Sally Bagshaw, Bruce Harrell, Rob Johnson, and Mike O'Brien all announced that they would not seek reelection to the city council.

Incumbent councilors Lisa Herbold, Debora Juarez, and Kshama Sawant ran for and won reelection.

During the campaign, he was recommended for firing after an internal investigation by the Seattle Police Department determined that he had lied about his mistreatment of another officer.

[9][10] Beto Yarce, a business owner, announced on November 29, 2018, that he would run for city council, but later dropped out on February 19, 2019.

[19][20] Egan Orion, the head of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Capitol Hill, announced his campaign on April 2, in response to Yarce dropping out.

[16] Pat Murakami, an activist, Ami Nguyen, a public defender, and Logan Bowers, a business owner, also ran.

[1] Shaun Scott, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America who served as a delegate for Bernie Sanders, announced his campaign in an article in The Stranger.

[34] Jim Pugel, the former chief of the Seattle Police Department, announced his campaign for city council on January 29, 2019.

Campaign spending increased during the 2019 election, with $7,294,171 being spent in total, with $1,427,737 coming from democracy vouchers, $1,819,300 being contributions to candidates, and $4,047,134 being from independent political action committees.

[37] The Civic Alliance for Sound Economy, the political action committee of the Seattle Metropolitan United States Chamber of Commerce which received over $200,000 in funding from Amazon, supported and gave money to Tavel, Solomon, Orion, Pedersen, Juares, Fathi, Wills, Pugel, and George during the campaign.