‘Step up and fight back’: Queer advocate for Seattle mayor pushes ‘next generation of leadership’

The race for Seattle mayor is heating up, with nine candidates filing for the August primary.

Ry Armstrong, a longtime advocate for the queer community and co-executive director of Sustainable Seattle, told “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio Friday they began their campaign for mayor after the queer community asked them to step up.

“I grew up in the city,” they shared. “I’ve seen it change a lot over the last couple of decades, and I was really looking for more leadership, especially as it relates to climate change and kind of the crises that are facing the current moment, and so members of the queer community asked me to step up and potentially run and stand for something.”

Seattle mayoral candidate Ry Armstrong calls for ‘bold action’

When asked what that “something” is, Armstrong responded, “I look back at the housing crisis. Ed Murray, former mayor, had that 10-year plan. It’s going to fix homelessness, right? It’s been 11 years, and where have we ended up? So I think we need someone who’s going to be that next generation of leadership, someone who’s going to step forward and say, ‘Hey, let’s build a thousand units in the first hundred days of our administration.’ There are a hundred tiny homes just sitting in SODO that LIHI (Low Income Housing Institute) wants to put somewhere. I think if we can start making bold action and not being afraid of making mistakes, I would love to see a mayor’s office that’s going to step up and actually fight back.”

Moving to the topic of crime, Armstrong said they have done a couple of ride-alongs with Seattle officers.

Armstrong’s vision to make Seattle safer

“One of my observations is this fact that police officers are doing seven jobs in one, and that’s unsustainable,” they shared. “Massive amounts of overtime. People can’t survive in that environment for a long time. So how can we specialize them back to emergency response, making sure that our city is safe, and they can respond in a timely manner.”

As mayor, Armstrong would look to invest in streetlights, pedestrian safety, and accessibility throughout the city.

“A lot of people in the neighborhoods have been forgotten,” they added. “As a mayor, how can we have town halls? So people who are afraid of where the nation’s headed, where everything’s going in the country, there’s just so much uncertainty, and I think people want to feel like they have stability.”

In their free time, Armstrong likes to scuba dive and enjoy the beauty of Seattle.

“It’s nice to just escape and get away and realize how we’re just small, little beings on this large planet,” they said.

Listen to “Seattle’s Morning News” with Charlie Harger and Manda Factor weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio. Subscribe to the podcast here.