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Alexis Mercedes Rinck wins Seattle City Council Position 8 seat

Candidate Alexis Mercedes Rinck has 58% of votes so far, followed by current councilmember Tanya Woo with 42%, as of Tuesday night.

SEATTLE — Alexis Mercedes Rinck has won the race to serve on the Seattle City Council's citywide position.

KING 5 called the race for Mercedes Rinck on Thursday after a third round of election results were released. The gap is too much for opponent Tanya Woo to make up.

Woo narrowly lost a race for the council’s District 2 seat last November, however, she was appointed to the citywide Position 8 in January. This election determines who will serve the remainder of the Position 8 term through 2025.

   

"I didn't want to take anything for granted," Mercedes Rinck said at her watch party on Tuesday night. "We had a job today, which was to really reach out across our entire city, be in every neighborhood, and engage our neighbors on the issues that they care most about. And so we worked really hard to reach across our entire community for everybody make sure that they support our message."

The position was left vacant after Teresa Mosqueda was elected to the King County Council in 2023. 

Woo is a Seattle native who started a community safety group in the Chinatown International District during the pandemic and runs a workforce housing complex. She said her top priorities are affordability and addressing homelessness.

On election night, Woo declined to comment to KING 5 until results are official. 

Mercedes Rinck moved to Seattle seven years ago to receive her master's degree from the University of Washington. She has worked for the Sound Cities Association and now works in policy planning for UW.

She said her top priorities are affordability and addressing the budget deficit. She wants the ultra-wealthy and corporations to pay more taxes to fund city services.

Both candidates noted public safety as a top priority, telling KING 5 during the political season that they want to see increased police staffing, more crisis intervention workers, and more community violence prevention programs.

Patrick Schoettmer, a Seattle University associate teaching professor, said the race could serve as a referendum on how people feel the council is performing.

"Voters...have a way to weigh in a year into the city council's shift more to the center and to either give it an endorsement or perhaps give them some sort of warning that maybe some of the direction isn't what the voters of Seattle were necessarily looking for," said Schoettmer.

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