On Sunday, State Senator Rebecca Saldaña announced she is running for King County Council in the 2026 election, seeking the District 2 seat that Girmay Zahilay vacated after taking office as King County Executive. She has positioned herself in a progressive lane and pledged work to insulate the region from Trump cuts and attacks on immigrants and the queer community. Zahilay had represented District 2, which stretches from Skyway all the way into Ravenna, since 2020.
“In this moment when people feel really afraid and maybe hopeless and a little distracted, I want to remind people that we have power, and that it’s in our connections and relationships with one another, and that we can do hard things.” Saldaña told The Urbanist in an interview Monday morning. “And, you know, budgets suck all the time, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t keep on having values and keep on pushing forward and making sure that we’re making government work for working people.”
Saldaña made the announcement at her seventh annual “Golden Clippys” community meeting where she hands out awards highlighting “the amazing work of outstanding organizers and community leaders.”
She already appears to have company in the race. Seattle Port Commissioner Toshiko Grace Hasegawa announced she is “strongly considering a run” on Sunday — though she stopped short of formally jumping in the race. These machinations have all been taking place just a few days before the King County Council is set to vote on a temporary replacement who will fill Zahilay’s shoes until this election’s winner is certified next fall.
Accomplishments in state senate
Saldaña joined the Washington State Senate in December 2016, when Democrats were in the minority in the upper chamber. At the time, Saldaña was executive director at Puget Sound Sage, a progressive nonprofit focused on uplifting communities of color in South King County. The King County Council voted to appoint her to fill the seat after its previous holder, Pramila Jayapal, won a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 2018, Saldaña went on to win reelection, facing a longshot Republican challenger and winning a landslide victory with 89% of the vote. Her 2022 reelection bid was unopposed. During her time in the Senate, she rose to become the Senate Deputy Majority Leader and now serves as the chair of the Labor & Commerce Committee and as a member of the powerful Ways & Means committee.
Over her nine years in the senate, she pointed to big accomplishments on core progressive issues, like climate action and economic justice, and in “building the bench” of progressive leaders. The state legislature was not very diverse when she first started, but has added far more women of color over the last decade.
“In this last 10 years, we have put a price on carbon,” Saldaña said. “We’ve passed progressive revenues. We have put a lot of infrastructure in to try to Trump proof us during his first regime.”
Her campaign announcement elaborated on her list of legislative wins.
“I’m proud to have worked with coalitions to deliver wins in the legislature like the Voting Rights Act, Capital Gains Tax, Climate Commitment Act, Healthy Environment for All Act, Paid Family and Medical Leave, and more. I’m ready to keep delivering at the local level,” Saldaña said in the release.
Transit expansion and climate action
Transportation was not her area of focus at the state legislature, but Saldaña called herself a reliable, good vote. She stressed that King County Metro is central to efforts to curb pollution and meet the County’s ambitious climate goals.
“To me, transit is a benefit to us all,” Saldaña said. “And I think too often we’re thinking about fare enforcement as opposed to, like, how do we make sure that people that are benefiting from this system are all investing into this system? I will definitely be looking at creative ways that we can be thinking about revenue and thinking about Metro not as just a service for those riding it, but really as a service for the whole region to keep us moving, to be able to make our air cleaner, and be able to get people connected to the things that they love and the people that they care about.”
She shared some frustration that King County had scaled back its bus fleet electrification goals due to budget pressures and reliability issues with new battery-electric bus technology. While Saldaña wants to get the county’s electrification work back on track, she acknowledged that it should not come at the cost of bus frequencies and service.
“A bus that is polluting is cleaner than the 100 cars that we would need for people,” Saldaña said.
Saldaña voiced support for the Graham Street Station area planning led by Puget Sound Sage, which had the goal of fighting displacement and fostering community development when Sound Transit eventually finishes the in-fill light rail station that will go between Columbia City and Othello Station on the 1 Line — currently tabled for 2031. She said she was continue to advocate for the project, and expressed some interest in a seat on the 18-member Sound Transit Board of Directors, should one arise. She noted she was excited that County Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda recently won a board nomination from Zahilay.
A long list of endorsements
In her career, Saldaña has also built a wide assortment of allies. She entered the race with a large list of endorsements — many of them colleagues at the state legislature.
Saldaña’s campaign consultant Stephen Paolini shared the following list of endorsements:
- State Senator Adrian Cortes (18th LD)
- State Senator Emily Alvarado (34th LD)
- State Senator Manka Dhingra (45th LD)
- State Senator Claudia Kauffman (47th LD)
- State Senator Marko Liias (21st LD)
- State Senator Jamie Pedersen (43rd LD)
- State Senator Marcus Riccelli (3rd LD)
- State Senator Javier Valdez (46th LD)
- State Senator Vandana Slatter (48th LD)
- State Senator Claire Wilson (30th LD)
- State Representative Liz Berry (36th LD)
- State Representative Mia Gregerson (33rd LD)
- State Representative Nicole Macri (43rd LD)
- State Representative Shaun Scott (43rd LD)
- State Representative Sharlett Mena (29th LD)
- State Representative Edwin Obras (33rd LD)
- State Representative Lillian Ortiz Self (21st LD)
- State Representative Julia Reed (36th LD)
- State Representative Chipalo Street (37th LD)
- State Representative Jamila Taylor (30th LD)
- State Representative Brianna Thomas (34th LD)
- Former King County Councilmember Larry Gossett
- Cindy Domingo, Community Leader
- Rhonda Gossett, Community Leader
- Davida Ingram, Director, Seattle King Co. African-Americans Reparations Committee
- Miguel Maestas, Deputy Director, El Centro de la Raza
- Estela Ortega, Executive Director, El Centro de la Raza.
Temporary appointment process
The election in November will determine who holds the seat for a full four-year term, but until then the King County Council will appoint a temporary fill-in. Executive Zahilay has proposed three nominees for consideration saying all three have pledged to fill the seat in a caretaker role rather than run for reelection next year. All three are Black women: Zahilay’s former chief of staff Rhonda Lewis, Skyway community leader Cherryl Jackson-Williams, and Seattle Foundation grant officer Nimco Bulale, who ran for state house in the 37th Legislative District in 2022 and finished third.
“I am thrilled with the three people that Executive Zahilay put forward. All three of them are incredible leaders. Any of them would do a great job,” Saldaña told The Urbanist. “Council can’t go wrong if they choose one of those three. And I hope that they will.”
Katie Wilson and progressive resurgence
As an early backer of Katie Wilson in her mayoral bid, Saldaña said she is really excited for what her mayoral administration will bring. She said she first met Wilson when they were both working to fight bus service cuts that King County Metro was considering in the aftermath of the 2008 recession. Parallels exists between the leadership Wilson is seeking to bring and Saldaña, with both seeking to restore faith in government and reinvigorate progressive policymaking.
“When I endorsed her, it’s because I want someone that shares my values and that is courageous and is going to lead with hope and creativity in the face of challenges, and not just do things okay,” Saldaña said. “A lot of times [when] you’re feeling a crisis, you’re gonna hunker down, right? And just kind of keep on doing the things. But that’s not how we get progress.”
Visit Saldaña’s campaign website for more information.
Doug Trumm is publisher of The Urbanist. An Urbanist writer since 2015, he dreams of pedestrian streets, bus lanes, and a mass-timber building spree to end our housing crisis. He graduated from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance at the University of Washington in 2019. He lives in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood and loves to explore the city by foot and by bike.