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Bruce Allen Harrell (born October 10, 1958) is an American politician and attorney serving as the 57th and current mayor of Seattle. He was a member of the Seattle City Council from 2008 to 2020. From 2016 to 2020, he was president of the city council. He was acting mayor of Seattle from September 13 to 18, 2017. He was elected mayor in his own right in the 2021 Seattle mayoral election, becoming the city's second black mayor and its first African-Asian-American mayor. He is currently running for reelection to a second term in the 2025 Seattle mayoral election.
After high school, Harrell attended the University of Washington on a football scholarship, rejecting an offer to attend Harvard University. He played for the Washington Huskies football team from 1976 to 1979 and was named to the 1979 All-Pacific-10 Conference football team. He received the National Football Foundation Scholar-Athlete Award, made the national Academic All-American First Team in football, and was named the Husky defensive player of the year. In 2013, he was inducted into the NW Football Hall of Fame.
Harrell graduated from the University of Washington in 1980 with a Bachelor of Arts in political science, and a Juris Doctor from the University of Washington School of Law in 1984. In 1994, he earned a master's degree in organizational design and improvement from City University of Seattle. Harrell received the University of Washington Distinguished Alumni Award in 2007 and its Timeless Award in 2012.University of Washington Department of Political Science Website http://www.polisci.washington.edu/Alumni/distinguished_alumni.html
After attending law school, Harrell joined US West, now Lumen Technologies, in 1987. Harrell was chief legal advisor to the Rainier Valley Community Development Fund, chief legal advisor to the First A.M.E. Church and First A.M.E. Housing Corporation, chief counsel to US West, and the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity, Zeta Pi Lambda chapter.
Harrell focused his campaign on public safety, pushing for increased funding for the police and fire departments, with education being another top priority. Velázquez, who Steinbrueck endorsed, emphasised city growth without displacing low and middle-income individuals, and increasing affordability. Velázquez was seen as a frontrunner in the election until weeks before the election, when she was arrested on suspicion of DUI. Although she was later found not guilty in a jury trial, she stated her prosecution was politically motivated since the city attorney, Tom Carr, endorsed Harrell.
In the November general election, Harrell defeated Velázquez, 59.88% to 39.66%.
Harrell ran on his work on the council overseeing Seattle City Light, pushing the utility to sell surplus property, build a $100 million savings account, and raise rates. Meacham criticized Harrell's oversight of the utility and raising rates without a strategic plan in place. The candidates differed on public safety, with Harrell endorsing the use of police body cams, which he said would improve trust, while Meacham called them "cynical," saying they avoided firing bad officers. Meacham was supported by the People's Waterfront Coalition and the Sierra Club, due to his opposition to the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel, while Harrell was supported by business and labor groups.
In the November general election, Harrell defeated Meacham, 61% to 38%.
Harrell focused his campaign on public safety and his experience in office, while Morales ran as a progressive, emphasizing the need to address inequality in land use and city growth management. In the November general election, Harrell narrowly defeated Morales, 50.79% to 48.96%, a margin of 344 votes.
In 2014, Harrell was the only dissenting vote when the City Council's land use committee voted to rezone the area around the Mount Baker Light Rail Station to permit dense housing construction. Harrell unsuccessfully introduced amendments that would have delayed the upzoning indefinitely for further study and reduced the amount of housing that could be constructed near the public transit station. When the upzoning was put up to a vote in the City Council, Harrell was the only member to vote against it.
On January 4, 2016, he was sworn in to the District 2 office and elected council president by fellow councilmembers. Later that year, Harrell supported a measure to attempt to bring back the Seattle SuperSonics, but the measure was defeated in a 5–4 vote.
In 2018, Harrell supported a scaled-back version of the proposed Head Tax, a per-employee tax on large businesses to raise money for housing and homeless services, to $250 per employee. After the legislation passed, he voted to repeal the Head Tax, citing a risk of a referendum supported by Amazon and other businesses.
In 2019, Harrell chose not to run for reelection, stating, "Today I am announcing my intent not to seek re-election to the Seattle City Council for a fourth term because of my belief that three terms is sufficient in this role at this time."
As council president, Harrell was sworn in as acting mayor of Seattle on September 13, 2017. Harrell served as acting mayor for a five-day period, after which the city council elected Tim Burgess to fill the position until the November election. Harrell declined to continue as acting mayor until November, which would have required him to lose his city council seat.
In the August primary, Harrell came in fourth with 15.22% of the vote. He endorsed then-state senator Ed Murray in the general election.
Harrell ran as a moderate, focusing on expanding the police force and addressing visible homelessness, and was endorsed by former governor Gary Locke, and former Seattle Mayors Norm Rice and Wesley C. Uhlman. González ran as a progressive, focusing on increasing corporate taxes and ending forced sweeps of homeless people, and was endorsed by Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren along with a majority of the city council.
In the final days of the election, González released an advertisement that focused on Harrell's initial support of Ed Murray during the abuse scandal. The advertisement featured a white woman, who was a rape survivor but not a Murray accusor, who stated that she could not trust Harrell because he sided with Murray. González would pull the ad, and apologized saying, "I am sorry we did not work harder to center the voice of a sexual assault survivor from our community of color who was also willing to tell their story."
In the final week of the campaign, Harrell faced an ethics complaint that accused Harrell of influencing a wage-theft investigation at a men's-only club that he was a member of while he was council president. Harrell released a statement accusing González of trying to distract voters from issues like homelessness and public safety.
In the November 2021 election, Harrell defeated González, 58% to 41%, and was sworn in as the 57th mayor of Seattle on January 1, 2022.
Harrell appointed Adrian Diaz, the interim chief of the Seattle Police Department, to become permanent in September 2022. In May 2024, Harrell announced Diaz' demotion from police chief to a new role in "special projects" and appointed former King County Sheriff Sue Rahr as interim chief. The demotion occurred amid lawsuits and allegations involving sexual harassment, gender discrimination, and creating a misogynistic culture in the police department, but Harrell praised Diaz in the press conference. In October 2024, Diaz was placed on paid leave during watchdog investigations into 51 allegations against him and the department. In December 2024, Harrell fired Diaz after an internal investigation found that Diaz had hired and directly supervised a romantic partner and attempted to cover it up. In May 2025, Diaz filed a lawsuit against the city over wrongful termination and discrimination, after he came out as gay.
Harrell named his niece and former campaign manager Monisha Harrell as senior deputy mayor in 2021, becoming the first black, openly gay deputy mayor in Seattle history. She resigned the position in 2023, stating her departure was amincable and over disagreements on public safety issues. In 2025, Monisha Harrell stated her departure was due to a toxic workplace against her and other women in the office.
In July 2022, the Pacific Northwest experienced a historic heat wave that brought dangerously high temperatures to Seattle. Harrell's administration faced harsh criticism for continuing to remove homeless encampments during the heat wave.
In February 2025, Seattle held a special election to determine funding for a social housing program that had been approved by voters in an earlier election. Harrell, alongside business leaders, endorsed Proposition 1B, a proposal to use existing tax revenue to fund this housing, while progressive leaders endorsed Proposition 1A, a proposal to create a new business tax dedicated to funding social housing. Proposition 1A was victorious, a particularly significant loss for Harrell since it came after he had launched his reelection campaign.
In May 2024, Harrell proposed a $1.45 billion transportation levy, the largest in the city's history, focusing on sidewalk construction and repairs, enhanced pedestrian and bicyclist connectivity to light rail stations, transit access and reliability, bridge maintenance and planning, and the maintenance and modernization of Seattle's streets. In the November general election, voters approved the levy, which was increased to $1.55 billion by the city council.
This drew criticism, including from Seattle journalist Erica Barnett, who shared the photos on Twitter and called the event a "giant, unmasked fundraiser". One of Harrell's mayoral opponents, M. Lorena Gonzalez, later said in a forum that "leadership in my mind means that you cannot play by your own rules when it comes to public health, especially when the city is in a public health crisis". In a statement two days later, Harrell said, "even though I only removed my mask for dining and brief intervals for photographs with friends and community leaders, I understand that people in public life will and should be held to high standards". Locke, Matta, and Mohamad all commented on the story as well: Locke said he tried to wear his mask the whole time but nobody is perfect, Matta that the venue was big enough for everyone to be safe but they were still cautious, and Mohamad that he only removed his mask to eat and some photos.
Barnett, who publicly criticized the event, was also set to be moderator for a forum hosted by the Queen Anne Community Council between Harrell and other mayoral candidates. According to Barnett, Harrell's campaign threatened to withdraw from the forum unless she was removed as a moderator, which she eventually was. This drew a round of criticism, with Gonzalez saying at that forum, "It's my understanding this journalist was one of the first to report on my opponent's decision to host a very large maskless indoor fund-raiser in violation of King County's public health mandate". Harrell responded that he "had no discussions with Barnett but the question was posed, why was she the person to host us."
Rose Sanchez recalls Harrell, in a red Jeep Cherokee, slowly driving past her, her husband Jose, and her mother, pointing a handgun at them; after confronting them over a disputed parking spot. A casino employee and a police officer backed up the Sanchezes’ account at the time. The casino staffer, speaking anonymously to KUOW, said they saw Harrell holding a handgun in his Jeep. Harrell acknowledges “displaying” a firearm but denies pointing it at anyone. In contemporary media interviews and statements to the outlet, he claimed the Sanchezes may have mistaken his watch or phone for a gun. At the time, Harrell told reporters he had been carrying the weapon for protection due to death threats he had received following his housing board nomination. It was not common for people to carry portable phones in 1996.
Casino security was alerted, and law enforcement responded shortly after 12:30 a.m. Harrell initially downplayed the situation, but a subsequent search of his vehicle revealed an unloaded .25 caliber Raven semi-automatic pistol and a clip with four bullets. Harrell was arrested and booked into the Pottawattamie County Jail on three charges: aggravated assault, interference with official acts, and carrying a concealed weapon without a permit—each an aggravated misdemeanor carrying a possible two-year jail sentence and thousands in fines.
The charges were dismissed six months later in what County Prosecutor Rick Crowl described as an “unofficial deferred prosecution.” According to Crowl, Harrell was required to apologize to the arresting officers. Crowl also cited Harrell's claim that he felt threatened by “a Hispanic group” as a reason for his decision to drop the case. A letter written by Crowl in 2024 described Harrell's display of the weapon as “non-threatening” and the incident as “minor.” No formal lawsuit emerged from the event, though Harrell reportedly retained legal counsel and claimed his constitutional rights had been violated due to racial profiling. The matter, according to Harrell's office, was resolved without financial settlement.
In 2022, Harrell was honored by Gold House (which honors those of Asian Pacific descent). The organization honored him and fellow mayors Aftab Pureval and Michelle Wu as having made the "most impact" in the field of advocacy and policy.
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