Four candidates vie for open city council seat

There is a Seattle City Council seat on the ballot even though this is an even year. Four people have answered the call to run for public office: Tariq Yusuf, Saunatina Sanchez, Alexis Mercedes Rinck, and Tanya Woo.
When Teresa Mosqueda was elected to the King County Council last fall, she vacated her citywide seat on the City Council. The remaining six councilmembers appointed an interim member, but the Seattle City Council Position 8 is back on the ballot for voters to decide who will represent them … until the next regularly scheduled election for that seat, in 2025.
Queen Anne & Magnolia News invited each of the four candidates for a conversation and they all took time out of their schedules to share some of their priorities with our readers. Although they are all Democrats and their approaches and talking points varied, Housing and Public Safety were two of the top three priorities for each of the candidates. And they all expressed a willingness to engage with the community.
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Saunatina Sanchez was the first candidate to sit down with our newspaper. She chose Queen Anne’s Caffè Fiorè because she likes their coffee and wanted to highlight the great mixed-use design of the surrounding blocks and access to public transit. Sanchez is the 41-year-old candidate who grew up in Seattle and describes herself as an Autistic genderqueer Latine “lady dude.” Noting, she “knew as a young kid, that people like me- on the margins of society or receiving public assistance- we were not supposed to get into this position.” And now that she is here, this former educator/ software designer/ guest services manager wants to solve the question: “How do we as neighbors determine what happens in our communities?”
Top priorities for Sanchez are transportation land use, public safety, and housing. She stressed the interconnectedness of these issues and others within our communities: “no public safety without discussing vehicular violence, no land use without racism of our country’s design, no housing crisis without design code.” And underscored the need to “talk to people who don’t currently agree” and “be more creative in how we express solutions.” Sanchez is hosting Town Hall meetings in each of the city’s seven districts and invites voters to reach out through social media or her website: https://www.saunatinaforseattle.com/
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Tanya Woo is the community activist who grew up in several Seattle neighborhoods and has “happy memories in all parts of the city,” currently living in Rainier Beach and serving as the Position 8 City Councilmember. She was the second candidate to come up to Queen Anne and needed to meet later in the day because the council had a vote on the Transportation Levy. After realizing Queen Anne Coffee Co closes at 5 p.m., she decided on Caffè Fiorè for a quick uber from downtown. Her top three priorities are public safety, housing and homelessness, and the creative economy.
Stressing the need to focus on the young people. Woo said, “Kids need more support than ever: youth programming, entrepreneurship, civic engagement. Giving people what they want and asking what they need.” She is committed to activating neighborhoods and demonstrating that Seattle is safe. Particularly looking ahead to the FIFA World Cup, she says, “I want to draw that prosperity into the neighborhoods. It’s a chance for Seattle to shine!”
Woo described the current city council as very collaborative, civil, and as boring as possible. She hopes the people see her as accessible and highlights her goal of listening, “I don’t have original ideas, they come from listening to people in communities.” Voters can find more information at https://www.tanyawooforseattle.com/
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Tariq Yusuf is the 29-year-old, mixed race Indonesian-American, born and raised Seattleite, who would be the first Muslim and youngest person elected to Seattle City Council. He chose to meet at Café Hagen so he could try the new shop occupying an old favorite spot. “My philosophy is that the government exists to take care of people,” he said, “Every other world class city takes care of the people that live there.” His top priority is creating a Social Safety Net, followed by housing and a community-centric approach to public safety.
Yusuf has lived on both sides of the red line and says, “The social safety net prevented me and my family from being homeless.” He’d like to create a Social Services Front Door to help show people how to find the help that they need and shift some of the police resources to the expansion of the city’s CARE team.
He would like to see a similar shift in education. His wife is a teacher and he notes that we are not supporting teachers with the resources they need even though they have become second parents to many students. “Similar to the current array of responsibilities that police are handling, teachers are overburdened,” he said.
In addressing the city’s housing issues, Yusuf said, “I want to be able to talk about how to keep people in their homes.” He wants to build dense housing for communities, elders, and families, while working on anti-displacement strategies and protecting the underrepresented groups.
Yusuf sees the good in people and would like the city to leverage their partnerships with the organizations that are doing good work. “That kind of model works- how do we go from where we are now to a better place?” He believes the job of City Council is to connect the dots that people working individually may not see. https://www.tariqforcouncil.org/
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Alexis Mercedes Rinck is a proud Latina renter from the Central District. She is a former waitress and a current budget and policy leader for University of Washington. She has worked on a variety of issues from the environment, campaign finance, police accountability, banning fracking in NY state, and written about Project 2025. “I was an organizer, that girl with the megaphone,” she said. She chose Queen Anne Coffee Co because of its great location on the bustling Queen Anne Avenue.
Rinck’s current priorities for city council are housing, community safety, and addressing the budget crisis. “We need to be honest with the community,” she said, “without new revenue, there will be cuts.” She noted that the WA tax code is tremendously regressive and progressive revenue would be the ideal way to balance the scales. “A lot of wealth is made in this region and it’s a worthy investment to invest in this community.”
Her housing plan starts with making sure that the Comprehensive Plan accurately projects the city’s future and leads to “more growth, more housing, more regional centers, that prioritize creating connected communities, anti-displacement strategies, and investing accordingly.” The safety plan includes making sure that people are housed, fed, and making a living wage to interrupt the cycle of violence. She also wants to see more presence and stronger relationships between the community and our leaders, especially in regard to the schools. Rinck regularly attends the community safety meetings in the Central District. She says students want to have a choice about public safety officers and “it breaks my heart that students are scared and do not feel safe.”
Rinck noted the connectedness of the city’s issues and stressed the opportunities that can be created by smart policy investments that will shape our communities. More information at https://www.alexisforseattle.com/
Voters should have received their ballots by now. Information on voter registration and replacement ballots can be found at https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections#voters Ballots are due back by Aug. 6.