An historic Atlanta House election pitted glamorous civil rights figure Julian Bond against movement workhorse John Lewis. Lewis was the surprise victor and served productively in Congress for nearly four decades.
The tight 2025 contest for King County Executive offers striking parallels. Girmay Zahilay is a rising star who roused the recent No Kings rally at Seattle Center. Claudia Balducci, his King County Council colleague, has long labored in local government.
A new Civic Heartbeat poll, conducted by Emerson College Polling for the Northwest Progressive Institute, shows a near dead heat. Balducci garners 37 percent to 35 percent for Zahilay. A quarter of likely voters remain undecided.
The two candidates each boast net favorable ratings, +28 percent for Girmay and +26 percent for Claudia. A whopping third of the electorate haven’t made up their minds or haven’t heard of the candidates
“This is one of those marquee suspenseful races with a tough-to/call ending: we might see a photo finish, complete with recount,” said Andrew Villeneuve, executive director of the Northwest Progressive Institute. The most recent such contest in the region came in the 2024 U.S. House race in which Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp-Perez beat MAGA Republican Joe Kent a second time.
Whoever wins, voters will get a public servant committed to coordinating 39 municipalities, sheltering the homeless, plowing ahead with light rail and resisting Donald Trump. Trump may be President but he lost King County by a margin of nearly three-to-one.
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