Who could fill former Seattle City Councilmember Tammy Morales' seat? Here are some names

January 13, 2025 / 12:00 pm

Seattle will likely have a new council member before the end of January. The City Council now has a short list of candidates to fill its vacant seat for 2025.

A total of 20 Seattleites are on that short list. They were invited to submit applications, and a financial interest statement, for the vacant District 2 seat earlier this month. Those applications were due on Jan. 9.

The Council is expected to appoint a fill-in member on Jan. 27. That person will have the option of running to keep the position in the November election.

Below are the names of all qualified applicants up for consideration.

Armas-Amaya, Henry M
Bulale, Nimco
Chhuor, Hong
Debessay, Nahom
Ducksworth, Adonis E
Ederer, Takayo M
Engstrom, Randy
Gregory, Thaddaeus J
Harris, Romain R
Lin, Edward C
Morrison, Alex
Nielsen, Erik L
Ramseur, Rachel
Rogers, Bishop R
Salisbury, Chukundi
Sloan, Steven
Smith, Mona
Solomon, Mark A
Sztainbok, Mark
Venus, Nakita

A seat on the dais became open when Councilmember Tammy Morales resigned in late 2024, three years before the end of her term. Morales was re-elected to represent District 2 in 2023. That election brought sweeping change to city hall with new council members seeking to change course from the direction the previous council had set. Morales was aligned with that previous council. The new council majority has been viewed as moderate, and Morales became a lone vote on many issues.

In December, when Morales announced she was stepping down, she said that she was "targeted with bullying and gaslighting all year," from other members of the Council, and made a series of other allegations. When speaking with KUOW, Morales added that she believed "this Council is sliding towards really undemocratic behavior."

Council President Sara Nelson disagreed with that characterization of the past year, and told KUOW that she was "frankly shocked and disappointed with the way she has characterized the dynamic on Council and what occurs at the dais." While she wanted to avoid a "tit-for-tat" with Morales' allegations, Nelson did respond to a few points.

Another part of this drama centered on Tanya Woo, who lost the 2023 election against Morales in District 2, but was soon appointed to the Council in early 2024 to fill another vacant seat. Woo ran to keep the position in 2024, but lost the citywide seat to Alexis Mercedes Rinck, a candidate who was expected to be more aligned with Morales' side of the dais. Woo told KUOW that her supporters have been asking her to apply for the new Council appointment. Her name is not among those currently being considered; however, she said she is not ruling out running again for a different position. Woo did raise concerns that the Council lacks Asian representation. A common sentiment in Seattle's Chinatown-International District is that their neighborhood is not represented or listened to at city hall.