District 3’s Hollingsworth will lead Seattle City Council’s new mix in 2026

Council president Hollingsworth

Three years ago on a chilly January day at the MLK FAME Community Center, Joy Hollingsworth announced her run for the Seattle City Council.

Tuesday, Hollingsworth was chosen to serve as council president, the first time a Black woman has been elected to the post in the city’s 174-year history.

“Our council body will focus on the bold basics and fundamentals,” Hollingsworth said as her colleagues unanimously approved her new position with a 9-0 vote.

The Central District-born Hollingsworth now adds an important new responsibility to her leadership for her home neighborhood, Capitol Hill, and the rest of District 3.

The council president serves as the presiding officer, sets meeting agenda, assigns legislation to committees, and is “the primary point of contact for external agencies.”

The council president also assumes the duties and responsibilities of the executive if the mayor is absent from the city or incapacitated.

The office has a two-year term.

(Image: City of Seattle)

New Mayor Katie Wilson was in attendance in chambers on a day of change for the council as citywide members Alexis Mercedes Rinck and Dionne Foster were also sworn into office.

CHS reported here on the new makeup of the council after Rinck’s landslide victory and Foster’s solid trouncing of former council president Sara Nelson. The win of affordable housing champion Eddie Lin to lead District 2 representing South Seattle adds to a new more progressive leaning for the city’s legislative body.

“Over the past year, my office has been committed to delivering for working people, and this re-election to a full term is validation that the people of Seattle want us to continue our efforts to build a Seattle that works for all of us,” Rinck said Tuesday. “I believe it is my paramount duty to use every tool at my disposal to improve the lives of Seattleites and that is what I am committed to for the next four years. Let us go onward together.”

Rinck is also a D3 area resident.

Foster, a nonprofit executive, community organizer, and policy advisor, said her office “will work tirelessly to deliver for our neighbors across the city with a focus on improving housing affordability and abundance, supporting initiatives that improve the cost of living for Seattleites and making it easier to get from place to place safely and efficiently.”

Foster was most recently the executive director of Washington Progress Alliance.

The 2026 Seattle City Council mix will be an interesting one to watch settle in. New president Hollingsworth, in the middle of the term she won in 2023, has been a centrist voice on the council and was a constant ally of Mayor Bruce Harrell. The rest of the council will remain Rob Saka representing West Seattle’s District 1, Maritza Rivera representing the city’s northeast in District 4, Debora Juarez representing the city’s north in District 5, Ballard, Fremont, and Magnolia lover Dan Strauss in District 6, and public safety-focused Bob Kettle representing downtown and Queen Anne in District 7.

The new mood on the City Council isn’t the only jolt of new energy ready to power Mayor Wilson’s bid for change in the city. New City Attorney Erika Evans was sworn-in last week after her defeat of incumbent Ann Davison in November. Evans has already made waves with a push to focus more low-level drug arrests in the city’s diversion program.

Tuesday’s council proceedings also included the assignment of committees for the legislative year ahead:

• Finance, Native Communities, and Tribal Governments – Chair Strauss, Vice-Chair Rivera
• Housing, Arts, and Civil Rights – Chair Foster, Vice-Chair Lin
• Human Services, Labor, and Economic Development – Chair Rinck, Vice-Chair Foster
• Land Use and Sustainability – Chair Lin, Vice-Chair Strauss
• Libraries, Education, and Neighborhoods – Chair Rivera, Vice-Chair Hollingsworth
• Parks and City Light – Chair Juarez, Vice-Chair Kettle
• Governance and Utilities – Chair Hollingsworth, Vice-Chair Juarez
• Public Safety – Chair Kettle, Vice-Chair Saka
• Transportation, Waterfront, and Seattle Center – Chair Saka, Vice-Chair Rinck

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