Tracking Seattle City Council Dist. 5 results

Welcome back, 829 your time. We are watching the open Seattle City Council race very closely. Our Sam Campbell is there in the 5th district where it still is too early to call. Good morning, Sam. Good morning, Aaron. So, Nilou Jenks is leading Julie Kang by about 17 points right now, but not so fast on celebrating because we are still expecting a big batch of votes later today. Now, taking a look at the numbers as where they stand right now, Jenks currently holds about 58.5% of the vote, while Kang sits at 41.1%. These are preliminary results, and again, we are expecting another batch of votes later this afternoon, but for now, if you are in the If you're a member of the Nilou Jenks camp, then you're in pretty good spirits. And so was she when she spoke with our Dan Griffin last night. Western part of the district asked me, how could somebody from Lake City represent us? But when I talk to my neighbors in the Lake City area about our grocery store loss, our pharmacy, and also public safety issues, they're very sympathetic about Aurora and do want them to have their needs met. And then when I go to Aurora and I mention the Fred Meyer's gone, they all feel it. Now, taking a look at the biggest issues in this race, public safety in the district has been front and center. Gun violence continues to plague Aurora Avenue, and prostitution remains visible in broad daylight. Both candidates want more officers at SPD, but their strategies diverge there. Kang wants surveillance cameras and enforcing stay-out-of-area-of-prostitution orders, or SOAP. Jenks rejects the cameras and calls policies like SOAP outdated. She's instead advocating for teams of social workers, crisis counselors, and medics to help those along Aurora Avenue. Now, no matter who wins here, they're going to be running again next year as this special election is just for the remainder of the term. We're going to keep watching the margins here as we expect that official vote batch to come in later today. But if you want to see some exact vote counts or live updates, you can find them on Fox13Seattle.com. In North Seattle, Sam Campbell, Fox 13 News.