Socialist Seattle mayoral candidate tries to distance herself from ‘abolish the police’ record

After being called out for lying, Wilson admitted during a recent debate with the Seattle Latino Chamber of Commerce that she did support defunding the police.

Beginning in 2020, Wilson publicly aligned herself with the “defund” and “abolition” movements that gained traction after the death of George Floyd. In a Cascade PBS op-ed that year, she argued that Seattle should “stick with the current movement demand of cutting the SPD budget by half,” suggesting that “there’s a strong argument for simply disbanding police departments and starting over.”

She was quoted by Publicola in July 2020 saying, “We want to move towards a future entirely without SPD.”

Following the City Council’s 20 percent reduction to SPD’s budget that same year, Wilson said she was “disappointed that more significant moves hadn’t been made,” and expressed hope that further attrition would continue to shrink the department.

Wilson also criticized then-Council President Lorena González’s budget proposal as too timid, urging activists to “keep pushing for full police abolition.” In public forums and activist meetings, she regularly framed police funding as incompatible with “true public safety,” calling for a complete “reimagining” of city systems without law enforcement.

As general secretary of the Transit Riders Union, Wilson played a central role in drafting Seattle’s annual “Solidarity Budget,” which served as the activist left’s counterproposal to the mayor’s and council’s official city budgets.

From 2020 through 2024, Wilson signed letters and co-authored reports demanding to “Cut SPD’s budget by at least 50 percent and reinvest those funds in community care, housing, and transit.”

In 2021, he said, “SPD has 1,070 cops on the streets. SPD should continue to shrink the force and reduce the number of funded sworn officer positions to 750.” In 2022, she wanted to “Fully defund the narcotics investigation unit and divest from the racist, failed War on Drugs,” and between 2023 and 2024 she said that she was working to “Defund SPD by 50 percent,” “Divest from police, courts, and prosecutors,” and “Defund the Criminal Division of the City Attorney’s Office and the punishment division of Seattle Municipal Court.” Wilson also endorsed companion demands to “defund probation, prosecution, and incarceration systems,” and to “end misdemeanor criminalization” in Seattle.

In addition to SPD, her budgets called for eliminating funding for the Navigation Team. This interdepartmental unit conducted outreach to homeless encampments and shifted its resources entirely to activist-aligned service groups.

In recent mayoral debates, Wilson has repeatedly denied or downplayed her past comments. During the September 15 debate on the Seattle Channel, Mayor Bruce Harrell directly cited her quote about “a future entirely without SPD.” Wilson responded, “I never said that,” despite her 2020 remarks being publicly documented.

When pressed again at an October 3 debate co-hosted by KING 5 and The Seattle Times, Harrell challenged her on having “no background in public safety except arguing to defund it.” Wilson replied that she has “learned a lot since then” but stopped short of disavowing any specific positions.

Even in 2024, as part of the latest Solidarity Budget, Wilson’s coalition continued to call for divesting city funds from “the policing, prosecution, and punishment systems that criminalize poverty.”

In April 2025, the Seattle City Council officially reversed course, passing a resolution to rescind any prior pledges to “defund or abolish SPD services or personnel.” The resolution cited the loss of more than 600 officers and the city’s spike in violent crime as direct results of the “defund” movement.