2019 Spokane mayoral election

While both general election candidates officially listed themselves as non-partisan, each represented one side of the right-left political divide in the United States with Woodward on the right-wing[2][3] and Stuckart on the left-wing.[3]

Despite sitting in a long-time Republican-held Congressional district, the City of Spokane itself had become Democrat-leaning in the years leading up to the 2019 mayoral election. Stuckart led a city council with a liberal super-majority — which persisted after the election — and the Democratic challenger to congresswoman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers won the city by 17 percentage points in the prior year's election. Woodward's ability as a right-wing candidate to win the left-leaning city was due in large part to her popularity as a nearly three-decade presence on local TV news at both KREM and KXLY as well as her ability to turn the race into a referendum on homelessness and crime.[4]

Washington has a nonpartisan blanket primary system. The top two finishers in the primary face each other in the general election.

The primary election was held on August 6, 2019.[1]