For a brief shining moment, the majority of Seattlites felt hopeful that the landslide election of a second strong progressive to join Council Member Tammy Morales would inch the Seattle City Council’s trajectory ever-so-slightly to the left. This came a year after grappling with the new, conservative council’s crusade to rollback the working class victories of the previous council. Then, just 18 hours after newly elected Council Member Alexis Mercedes Rinck was ceremonially sworn in, Morales announced in a press release that she would resign from her position effective Jan. 6 to recover from a year of her colleagues bullying her and undermining her progressive legislation.
Advocates acknowledge that the shake-up will steepen their already uphill battle for renters’ protections, workers’ rights, progressive revenue, and an aggressive response to the housing crisis — but they’re not giving up.
“Hope is a discipline,” Rinck said, quoting activist Miriame Kaba. “I remain so deeply committed to championing progressive values and policy. I hope we can turn to each other and find ways to really problem-solve.”
Clean Up On The Second Floor
Rinck tells The Stranger she’s “deeply saddened” by the news of Morales’s coming resignation.
“[Morales] has been a beacon of progressive values, tirelessly championing the rights of workers, families, renters, transit riders, of all who live and work in Seattle, and especially championing the needs of District 2,” says Rinck. “I ultimately respect her decision to do what’s best for her personally, what’s best for her team, and her family.”
But Rinck’s wasting no time addressing the issues Morales laid out in her press release. Before she’s even had a chance to unpack, Rinck says she’s spoken with each of her new colleagues about their working relationship in the wake of Morales’s resignation. “I hope this can be an opportunity to reset and commit to a healthy workplace for the entire legislative department,” says Rinck.
But with such stark contrasts between Rinck’s agenda and that of some of her colleagues, she will inevitably clash with them politically.
Morales rightly anticipated the political struggle when she began her second term in January. She promised to keep things cordial, but according to her own account, her colleagues did not return the favor. The corporate-backed council quickly saw her as an enemy anyway, almost mistaking her for the previous council’s pariah, former Council Member Kshama Sawant.
Sawant took a different tact with her political foes on the council. As Sawant described it to The Stranger, “I never sought for one minute to make peace with big business or their politicians. And yet, I was never isolated because my alliance was with working people.” Sawant says elected officials must commit to a path—“You can’t serve both working people and the corporate elite. You have to choose. And if you are going to represent working people, you need to do that unambiguously and relentlessly, understanding that the rich and their proxies will attack you.”
As Morales told The Stranger in a previous interview, Rinck benefits from not having served on the previous council, even though her opponent tried to draw the connection during the campaign. Rinck hopes she’s more associated with her constituents than any elected officials.
“I hope my colleagues will also see that with 215,000 votes, we have a strong mandate to champion the progressive policies that I ran on,” says Rinck.
As for strategy, Rinck describes her approach as “relational”—focused on building good rapport and understanding others’ perspectives, even when they disagree on policy. But she emphasizes that doesn’t mean she’s going to be a pushover.
“I will treat my colleagues on the dais with respect, but at the end of the day it’s my job to be a fierce fighter for the policies that I ran on and that the people want me to champion,” says Rinck.
Rinck’s already employing that strategy. At her swearing-in Tuesday, Rinck made a clear and specific commitment to each one of her council colleagues, pledging to work with them on common goals related to their individual committees. But even in that very first full council meeting, Rinck didn’t hesitate to push for one of her key policy priorities—taxing the rich—despite its unpopularity with the conservative majority and their corporate donors. Rinck successfully passed an amendment to add progressive revenue to the City’s lobbying efforts in the upcoming State Legislative session.
While she already pulled off a notable symbolic victory, only time will tell if Rinck will find success with higher-profile legislation.
All Cap, No Gains
At top of the progressive coalition’s agenda—a capital gains tax. During recent budget negotiations, against overwhelming opposition at public comment, the City Council voted to raid the City’s fund for affordable housing to close the quarter billion dollar budget deficit rather than impose new taxes on corporations and the wealthy. This move, which contradicted platforms of fiscal responsibility, made the City more dependent on a single, volatile revenue stream and set the City up for another deficit. So now, the conversation about revenue begins anew.
“[With Morales] I think that there was probably a slim chance of passing a capital gains tax that is now even slimmer,” says Katie Wilson, the General Secretary of the Transit Riders Union and an advocate for progressive revenue.
In the final days of the 2025-2025 budget negotiations, Council Member Cathy Moore proposed a small, local expansion to the very popular statewide capital gains tax. The council narrowly rejected it, but Moore vowed to reintroduce the tax next year when the council would have a pro-tax majority.
Morales’s departure puts that plan in jeopardy. I asked Moore’s office if she will still pursue the Capital Gains tax and I will provide an update if she responds.
Rinck says “without a doubt” the City Council must discuss the capital gains tax next year, particularly as the new presidential administration poses a threat to current federal funding.
To win the Capital Gains tax, Wilson argues, Seattlites must pressure the other council members. The numbers on the progressives’ side — the vast majority of Seattle voters just voted to protect the statewide Capital Gains tax from a rightwing repeal. If constituents show up in force, whether physically in council chambers, on the phone, or through inboxes, Wilson says the council may think twice about taking an unpopular position.
Comrade Down
Losing Morales means more than losing a vocal proponent of progressive revenue — it’s the loss of working people’s strongest advocate against their greedy bosses and landlords. For a moment, a solid block of two felt like a strong enough gravitational pull to garner support for bills that improve the lives of working people. But after Morales’s departure, advocates worry they will once again be on the defensive, forced to fight off repeals rather than passing bold, new legislation.
While the council never formally introduced a bill, signs point to future attacks on renters’ rights such as the eviction moratoriums, the $10 late fee cap, the First-in-Time ordinance, and the 2019 roommate law. Morales represented renters better than any other member, says Be:Seattle Co-Executive Director Kate Rubin. Despite the loss, Rubin has “a lot of faith” in Rinck to defend tenants’ rights as a renter herself. She’s also hopeful to build better relationships with the other council members. Rubin found Moore’s manifesto on capital gains particularly resonant and saw potential for Moore to become another ally on the council.
In their first year at City Hall, the conservative majority relentlessly attacked worker protections, from Council President Sara Nelson’s quest to eliminate the minimum wage for gig workers, to Council Member Joy Hollingsworth’s galling attempt to permanently enshrine a subminimum wage for tipped workers.
UFCW 3000 Secretary-Treasurer Joe Mizrahi says Morales held the line for workers better than any other council member. But from an organizing perspective, the public’s advocacy matters more than that of any one council member.
“It can’t just be one or two elected leaders on the dais who are speaking loudly about this,” says Mizrahi, calling on working people to keep showing up to City Hall to pressure the council.
Labor has proven this strategy before. Public outcry and lobbying helped kill all the attacks on workers this year. If the council hasn’t learned their lesson from the hours of public shaming in chambers or the stunning defeat of their appointee in November, Mizrahi says he’s confident working people will gladly remind them again that they have no mandate to hurt workers.
What’s Next For Position 2?
Part of the strategy for improving the political conditions and outcomes on the council must be electing good champions for the working class, the advocates agree. Starting Jan 6, the City Council will have 20 days to appoint someone to Morales’s vacant seat representing District 2, the only majority-minority district in all seven, encompassing the Chinatown International District, Beacon Hill, Columbia City, and Rainier Beach.
The council really shat the bed during their last appointment process, which filled former Council Member Teresa Mosqueda’s vacant citywide seat. Siding with their corporate donors’ behind-the-scenes lobbying efforts over the will of the voters, the council appointed their friend Tanya Woo fresh off her loss to Morales. Woo ran again to retain her seat, but Rinck ultimately defeated her by a wide margin.
The fact that some worry the council might try to appoint Woo again speaks to how poorly the public views their decision-making. When asked directly about her intention to run, Woo did not respond, instead sending a link to her video statement.
Former CM Woo just texted me that this video will be her only statement regarding CM Morales resignation. No confirmation on the potential appointment. https://t.co/RfdCwDfupp
— Hannah Krieg (@hannahkrieg) December 5, 2024
“Appointing someone’s former opponent creates a challenging dynamic and I don’t think that’s what we want to continue on this council. We just want to move forward,” says Rinck.
As the council starts looking for an appointee, Rinck has a few key priorities. For one, she’s looking for applicants who show an openness to progressive revenue.
Additionally, Rinck wants to ensure the appointee has relevant experience to handle Morales’s committee assignments. Morales, with her background in urban planning and strong pro-density stance, was assigned to chair the Land Use committee and handle the critical Comprehensive Plan, which will guide the city’s growth for the next 20 years. A tall order for an unelected appointee!
Rinck says she would be remiss not to mention that the appointee should appropriately represent District 2.
“District 2 demands and deserves such leadership as council member Morales had consistently delivered,” says Rinck. “District two deserves true representation, and someone who is going to champion the needs of their district.”
However, history raises concerns. When tasked with replacing Mosqueda, a very popular labor leader with policy chops, the council chose a conservative who barely cracked 40% of the vote. As Ry Armstrong, board chair of Progressive People Power (P3) PAC notes, there’s little faith the council will pick someone who reflects Morales’s values.
While advocates encouraged progressives to apply for the appointment whether they have a real chance or not, it may actually help the left if the City Council makes another shady appointment like Woo — who ended up being an easy candidate for Rinck to defeat. If the council’s appointee wants to keep the seat, they’ll have to run next year. Allowing the council to pick a weaker candidate could benefit progressives in the long run, rather than elevating a compromise candidate who has to sing and dance for Nelson to get the job.
Either way, this new vacancy adds to the left’s electoral load next year. With limited resources compared to the corporate donors who oppose them, progressives will have to defend Rinck’s seat, take on the conservative slate of 2021 (including Mayor Bruce Harrell, City Attorney Ann Davison, and electoral white whale Nelson), and now they have to worry about a special election in District 2.
And the stakes are high.
“Don’t take for granted what Seattle has been, because we’ve seen how very quickly we can go backwards,” Armstrong says. “There’s gonna be a lot of distraction and things happening at the federal level, and people are going to say, ‘oh, but I’m safe in my bubble.’ But bubbles pop.”
After conservatives delivered a crushing defeat of all things left of center in the district council elections in 2023, the pendulum swung back in 2024. Armstrong said 2025 is the time for young, exciting candidates like Rinck to step up and run to keep that momentum going.
*Mariame Kaba
Setting Tanya Woo aside for a moment, it would be nice to get some Asian representation on the Council. After all, Asians make up about 17% of the population.
@2 I agree but we both know TS only supports community representation if the candidate aligns with them politically. Otherwise all that talk of intersectionality goes right out the window. Based on the comments from the leaders of the legislature to King5 it’s almost certain the threshold for the capital gains tax is going to be lowered to fill the budget gap the state is looking at so I’d be careful saying this is only targeting the “rich” until we see how low the state is willing to go.
“For a brief shining moment, the majority of Seattlites (sic) felt hopeful that the landslide election of a second strong progressive to join Council Member Tammy Morales would inch the Seattle City Council’s trajectory ever-so-slightly to the left”
a) you misspelled “Seattleites.” b) I would be genuinely shocked if 10% of voters in this city thought about their votes for Rinck being part of some progressive bulwark on the City Council against ‘centrism’ or ‘neoliberalism,’ or whatever we’re railing against this year.
District dear, I don’t know what Asian representation has to do with taxation, but I would be happy to see a progressive income and capital gains tax imposed in WA state (in exchange for cap on sales tax of 4.5% with no sales tax on groceries, clothing, or second-hand goods). That’s pretty much what we had in Iowa when I was young, and the state was progressive with well-resourced schools.
One thing learned from the last decade or so is that representation doesn’t mean shit, if it ever did. Bruce Harrell, who claims he’s Asian when the light is just right, is also a lifelong Republican. Rob Saka, who is poisoning the city council (and probably also poisoned his previous workplace) claims to be black if you look hard enough, although he hates black people. Seattle has had loads of black and Asian councillors over the years. How did that work for those communities? Unless and until Tim Ceis, Tim Burgess, and Sandeep Kaushik are forever removed from the city, it will only get worse and worse. We cant even fire Adrian Diaz! Read Morales’ letter closely. The family issues including her father’s medical issues, were too much for her. But really, someone needs to put a sock in Saka and shut him up, permanently. I spit up in my mouth every time he opens his.
@5 Catalina, my taxation comment was just an aside and a response to Hannah’s insistence the city do this right away. @6 seems to have proved my first point quite nicely that if you don’t adhere to progressive ideology they could really care less about your status of being from a marginalized group. They are quite MAGA that way.
Interesting to read progressives comment about the “blackness” or “asianness” of the council. This is what Trump was doing with Kamala; shows that prejudice runs deep and exists pretty much everywhere. Taxing the rich is fine (and I suspect it will soon “trickle” down to the middle class), but I don’t see any mention of being accountable for the tens of millions of dollars already being spent in the budget. What returns or improvements are we actually seeing? The attitude of just throwing money at a problem and wishing it away will not solve any crisis.
“ the new, conservative council’s crusade”
Um, this is Seattle. It’s still a progressive council. Stranger can’t redefine what progressive and conservative are. It’s just an obvious attempt to demonize the majority of the people in this progressive city who voted for all those other council members.
TS only supports opposition candidates who never begin to achieve their unrealistic goals and don’t fix anything, but just blame their failure on everyone else’s not being progressive enough. The se people who fail then back stab us every time and turn public opinion against us sane progressives. The TS brand of progressive will never win, because they are creatures of anger and nothing is ever acceptable to them, and they always just want to tear everything down. Because they fail to understand reality and what is actually possible.
See Trump-supporting Sawant – the stranger still owes us immense apology for supporting her. These people are crazy. Do not support them.
@10 Progressives don’t talk, fundraise, or legislate the way Sara Nelson does. Bruce Harrell is to homeless people as Donald Trump is to immigrants – blaming the victim and saying a minority group is the cause of crime. Until we have justice, nothing should ever be acceptable. It’s a tragic irony that people who believe the myths capitalism has spun routinely think they are the only ones who understand “reality.” I have my disagreements with Sawant (I’m a libertarian socialist, not a Trotskyist, among other things) but for the most part she understands better than anyone else in local politics what’s effective.
@8 If you check the data, you’ll see that blue cities are actually better than other jurisdictions at getting homeless people housed, but that new homeless people keep becoming homeless faster than they can often keep up, due to the private sector and their taxpayer-funded evictions. Your argument about throwing money at a failed system applies well to SPD, though. We should fund more of what works and less of what doesn’t – that is, housing, not cops.
And of course when I said “@10” I meant @9
@6 that’s some racist bullshit – he’s the son of an African American father and a Japanese American mother (that not Asian enough?).
@12 Oh sure, like when Harrell’s campaign said it was racist that the Gonzalez campaign advertised the fact that Harrell has a record of brushing aside credible accusations against powerful men and protecting the perpetrators. Whoever made the ad made the mistake of using a white woman for the photo, and it was off to the races just like Clarence Thomas calling Anita Hill “a high tech lynching.”
@13: Gonzalez, desperate to save her sinking campaign, made wild personal attacks upon Harrell, which either had no effect, or backfired upon her. (It’s an academic argument; either way, Harrell’s crushing defeat of her terminated her political career.)
It’s still blatantly racist to claim Harrell’s ethnicity exists only “…when the light is just right,” as @6 did. Again, you ‘progressives’ loudly claim to care about DEI, etc. when you believe you can swing them as rhetorical clubs to pummel liberals, but you really care only about the most rigidly unforgiving tests for ideological purity. Thanks for demonstrating that here.
“Sawant says elected officials must commit to a path—’You can’t serve both working people and the corporate elite. You have to choose. And if you are going to represent working people, you need to do that unambiguously and relentlessly, understanding that the rich and their proxies will attack you.'”
How the fuck does The Stranger publish this bullshit with a straight face after Sawant supported Donald Trump’s campaign less than 45 days ago?
@10
Bruce Harrell is not to homeless people as Trump is to immigrants. That you can’t recognize a difference demonstrates your lack of seriousness.
A lot of crime does come out of the homeless encampments. Homeless people do commit a lot of crimes. It ain’t the residents of my high rise shooting each other and bystanders in the alley. It’s the homeless. Not all of the homeless, but overall, Harrell is right, and that’s something you just need to learn.
Also don’t sign up for stupid belief systems like “libertarian socialism”… what an oxymoron of a label. Liberalism generally involves liberating people to do what they wish with their resources and entitling them to the fruits of their labor. Socialism generally involves requiring people to pool their resources to distribute as some subgroup wishes. The two are polar opposites. That you think you can have a coherent worldview encapsulating both of those things is pure stupidity. I’m a black white person. My pronouns are him/her/he/she. But I’m not trans, I’m both!
Of course we can’t get society to be progressive when this is what passes for progressivism.
Bruce Harrell’s father worked at City Light. I believe he was the first black employee at the executive level, but I’m not certain of that. I do know that he worked downtown at the old SCL building and was known for being very well-dressed.
It’s actually quite unusual that we have no Asian representation on both the City and County Councils. Chery and Ruby Chow, and Wing Luke, were all major political players. Cheryl might still be if the cancer hadn’t taken her.
@17 It’s a big miss for the city but at the same time I haven’t really seen anyone from the Asian community who has seemed interested in running outside of Woo.
@6 Yes, ideology properly trumps race and most other considerations aside from serious criminality. But questioning Harrell’s and Saka’s racial bona fides, however facetiously it was meant, is a bit much. I think you owe them both an apology.
As for Woo, I’ll repeat what I said here a year ago: appointing a freshly defeated candidate to the council is unfair to the victor as it will almost inevitably generate (or add to) an atmosphere of tension and mutual distrust, not to mention resentment and cynicism among the voters who just rejected that person at the polls. And sure enough, in Woo’s case it did EXACTLY that, and now it looks like history may repeat itself. Once a progressive majority is back in charge, the council needs to pass a law requiring a 12-month cooling-off period before a defeated candidate is eligible for appointment to a seat. I’m serious.
@19: “…appointing a freshly defeated candidate to the council is unfair to the victor…”
Was that one of the complaints CM Morales gave for quitting? (She complained about so many things, I finally lost track.)
“…resentment and cynicism among the voters who just rejected that person at the polls.”
Other than the bitterly inconsolable, howling rage expressed by the Stranger and supportive commenters, have you any evidence (e.g. public-opinion polls) showing this is the case for District 2? CM Morales had defeated Woo by a very small margin, so the idea of the citizens developing “resentment and cynicism” seems odd. (I mean, if CM Morales had won in a landslide, and then the Council had expelled her, and appointed Woo to the District 2 seat, I can understand that causing the problems you speak.)
“Once a progressive majority is back in charge,”
Assumes facts not in evidence.
Let’s be honest. The only time The Stranger gives a shit about Asians is when one of us is wronged by the police.
Other than that for some reason we can be murdered / robbed / targeted / assaulted and there would be no mention of the events here whatsoever.