SEATTLE — Lorena Gonzalez has six years as the Seattle city council member elected citywide. Now she wants the most important citywide office Seattle offers: she’s running for mayor.
Gonzalez was born in Prosser. She’s the daughter of undocumented immigrants from Mexico and grew up to become a civil rights lawyer. She’s currently serving as city council president.
Now she wants to succeed current mayor Jenny Durkan, who decided not to run again.
KIRO 7 sat down with Gonzalez outdoors and socially distant for her first television interview as a candidate for Seattle mayor.
“I want to find common cause. I want to center those that have been harmed the most. And I want to lead this city to be the world-class city that I know it is. And in this moment, in this historic moment, I’m ready to be that mayor for the city,” she responded when asked why she wants to be mayor.
Her candidacy comes at a time when the city is in the midst of a pandemic, hit hard by the economic shutdown induced to control the coronavirus, in the middle of a reckoning for racial justice and divided over the role police should play in a just society.
Gonzalez promises a progressive approach.
When asked how deeply she wants to cut the police budget she responded, “We don’t need an armed law enforcement to somebody who is having a mental health crisis. We don’t need an armed law enforcement when a package is stolen from somebody’s porch.”
Gonzales joins six candidates who have already declared for mayor.
“She’s been there a while. She’s council president. She’s got a strong following,” said Seattle University president Marco Lowe.
It’s barely six months before the August primary that will determine who Seattle voters will get to choose from in November. Other candidates who want to be mayor are expected to join this race very soon.
Cox Media Group
