Council President Lorena Gonzalez and former Councilmember Bruce Harrell crushed the rest of the primary contenders, advancing to the November general election. Harrell led with 34% and, Gonzalez finished a close second with 32.11%. Colleen Echohawk finished third with 10.28% of the vote—the only other candidate to receive more than a 7.5 % share.

In every contested citywide race, candidates endorsed by The Seattle Times and The Stranger survived the primary. The Stranger endorsed Gonzalez, Nikkita Oliver (Council Position 9), and Nicole Thomas-Kennedy (City Attorney), while The Times supported Harrell, Sara Nelson (Council Position 9), and Ann Davison (City Attorney). The margins in each of these three primary races were extremely close.

In the City Attorney race, incumbent Pete Holmes finished 3rd with 30.64%, trailing Thomas-Kennedy (36.39%) and Davison (32.72%). In a matchup between a former public defender (Thomas-Kennedy) and the 2020 Republican nominee for Lt. Governor (Davison), the general election will offer candidates for City Attorney with very different ideas about policing and public safety issues.

Two of the candidates running for Council Position 9 ran unsuccessful campaigns for offices in 2017, including Nikkita Oliver, who had finished third in the mayoral primary, and Sara Nelson, who placed third in the Council Position 8 race that Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda ultimately won.