Good morning! It’s grey, and the rain is waking up all of the green stuff: the moss, the grass, even the trees look happier. The drizzle is only supposed to last through the morning. After that, we’ll have a low-70s, partly cloudy day.
Let’s do the news.
The election results are still rolling in, and they just keep getting better. In yesterday’s 4:30 p.m. ballot drop, everyone who could help pull our city out of this logjam was moving on up. With 23 percent of the vote counted, City Attorney candidate Erika Evans is now a full 17 points ahead of republican City Attorney Ann Davison, City Council candidate Dionne Foster has an almost 18-point lead on Council President Sara Nelson, and mayoral candidate Katie Wilson is 4.5 points ahead of Mayor Bruce Harrell. We’ve seen some incredible comebacks in our days in local politics, but Davison and Nelson look like they’re cooked. And Harrell? Parboiled, at least. We’ll do another ballot drop analysis after 4:30 today, so stay tuned.
In the meantime, Harrell is being really normal about this. In his first fundraising email after his devastating primary night, Harrell warned supporters that “this race is close, and if we don’t act immediately, we risk losing this campaign and the progress we’ve made together for Seattle.” He made a half-assed attempt at calling Wilson disingenuous, and then took a wild swing and tried to blame the democracy voucher program for his performance: “Unfortunately, while we were capped at raising $450,000 in the primary until the final week, our opponent was able to stock up on Democracy Vouchers for the General Election,” the campaign wrote. “Due to that fact, we start this race with a fundraising deficit of almost $62,000.” Boo hoo.
No idea what I’m talking about? Catch up! You can read our real-time reporting on election night here, and our next-day analysis here.
ICYMI: The day before the election, Seattle City Council passed the Shield Tax—Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck’s plan to bring some progressive revenue into the city, and Harrell’s panicked attempt at looking progressive before the election. The council voted on it just in time, so it’ll be headed to the November ballot. Stranger Staff Writer Nathalie Graham explained what it all means.
Our newest issue is on the streets! Our beautiful, blue Transit Issue is making its way to your local coffee shop or newsstand as you read this. In this issue, we answer some key questions: What is the culture of our light rail system? (Our writers spent 20 consecutive hours on the 1 Line to find out.) What’s the difference between 0.08% blood alcohol content and 0.05%? (We turned ourselves into lab rats for an unscientific science experiment that includes Mario Kart, breathalyzers, and too much booze.) Why don’t we use more of our waterways for public transit? (It’s complicated, but Nathalie Graham is your guide.) There’s something for everyone.
SPD Pays Out: The City is settling a lawsuit brought by Deanna Nollette, a nearly 30-year veteran of the Seattle Police Department, who says she experienced discrimination under then-Chief Adrian Diaz. She’ll get $3 million. And that’s not the only case against the department because of Diaz: four female officers, two Black officers, a lieutenant, a veteran detective, and a former candidate for chief have all filed discrimination suits after working under him. Tell me again why we need a bigger police budget?
The Data Is In: And we can now confidently say that ICE arrests are up in Washington state. The Seattle Times crunched the numbers, and while our immigration enforcement didn’t match the nationwide escalation, we’ve definitely seen an increase. And worse, all of the people who’ve been arrested are being held in detention, which wasn’t typical before Trump.
No One Likes a Rat: Texas Republican Senator John Cornyn said that the FBI has agreed to his request to help track down the dozens of Democratic Texas state lawmakers who left the state to prevent a vote on Trump’s election-rigging redistricting plan. Most of the lawmakers have taken shelter in Illinois, where they plan to hide out until the end of the session. The senator argues that by soliciting funds while they’re trying to protect their state (and the country) from electoral corruption, they could be participating in “bribery.” You know this, dear reader, but let’s say it again. This shit doesn’t happen in a healthy democracy. This is authoritarianism.
Speaking of the FBI and the Fall of Democracy: The administration just announced that it’s pushing out two more FBI agents: one who was involved in investigations into Trump, and one who defended the agency from Trump’s attacks early in his term.
A New Census? In This Autocracy? This morning, Trump ordered a new census that doesn’t include undocumented immigrants which, by all accounts, is unconstitutional. He already tried this in his first term, and a judge found that it was illegal. Because it is. Illegal.
Remember when Trump shuttered USAID to save money? The shutdown left a stockpile of contraceptives in Belgium with no place to go. The agency supposedly considered trying to sell the pills, IUDs, and hormonal implants to other organizations, but decided to go a way more unhinged route: burning them. The department claims that the contraceptives are “abortifacients,” meaning that they work by inducing abortion. Which they don’t. Because science says so.
Tariff Time: Trump’s tariffs took effect today for 90 countries—some as high as 50 percent. The New York Times called it an “audacious gamble” and says that his ego-driven trade war is “without parallel in modern history.”
With Friends Like These…: Speaking of junk science, assimilationist gay Pete Buttigieg doubled down on his claims that trans women in sports introduce “serious fairness issues. He first said it last week on NPR, and then this week, he went on Substack Live with Aaron Parnas, and parroted the same thing. He told Parnas that he had compassion for trans people and their families, who he said are “being used as a political football,” before using them as a political football. “[People are] wondering, ‘Wait a minute. I got a daughter in a sports league. Is she going to be competing with boys right now?’” Buttigieg told NPR. “Just taking everybody seriously.” As a reminder: the NCAA president testified in December 2024 that he knows of fewer than 10 transgender college student-athletes among 510,000 athletes total. And there’s no evidence that trans athletes introduce any fairness issues in athletics.
In Other Gay News: “JD Vance’s Leaked Spotify Playlist Is Bafflingly Full of Gay Anthems.”
I’ll send you off with a taste of the weekend. Lucy Dacus will be at Remlinger Farms on Sunday, so let’s start the day with this celebration of masc dykes (and Cara Delavingne, for some reason).
