I said during the campaign, too. I think about 20 percent of Seattle households now don’t own a car — which is great, we’re climbing up there. But there are definitely people who still, for various reasons, need to drive, and a lot of that is because housing is not affordable. If you’re a lower wage worker and you work as a security officer or a janitor or a barista downtown, and you can’t afford to live in the city, then you might be driving in or taking the bus in from a long way away.

Part of a housing affordability agenda is making sure that the people who work in this city can also afford to live here — even if they’re not making six figures, even if they’re not a tech worker. We’re just at this point where even middle-income professions like teachers often just can’t afford to live in Seattle. And housing, transit, and affordability are deeply linked.

Streetsblog: So my last question is: how do we get more Katie Wilsons? How do we get more mayors in more American cities who are both committed to transportation reform — and I will add, sweating the details of how it is done and paid for because you have a reputation as a tax policy wonk. In your words, why do we need more transit advocates to run for office, even if they don’t have a deep experience in politics before?

Wilson: I just think it’s very important to have people running for office — and ideally winning office — who are experiencing the daily struggles that so many people in our communities are facing. I’m a transit rider; I’m a renter; I know what it’s like to get that lease renewal notice and say, “oh gosh; my rent is going up $150 a month. Can we afford that? Are we going to have to move out?” I know what it’s like to be sitting at the bus stop, late for something, and you thought your bus was coming, and now it’s going to be another half an hour. Those kinds of experiences are part of so many people’s daily lives.

We’re kind of in a moment this year, so I don’t want to say what I was able to do with my campaign is easily replicable. Because a lot of it’s not due to me; it’s [about] seizing that opportunity. But [you can be successful] campaigning on those quality of life issues that people are facing, and staying focused and having a message that resonates with people.

I’ll also just say that in Seattle, we have this Democracy Voucher program, which I think is really cool; it’s basically public campaign-financing, where every individual has the ability to contribute up to $100 to the candidate their choice, and that’s public money. That really allowed us to finance a grassroots campaign; it would have been much harder to run a successful campaign if I was having to just be on the phone talking to rich people, asking them to fund our campaign.

So I think being creative about local campaign financing in a way that can support grassroots candidates is another part of how we can replicate this in cities around the country.