In the August primary, City Council President Sara Nelson suffered a crushing primary defeat at the hands of progressive challenger Dionne Foster. But as she heads toward the general election, she told her donors that she’s “scrappy,” that she’s been the “underdog” before, and that with their help (for the low, low price of $650) she’s going to bounce back. Her plan to compete? More of the same, with a desperate dash of anti-authoritariansm.

In a recording of a recent virtual meeting obtained by The Stranger, Nelson addressed supporters to “shore up” their confidence in her.

“I’ve been told I need to bump up my sort of anti-Trump rhetoric, or acknowledge that we’re under attack, or whatever,” Nelson said. “But I follow that with, so who do you want leading? Who do you want on council? Do you want some inexperienced leader with a steep learning curve, or do you want someone who’s proven she can take on hard fights and win. So that is some of the messaging around what we’re being told now that I have to do.”

A few minutes later, Nelson’s campaign manager Nathan Haerr asked her to talk about how she’d “carry different messages into different areas.”

“Rule number one is you, you don't necessarily say different things,” she said. “You don't want to be caught in inconsistency. I know that, besides the Trump thing, the top three issues [are] affordability, public safety, moving the needle on homelessness.”

According to Haerr, you should expect her new tough on Trump image on the campaign trail. But in this “brutal,” low-attention span media environment, they’d need an “army of ambassadors” to like and share their social media content (including her new blog, and TikToks, which will be coming soon, they said). And since many of them had already maxed out their donations, it’d be great if they could find three new donors or host a fundraising event, he said.

“It costs money to buy digital ads, it costs money to buy mailers, it costs money to go up on TV,” he said. “And we're shoehorning our message into this tough environment of Sara—is that one person that is going to stand up to Trump.”

Does the shoe fit? We’re not so sure. Or whatever.

In a statement, Nelson said there was nothing new about her being a “strong voice against Trump’s overreach in Seattle politics and, more importantly, advancing policies like” legislation backing the state’s healthcare shield law.” She also cited her support for sanctuary city policies and “our policies defending Seattle’s autonomy.”

“Here's what I think about the threat to Seattle: Trump has made it clear he won't respect blue cities or let us protect our own people,” she wrote. “His recent comments about Portland show this isn't theoretical—it’s a direct threat. Throughout his presidency, he’s targeted our immigrant neighbors, attacked cities trying to address homelessness compassionately, and used federal power to punish places like Seattle for their values.”

Nelson showed her steadfast commitment to sanctuary city policies just last week when she voted to expand a police CCTV network even after state lawmakers, activists, the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington, the Seattle Community Police Commission and more than 100 public commenters warned the federal government could use the city’s surveillance tech against immigrants, abortion seekers and trans people, or whatever.

“It shouldn’t take consultants to remind you to stand against hate and fear,” Foster said in a statement to The Stranger. “At a time when our laws, rights, and communities are under real threat, we need leaders who understand the crisis, share our values, and will not back down from defending our people. Sara's cynical admission that she sees this issue through an opportunistic political lens tells us everything we need to know.” (The Stranger endorsed Foster in the primary election.)

Before Nelson talked about her very authentic messaging, her political consultant, Ben Anderstone, gave his explanation for the “striking” election results. In 2021, Nelson won with 54 percent of the vote. Much  of that support came from older, wealthy, home-owning neighborhoods. But this year, the city has swung against the “three major candidates”: Mayor Bruce Harrell, Nelson, and City Attorney Ann Davison.

Older homeowners still supported them. But while Nelson held up relatively well in Rainier Valley, Dunlap, and Brighton, she lost voters in the “fleece belt” in and around Ballard and Fremont, he said. This contingent of educated, liberal-minded, REI-shopping homeowners who are well-off, but not wealthy, moved to the center in 2021 because “the defund the police issues and other issues really were a challenge with these voters.” This year, the libs are very energized by national politics, which may be “influencing how they’re seeing local issues,” Anderstone said.

Davison’s swing looked similar to Nelson’s, he said, while Harrell took the biggest hits in diverse areas. That turnout was so depressed in Broadmoor, Delridge, Windermere and Laurelhurst, and renter-heavy neighborhoods like Capitol Hill, West Seattle, Uptown and Lower Queen Anne came out in droves, suggested younger, progressive voters were activated, “quite possibly by national stuff.”

“And what this tells us is that there is a macroenvironment that is driving these voters towards more, sort of, what they perceived as left-wing candidates,” Anderstone said. “So that is our primary challenge on the ground, electorally, for persuasion.”

The key to a Nelson win was getting centrists to vote at all, convincing the restless liberals in the “fleece belt” to vote for her, and emphasizing that Nelson is the person who can “put up systems that are resilient to whatever is happening nationally,” he said.

As for the rest of her electoral plans, Nelson said she’d hold to her experience as “someone who’s proven she can take on hard fights and win” and define Foster, who has never run for public office, as inexperienced and unqualified. (In a statement to The Stranger, Foster said she did more to advance progressive policy running the nonprofit WA Progress Alliance than Nelson had in her “divisive three years on City Council.” She also pointed to her experience as a senior policy advisor to the city, “And I'll let my lived experience speak for itself,” Foster said. “To try and erase my resume is deeply offensive.")

To defend her own record, Nelson also said she would emphasize that she’s not responsible for Mayor Bruce Harrell’s inaction on “public safety,” “graffiti,” or “what have you.”

“That’s what happened at Lake City recently,” she said, referencing an incident last month when she set up a press conference in front of the soon-to-be-closed Fred Meyer, and residents turned it against her, angrily accusing her of inaction. She admitted that she should have been more “attuned” to the neighborhood.

“What I need to say over and over again is, look, I am showing up for you, and I am continuing to hold the executive accountable,” she said. “And then mention all the ways I've done it already, and we'll do it going forward, because the council passes the laws, but the executive is supposed to implement. That’s my standard answer on that.”