Seattle: Civil rights attorney and City Council President Lorena González is officially launching her campaign for Mayor of Seattle. As a Mexican-American and first generation American who grew up as a migrant farmworker, Lorena would be the first woman of color to be the city’s Mayor.
Lorena says:
“I’m running for Mayor because I have hope and dreams for this city that I love where I have chosen to raise a family, and I know the hard work it takes to bring people together to get things done. When I first came to Seattle as a fifth grader, I was in awe of the city’s promise. Seattle was my dream. I knew – if I could ever get off those farms – that Seattle would be my city. I worked my way to law school here and am now raising our family here, because I believe in Seattle and its promise of progressive values, innovation, and diverse, vibrant communities.
We are at a critical crossroads, and now is the time for bold and progressive action that overcomes the status quo and paves the pathway to Seattle’s collective, shared prosperity.
Income inequality continues to grow. But we have the power to create living wage jobs and affordable housing.
The pandemic hit our city first and hit our economy hard. But we have the power to support our small businesses and their workers.
We are in the midst of a racial reckoning made worse by a pandemic that is ravaging our Black, brown, indigenous and other communities of color. But we have the power to show that diversity is our strength and we can transform public safety to meet this civil rights moment.
We can do this despite our differences. In this historic moment, I’m ready to be that Mayor for this City.”
Raised in poverty in Central Washington by two migrant farmworkers from Mexico, Lorena earned her first paycheck at the age of eight as a migrant farmworker. She became a civil rights attorney after witnessing, and experiencing firsthand, the abuses suffered by her fellow migrant farm workers.
Lorena’s most high profile case – Monetti v Seattle – involved Seattle Police Department officers beating and verbally abusing a Latino man, threatening to “beat the Mexican piss” out of him. Lorena successfully settled that suit, winning $150,000 for the victim.
Lorena served as a Commissioner on the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission for four years, and as a general counsel to the Mayor of Seattle in 2014 and 2015.
For her work in and out of the courtroom, Lorena has earned multiple local and national awards, including Washington State Bar Association, Civil Rights Section: Distinguished Service Award (2010) and Champion for Children (2018, Save the Children).
Lorena has served on various local, regional and national non-profit boards, including Local Progress, Latina/o Bar Association of Washington, OneAmerica, OneAmerica Votes, and Washington State Association for Justice.
Seattle voters elected Lorena to city council in 2015 with 78.06% of a citywide vote, and they voted for her again in 2017, with a citywide vote of 71.02%. In 2020, Lorena’s fellow councilmembers elected her Council President.
By building coalitions on and off the Council, Lorena has helped make real improvements in the lives of Seattle residents, including:
- Doubling the number of Seattle Preschool Program slots available to Seattle families with children aged 3 to 4 years old
- Incentivizing the construction of childcare facilities in affordable housing development via the Mandatory Housing Affordability program
- Partnering with neighborhood business associations to fund homelessness outreach resources in neighborhood commercial districts
- Establishing rental subsidies for Seattle residents with disabilities to gain and sustain housing
- Advancing progressive taxes on large business to fund investments in affordable housing, homelessness services and more
- Emergency pandemic legislation to provide tenants an economic defense to eviction if non-payment of rent is related to COVID-19
- Passing pandemic relief for small businesses and hospitality workers
- Co-sponsoring legislation to provide a $4.00 per hour COVID hazard pay to workers at grocery stores with 500+ workers worldwide
- Passing budget actions that shift funds from SPD to social services to better support and protect our communities
- Passed gun safety laws requiring the safe storage of firearms and increasing penalties for failing to report a lost or stolen firearm
- Banning foreign-influenced corporate donations to Seattle elections via campaigns or independent expenditure committees and expanded disclosure requirements for political advertising
- Banning conversion therapy for LGBTQ youth
Lorena lives in West Seattle with her husband and young daughter.
