Zohran Mamdani has energized the US Left and offered a potential road map to socialists seeking political power. But most candidates don’t have Mamdani’s unique superstar charisma, and conditions in New York City aren’t identical to those in the rest of the country. Ultimately, to win power nationwide, we’ll need a diverse set of playbooks. The successful campaign of Seattle’s new mayor, Katie Wilson, therefore also deserves close study. Like Mamdani, Wilson ran against a well-funded, well-connected Democrat by centering the material interests of working people, but she did so with a different style and in a different register.

Seattle is home to arguably the most powerful corporation in human history and has a complex recent history of socialist electoral projects. Katie Wilson, a longtime leader of Seattle’s Transit Riders Union, had led campaigns to raise minimum wages, pass stronger renter protections, expand transit access, and levy taxes on large corporations. But before last February, she had no thought of running for political office. She was more comfortable in behind-the-scenes organizing meetings than in front of television cameras; in person, she was quiet, thoughtful, modest, even shy. Her campaign proved that smart socialist organizers, not only once-in-a-generation political talents, can also win the executive office of major American cities.

As her campaign manager and lead organizer, respectively, we wanted to share five observations we made on the campaign trail in the hopes that others can learn from what we did to bring working people and socialist candidates into city halls across the country.