Larry Gossett: The longtime King County Council member reacts to being second

A Seattle civil rights leader is facing a serious election challenge from a candidate who wants to carry on the same legacy.

It's in King County Council District 2, running from University of Washington south to Skyway.

Councilmember Larry Gossett has held the seat for years, after his first election in 1993. He's just as well known for his work in civil rights, including helping to lay the foundation for the Black Panther Party in Seattle.

But Gossett came in second to new candidate Girmay Zahilay in the primary, who beat Gossett by more than a dozen percentage points. With both getting the top votes in this race, they will face each other again on the November ballot.

Gossett chalks up the vote to ageism, and his challenger's youthful energy. He also says Zahilay's campaign was able to successfully use social media to win voters.

But Gossett says his team is "confident that we will real quickly vet the reasons" for coming in second in his race.

"Like other extremely difficult political challenges which I have faced in the past, we are confident we can overcome it," he says.

Zahilay, an attorney who grew up in south Seattle, says it's time to engage new voices.

"I didn't get in this race to condemn his track record," he says. "It was actually to build on the work that he's been doing, and I hope to take that baton."

Now that the primary election is over, and more than half the votes came in for him, Zahilay is excited at the prospect of winning the race in November.

"The status quo is unacceptable," he says. "We are living in times when people are losing their homes, our criminal justice system is riddled with racial and socioeconomic disparities that should put us all to shame."

A voter in the district, Nahom D., says he voted for Zahilay not to disregard the work Gossett has done for the region, but because more recently Gossett voted in favor of the new youth and family justice center, known as the youth jail. "This act, to me, was an investment and endorsement of the incarceration of future generations," he says.

Gossett says that if re-elected, he would work toward affordable housing, better transit, and other programs that will help the poorest residents.

He says he knows how to get things done, and that his track record of success is why he should be re-elected.

"Experience, extreme success in helping the public deal with very important regional policy issues like transportation," he says.