Media Over Blows Katie Wilson’s Lefty Bona Fides On Palestine

After progressive challenger Katie Wilson’s victory, some national outlets are straining to manufacture an anti-Israel storyline in Seattle’s mayoral race where none meaningfully exists. Wilson herself was notably quiet on the issue, despite riding a wave of (admittedly over-generous) comparisons to New York City mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani, who spoke much more openly and strongly in support of Palestine. The whole narrative is just the latest example of Wilson’s detractors inflating her left-wing credentials far beyond reality—something The Burner will, unfortunately, be stuck correcting for the next four years. 

sigh

While headlines from Jewish New Syndicate may refer to Wilson as an “anti-Israeli socialist,” Wilson actually caught flack for her silence about the genocide in Gaza ahead of the primary. About a week before the August 5 primary, another progressive challenger, Ry Armstrong, posted a video clarifying their stance against the genocide in Gaza, an opinion that after 22 months of Israel’s bombardment had become much less controversial, particularly as Israel’s forced famine brought the genocide back in the mainstream media. They ended the video by challenging all mayoral candidates to state their positions as well.

Up until that point, Wilson’s campaign had not spoken about Palestine publicly. There’s an entire continuum of opinion of how relevant the Mayor of Seattle’s stance on Palestine is. When The Burner asked readers about if local candidates views on the genocide in Gaza mattered to them, many commenters called the issue a moral litmus test and suggested the Mayor should find ways to use their office to fight against humanitarian crisises across the world. But on the other hand, some argued in the comment section of Armstrong’s video that the Mayor of Seattle did not need to concern themselves with international issues as it took valuable time from the pressing homelessness crisis. 

Wilson spoke about Palestine publicly for the first time on an episode of the Bitchuation Room in early August. She later put her thoughts into writing in mid-August in response to a comment on Twitter.

“I am strongly opposed to the genocide in Gaza,” Wilson wrote on Twitter. “As Mayor of Seattle, my ability to end the violence is limited, but I will do everything I can to end the suffering of Palestinians and guarantee the safety of Muslims, Jews, and people of all faiths and backgrounds in Seattle.”

Spare a few infrequent comments on social media, Israel and Palestine didn’t really come up in the Seattle Mayoral race. 

This is already The Burner’s second story this week dragging the conversation about Wilson back to reality. On Monday, President Donald Trump threatened to yank the FIFA World Cup out of Seattle should the new “liberal-slash-communist” Mayor make the city unsafe. His statement aligns closely with yet another completely bogus assumption that Wilson is an abolitionist. 

All this to say, there will be times that Wilson does genuinely based shit — like stand with Starbucks workers at the picket line and join the boycott. But there will be times when her haters make her sound a little cooler than she is.