2025 Endorsements
Seattle Mayor, City Council & Attorney
MAYOR, WE ARE PROUD TO ENDORSE:
Katie Wilson
Bio
Katie Wilson is the co-founder and executive director of the Transit Riders Union (TRU), a democratic membership organization that has become a powerful voice for working people across Seattle and King County. Since founding TRU in 2011, Katie has led the organization for well over a decade, directing hundreds of thousands of volunteer and staff hours toward winning successful campaigns for better transit, higher wages, stronger renter protections, and more affordable housing.
Through her leadership of TRU, Katie has built and managed large, multi-partner coalitions to secure the transformative victories described on this page. These wins were made possible by Katie’s deep commitment to community organizing, coalition-building, and strategic advocacy.
Katie brings the experience Seattle needs in its next mayor. She has spent years listening to ordinary people’s experiences in communities throughout the city, leading research teams and surveys to understand real needs around transit, housing, and work, and collaborating with diverse stakeholders to write, pass, and implement legislation. She’s led public outreach campaigns, authored articles and reports, hired talented staff, trained and coordinated hundreds of volunteers, and worked side-by-side with local nonprofits, labor unions, elected officials, and staff across City and County departments to make change happen.
Before founding TRU, Katie graduated salutatorian of her high school class in Binghamton, New York and studied physics and philosophy at Oxford University. She arrived in Seattle in 2004 and worked a wide range of jobs to make ends meet: barista, lab tech, laborer, boatyard worker, apartment manager, legal assistant, and more. These early experiences grounded her in the everyday realities of working people and shaped her lifelong commitment to improving people’s lives.
Katie has also written extensively on local policy and politics as a columnist for publications including Crosscut (now Cascade PBS), PubliCola, The Urbanist, and The Stranger.
When she’s not organizing or writing, Katie enjoys exploring Seattle’s great parks and playgrounds with her daughter, riding our public transit system, losing herself in a book (or, more realistically these days, an audiobook), and being a superfan of her husband’s homemade pizza and bagels.
‘“Everything TRU has achieved has been possible because we built strong coalitions,” says Katie. “Leadership is not about one person or one organization. It’s about bringing together competent, motivated people around a shared vision, being smart about strategy, making hard choices when necessary, and getting results. That approach will guide my administration in City Hall.”
DIST. 2, WE ARE PROUD TO ENDORSE:
eddie Lin
Bio
Eddie is the son of a Taiwanese immigrant who came to the U.S. for a brighter future and who met Eddie’s mom, a single parent at the time. His parents faced prejudice as an inter-racial couple married only a few years after Loving v. Virginia legalized it. As a young child, his parents spent long hours at work and often lived apart as they struggled to bridge their cultural differences, so his older brother mostly raised him. Both Eddie and his brother worked in high school and college to help make ends meet. Eddie worked as a house painter, a janitor at a local church, and a bike messenger. Still, financial aid and scholarships were needed to pay for his education.
Growing up in the south, Eddie stood out. There was not a larger Asian American community near him, and at times he felt ashamed of his different ethnic background because of the discrimination he faced. Eddie wanted to raise his kids where they could be proud of their heritage. Eddie and his wife Jennifer, a public school teacher, found that place on Beacon Hill, a diverse and thriving community that welcomed them and made them feel safe.
Like too many families, depression and alcoholism have taken a toll on Eddie’s family and friends. He lost his older brother to alcoholism and a close friend to depression. In college, Eddie struggled with depression himself, dropping out of school for a short time. Eddie has seen that mental health challenges and substance abuse affect all of us, regardless of race or class, but those with the fewest resources are most likely to fall through the cracks and end up on our streets.
Union Household and Union Values
Early in his career, Eddie got a job as a secretary at a law firm focused on representing labor unions. Their work supporting labor negotiations, holding big businesses accountable for violating worker protections, and ensuring the fundamental right to organize, inspired Eddie to go to law school at Seattle University. As a law student summer intern at the Washington Education Association, he was able to continue that dream supporting teachers and staff working tirelessly for our kids. He is beyond proud to be married to a life-long educator and union leader. Together they raise their kids to instill union values, bringing them to rallies, and to Olympia to lobby for school funding. Eddie is proud to be part of a union household and believes that unions are critical to uplifting the working class, defending democracy, and creating a more equitable City.
DIST. 9, WE ARE PROUD TO ENDORSE:
Dionne Foster
Bio
Dionne has spent the last 15 years working towards improved access and outcomes for all people, but especially the most vulnerable. Her dedication to working hard for what is right was cemented at an early age through experiencing economic challenges and seeking out opportunity. Dionne was raised by a single mother who served in the Army and later worked as a teacher, but despite her family’s hard work they struggled to make ends meet. To help support her family, she worked two jobs in high school starting off as a fast-food worker and hostess. In those jobs she worked with people who were supporting their families on just above minimum wage, shaping her perspective on economic justice and strong labor standards.
Dionne put herself through college with grants, loans and working part-time jobs. She was honored to earn the Spirit of King Award as an undergraduate for her commitment to civil rights and justice and the Dennis-Weathers award for dedication to increasing cross-cultural awareness. While working as a waitress after graduation, Dionne welcomed her son and was able to do so with the support of affordable healthcare through Apple Health. She then went on to earn her Masters in Social Work from the University of Washington, where she returned to train students as an adjunct faculty member. Later, the Seattle Downpayment Assistance Program made homeownership possible for Dionne and her family, providing the foundation for housing stability and generational wealth.
Because of the opportunities she was given, Dionne has been able to commit her career to the service of improving people’s lives through work in nonprofits, government and philanthropy.
She lives in South Seattle with her son and their COVID rescue dog. She’s a lifetime WNBA fan (Go Storm!) and loves to be outside, rain, snow or shine. Dionne is a proud gardener and donates some of her yield every year to our local food banks.
DIST. 8, WE'RE PROUD TO ENDORSE:
Alexis Mercedes Rinck
Bio
Alexis Mercedes Rinck has a reputation for bringing people together around solutions – and making them happen.
She has spent her life taking on the tough fights: championing regional agreements at the Sound Cities Association, and King County Regional Homelessness Authority, organizing marches against the actions of the Trump Administration, advocating for fair elections and campaign finance reform, and persevering through an adverse childhood.
Born to struggling parents who were just teenagers, Alexis’ grandparents stepped in to help raise her. Growing up, she witnessed firsthand her own family deal with the cycles of incarceration, substance use, and homelessness. But she is thankful to have had support in her community and access to resources that gave her a pathway to a better future.
With financial aid and scholarships, Alexis was able to attend Syracuse University, where she worked in restaurants and got her start in politics fighting and successfully banning hydrofracking in New York State and improving consumer protections.
As a young organizer, she has canvassed and fundraised for Planned Parenthood, educated on the impact of corporate/dark money in politics, and united grassroots organizations to protest Trump’s harmful policies. She is proud to have been awarded a “Woman Leader of the Year,” and a leader for LGBTQ+ justice.
After graduating with degrees in political science and sociology, Alexis moved to Seattle to attend the Evans School at the University of Washington and start her career in public policy. Alexis fights for progressive change and housing equity because she knows what it is to struggle. She is a living example that when we invest in young people to break cycles of trauma, we can change generations to come.
She has used her policy expertise to support human services and public health for the 38 member cities of the Sound Cities Association, to direct emergency and severe weather response plans for people living unsheltered in cities across King County, and to lead fiscal policy analysis and budgeting for higher education currently at the University of Washington.
Having witnessed firsthand the difficult circumstances that so many people in our communities are facing today, Alexis is ready to bring that experience to the City Council and be a real voice for the people of Seattle. She is a renter, a transit rider, a former restaurant worker, and a multi-racial woman.
She lives in the Central District and volunteers in her free time with Plant-Based Food Shares, ensuring families have access to fresh produce. She will bring important representation and an abundance of expertise to Seattle City Council to make sure Seattle is a place we can all be proud to call home.
cITY aTTORNEY
