Voters are still waiting for the final call in the King County executive’s race after the first results were reported on Tuesday night.
With about 80% of the votes in the county counted, Girmay Zahilay pulled ahead with a little over 50% — a nearly 2-point lead over Claudia Balducci's 48.4%.
A toss up
It’s the first time in 16 years that King County voters are choosing a new executive to manage the state’s most populous jurisdiction.
Zahilay, of South Seattle, spoke at a packed election night party in Pioneer Square, beaming in anticipation of a win and thanking the diverse crowd of supporters for their hard work.
"So I will say that we're not quite at declaring victory tonight right here, but we feel damn good. We feel so good," he said to cheers from the crowd.
Across town, Balducci was surrounded by an intimate crowd of about 50 supporters at a pizzeria in Bellevue, where she's from. Many have been her constituents for years, and applaud her humble approach to public service.
As her supporters anxiously refreshed their phones for results, Balducci said the race was too close to call.
“It could go either way, but there's so many more votes to count that we have to wait and see what happens,” Balducci said. “It's obviously much, much closer than the primary.”
The candidates share quite a few similarities. They're both lawyers by training. Both are Democrats with progressive voting records. And both would bring experience as local lawmakers on the county council to the job.
Their differences center mainly on their personal identities and life experiences. Balducci campaigned on a promise to become the first woman and first working mom ever elected to the role. Zahilay told the story of his family’s emigration from Ethiopia to Seattle when he was 3 years old. Balducci’s kid is now grown up and in college, and she has said that's given her more time to devote to work. Zahilay has a one-year-old at home and said he has help from a very supportive family.
As KNKX previously reported, Zahilay has emphasized the need for the executive to represent the 250,000 voters in unincorporated areas of the county. He wants to help those communities — that often feel isolated and underserved — to realize their goals. Zahilay said he has already done this as the councilmember for Skyway, where he spent his teen years.
Balducci focused on her work to connect diverse cities and communities and to empower residents by providing light rail and other forms of mass transit to different parts of the region. She noted that transit also brings development to the areas around new stations. And she said they serve as an example of “big things” that government can do to improve quality of life.
A powerful office many don't know about
King County provides important services for unincorporated areas and, by contract, for most of the 39 cities within its boundaries. The executive’s office is one of the most influential in the state, yet many residents don’t know it exists.
“The county does everything, It does stuff that you don't think about, like treating wastewater,” said Rachel Smith, who previously worked in the King County executive’s office under Dow Constantine.
“It does stuff that you value, like saving salmon. And it does things that are really important to your day-to-day life, like taking the bus,” Smith said.
The county also helps run systems like public health, subsidized housing and courts and jails.
Smith, who is now president of the Washington Roundtable, a nonprofit public policy organization focused on economic vitality and opportunity, said the executive’s priorities can determine which of these services gets the most attention.
Common priorities
Asked to name the top three issues raised by their constituents before the vote, Balducci said affordability, homelessness and public safety.
Zahilay named roughly the same things, but said those are now being overshadowed by concerns about federal overreach into local communities.
Zahilay and Balducci both hold seats that are up for reelection in 2026, so whoever loses the Nov. 4 election will have to run for office again in a year if they want to stay on the council.
And the new executive will have to run for reelection again in three years, not four. The upcoming term will only go through 2029; the executive office was switched to even-year elections, to encourage more voter turnout.
Anna Marie Yanny contributed reporting from Claudia Balducci's election night watch party in Bellevue.
