ABOUT KATIE
Katie has spent her career fighting for working families, building powerful coalitions, and winning major policies that put money in people’s pockets and improve their daily lives:
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Built a coalition that won King County’s commitment to improving public transit access for low-income riders, then served on the Low-Income Fare Options Advisory Committee, playing a central role in designing the ORCA LIFT program that now serves tens of thousands of low-income riders across our region.
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Built coalitions that improved or initiated many other transit access programs, including the Human Services Bus Ticket Program and the Seattle Youth ORCA Program that eventually inspired the successful push to make transit free for youth statewide.
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Played an instrumental role in designing and passing the JumpStart Seattle Payroll Expense Tax on large corporations, which prevented devastating budget cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic and in last year’s budget process, and is funding thousands of units of affordable housing.
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Led campaigns that raised the minimum wage in Tukwila, Burien, and unincorporated King County, establishing the highest minimum wage in the nation and also giving part-time workers greater access to full-time work.
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Led campaigns that won stronger renter protections, including longer notice of rent increases, caps on move-in fees and late fees, and more in jurisdictions including Seattle, Kenmore, Kirkland, Redmond, Burien, SeaTac, and Shoreline.
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Served on the Seattle Revenue Stabilization Workgroup and co-authored an extensive report on local progressive tax options, work which has unfortunately been shelved by the current administration.
Achievements
Bio
Katie Wilson is the co-founder and executive director of the Transit Riders Union (TRU), a democratic membership organization that organizes in the Seattle area around public transit, affordable housing, workers’ rights, and other issues that affect the quality of life of working people. She has written extensively as a columnist for local publications including Crosscut (now Cascade PBS), PubliCola, The Urbanist, and The Stranger.
“Everything TRU has achieved has been possible because we built strong coalitions,” says Katie. “Leadership is not about one person or one organization. It’s about bringing together competent, motivated people around a shared vision, making a plan, being smart about strategy and politics, making hard choices when necessary, and getting results. That approach will guide my administration in City Hall.”
Achievements
Katie Wilson has spent her career fighting for working families, building powerful coalitions and winning major victories that put money in people’s pockets and improve their daily lives:
-
Led campaigns that raised the minimum wage in Tukwila, Burien, and unincorporated King County, establishing the highest minimum wage in the nation and also giving part-time workers greater access to full-time work.
-
Led campaigns that won stronger renter protections, including longer notice of rent increases, caps on move-in fees and late fees, and more in jurisdictions including Seattle, Kenmore, Kirkland, Redmond, Burien, SeaTac, and Shoreline.
-
Played an instrumental role in designing and passing the JumpStart Seattle Payroll Expense Tax on large corporations, which prevented devastating budget cuts during the COVID-19 pandemic and in last year’s budget process, and is funding thousands of units of affordable housing.
-
Served on the Seattle Revenue Stabilization Workgroup and co-authored an extensive report on local progressive tax options, work which has unfortunately been shelved by the current administration.
-
Built a coalition that won King County’s commitment to improving public transit access for low-income riders, then served on the Low-Income Fare Options Advisory Committee, playing a key role in designing the ORCA LIFT program that now serves tens of thousands of low-income riders across our region.
-
Built coalitions that improved or initiated other transit access programs, including the Human Services Bus Ticket Program, the Subsidized Annual Pass Program, and the Seattle Youth ORCA Program that eventually inspired the successful push to make transit free for youth statewide.
Bio
Katie Wilson is the co-founder and executive director of the Transit Riders Union (TRU), a democratic membership organization that organizes in the Seattle area around public transit, affordable housing, workers’ rights, and other issues that affect the quality of life of working people. She has written extensively as a columnist for local publications including Crosscut (now Cascade PBS), PubliCola, The Urbanist, and The Stranger.
“Everything TRU has achieved has been possible because we built strong coalitions,” says Katie. “Leadership is not about one person or one organization. It’s about bringing together competent, motivated people around a shared vision, making a plan, being smart about strategy and politics, making hard choices when necessary, and getting results. That approach will guide my administration in City Hall.”
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