Seattle City Council President Lorena González running for mayor

Seattle City Council President Lorena González announced Wednesday that she is running to be the city’s next mayor.

“Today, we launched my campaign for Mayor because I believe in Seattle and its promise of progressive values, innovation, and diverse, vibrant communities,” she wrote in a tweet.

Our city is at a crossroads, and now is the time to dream big and work hard. Today, we launched my campaign for Mayor because I believe in Seattle and its promise of progressive values, innovation, and diverse, vibrant communities. #DreamBigWorkHard https://t.co/uTwd5KyOHP

— M. Lorena González (@MLorenaGonzalez) February 3, 2021

In her initial campaign video, González says she grew up working the cherry orchards in Central Washington. She has a law degree from Seattle University, and worked as a civil rights attorney prior to serving on the council.

González was appointed council president in 2020. She had previously intended to campaign for Washington state Attorney General early in 2020, back when it appeared as though Jay Inslee would be pursuing a lengthy run for president, which in turn would have seen current AG Bob Ferguson run for governor.

Although González scuttled her campaign after it became clear that Inslee and Ferguson would both be running for reelection to their respective positions, it pointed to larger political ambitions for the at-large councilmember first elected in 2017.

She wants to succeed current Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, who decided not to run for reelection in December. Durkan revealed her intentions in a video, saying she believed she “had a choice to make” between spending 2021 campaigning for reelection and spending her energy “focusing on doing the job” of governing, especially during what health experts hope with be the critical tail-end of the pandemic.

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Chief Seattle Club Executive Director Colleen Echohawk recently announced her candidacy for mayor, as well as urbanist architect Andrew Grant Houston, and affordable housing developer Lance Randall.

Earlier in January, fellow Seattle City Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda announced that she intends to run for reelection to her at-large Seattle City Council position in 2021, rather than pursue a mayoral campaign. Mosqueda had been rumored as a potential candidate to replace outgoing Mayor Durkan.

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