By Akil Washington and LikaVibe Media
Photos & Audio: Akil Washington and LikaVibe Media
“Do you support reparations for descendants of chattel slavery?”
This question is being echoed across every room — from church basements in the Central District to community centers in Skyway and South Seattle.
For once, every candidate said yes.
From Seattle City Council hopefuls to King County Executive contenders, this election season feels different. Candidates weren’t talking to the community — they were answering to it.
Over five separate forums hosted by King County Equity NOW, candidates from across Seattle and King County were pressed on issues that matter most to Black residents: reparations, housing, land ownership, youth opportunity, and safety.
The message was clear — Seattle’s Black community isn’t asking for visibility. It’s demanding power.
Position 2: The South End Shot Callers — Eddie Lin and Adonis Duckworth Redefine Representation
In Seattle’s Southeast corner—spanning Rainier Valley, Beacon Hill, and the Chinatown-International District—the race for Position 2 is more than a seat. It’s a chance to give voice to communities often treated as digests in city policy instead of decision-makers.
Eddie Lin, a seasoned attorney, brings a legal lens to the fight: he has worked for years in the city’s Office of Housing as an Assistant City Attorney, and says he’s ready to translate that insider knowledge into action.
“I currently… have been working full-time with the Office of Housing,” Lin said. “I believe our district deserves a strong representative.”
His priority: turning policy into homes, stopping displacement, and making sure immigrant and refugee families aren’t priced out of the neighborhoods they helped build.
Across the table, Adonis Duckworth trades legal briefs for skateboards and city-wide vision. Once a communications lead at the Seattle Department of Transportation and currently a policy director under Bruce Harrell at the mayor’s office, Duckworth brings operational chops and a commitment to youth, mobility, and the forgotten east-side lanes.
“We’re not just building roads,” Duckworth said. “We’re building opportunities for kids who’ve been told Seattle isn’t for them.”
He wants to see investment in skate parks, transport infrastructure, job training, and tech pathways—so young Black and brown Seattleites can come home, not move away.
Together, Lin’s housing-first approach and Duckworth’s mobility-and-youth focus frame a broader question: When Southeast Seattle changes, who stays and who gets left behind? Lin says the answer is ownership. Duckworth says it’s access. Both agree it’s long overdue.
LikaVibe takeaway:
Position 2 isn’t a policy side-note—it’s a blueprint. Between Lin’s legal leverage and Duckworth’s community engineering, the candidates are offering two distinct paths to holding space in Seattle’s future rather than being moved by it.
Position 9: Seattle’s Citywide Seat — Dionne Foster and Sara Nelson Face the Big Questions
Seattle’s Position 9 race is the one everyone in the city votes on — which means it’s where the biggest questions land: Who is Seattle for? How do we keep Black people here? And how do we make city policy match the people it impacts?
Dionne Foster came into the forum with a personal story that matched the room — raised by a single mom, stayed in Seattle because of down payment assistance, and now pushing for policies that make that kind of stability possible for more Black families.
“I bought my home because I got help,” Foster said. “That’s the kind of investment we should be scaling — so people who grew up here can stay here.”
Her lens was clear: housing, education, and reparations all work together. She talked about using the Families, Education, Preschool & Promise funds more intentionally, disaggregating data so African American outcomes don’t get buried, and piloting guaranteed income based on what we’ve already seen work in King County.
On the other side, Sara Nelson leaned on experience — business owner, current councilmember, and someone who has worked inside the system to move money, including for projects like Midtown.
“We can’t lose small businesses — they’re how communities build wealth,” Nelson said. “We have to protect the ecosystem that creates jobs and keeps dollars in community.”
Nelson emphasized support for small businesses, permitting fixes, and workforce-level housing — the 60–90% AMI folks who earn too much for low-income housing but still can’t afford Seattle’s rents.
What made the exchange powerful was that both candidates acknowledged the same wound — Black displacement — but came at it from different angles:
- Foster: targeted, race-conscious investment and ownership
- Nelson: keep the economic engine healthy and make sure Black businesses aren’t pushed out of it
LikaVibe takeaway:
Because Position 9 is citywide, this race is basically Seattle asking itself: are we ready to fund equity at the scale we talk about it? Foster is making the case for measurable repair; Nelson is making the case for stabilizing the systems that create jobs. Voters get to decide which path gets us to a Seattle Black people can still afford to call home.
Katie Wilson: Pragmatism and the Power of Place
In the Seattle Mayoral forum, Katie Wilson reminded voters that equity also requires infrastructure — and urgency.
She spoke candidly about balancing reform with realism: “If we don’t fix the system, we’ll keep rebuilding it on the same foundation that failed.”
Wilson positioned housing as both moral and municipal, tying reparations to public planning and education to workforce sustainability.
LikaVibe takeaway:
While other candidates spoke of systemic transformation, Wilson focused on execution — how to get from intention to implementation without losing momentum.
Claudia Balducci: Public Service and Policy Reform
When Claudia Balducci, King County Council-member for East King County, took the stage at the King County Executive Forum, she brought both experience and humility.
“I come from a family of public servants,” she said. “A teacher, a firefighter, a court officer — I’m the only one who hasn’t retired yet.”
Balducci spoke with the cadence of someone who’s been inside the machinery of local government and knows how slow it can grind. Yet her message was bold:
- She endorsed reparations outright, supporting $300,000 in county funding for the next study phase.
- She pledged to reform data systems to disaggregate outcomes by race, ensuring Black residents aren’t lost in statistical averages.
- She pressed for affordable housing built on surplus public land, with priority given to community-led projects.
“Government loves to measure how much money we spend,” she said, “but not enough how much change we make.”
LikaVibe takeaway:
Balducci isn’t promising revolution — she’s promising follow-through. Her power lies in knowing how to make bureaucracy bend toward equity.
Girmay Zahilay: Building the Bridge to the Future
Then came Girmay Zahilay, current Chair of the King County Council and Balducci’s fellow Executive candidate — and the forums’ emotional centerpiece.
Born in Sudan, raised in Skyway, Zahilay’s story embodies the Seattle dream at its most fragile and most hopeful. His family spent time in a homeless shelter in the Chinatown–International District before finding stability through affordable housing and public education — the same systems now strained to the breaking point.
“I went from a shelter to serving as Council Chair,” he said, “but too many families don’t have that path anymore.”
His policy blueprint blends racial repair with economic reinvention:
- Full support for reparations, paired with state advocacy to dismantle barriers like I-200.
- A public land bank and partnerships with Africatown Community Land Trust to grow Black homeownership.
- A new Office of Economic Opportunity to connect Black youth to jobs in AI and emerging tech.
- Expansion of violence interruption and healing programs for families impacted by gun violence.
“We’re living between the pre-AI and post-AI economies,” Zahilay said. “If we don’t act fast, others will profit from this next wave — we need to build the pathways now.”
LikaVibe takeaway:
Zahilay represents a generational shift — the fusion of policy, tech, and cultural consciousness. His campaign bridges the past and the digital future, insisting that innovation and equity must rise together.
One Question, Many Answers
Across all five forums, one question unified the conversations:
“How will you make King County a region of opportunity for Black people?”
From Dionne Foster’s grassroots call to action to Girmay Zahilay’s AI vision, every candidate offered a different map — but the destination was shared:
a Seattle where housing, healing, and hope are no longer luxuries, but rights.
“Reparations aren’t just a policy,” Zahilay said. “They’re a moral responsibility.”
“We’ll never arrest our way to a healthy community,” Balducci added.
And in District 9, Dionne Foster kept it simple: “Ownership is what keeps us home.”
The Movement Behind the Mic
These forums weren’t just political events — they were culture in motion.
Organized by King County Equity NOW, powered by community moderators and youth volunteers, the series reflected a new model of civic journalism: one led by the people most affected.
The energy wasn’t campaign-season hype — it was accountability.
It was a reminder that every vote, every voice, and every vision still matters.
LikaVibe takeaway:
Seattle’s next chapter won’t be written in City Hall alone. It’s already being drafted in places like Africatown, Skyway, Rainier Beach, and the Central District — by people who’ve turned survival into strategy.
Notably Absent: Mayor Bruce Harrell
One voice missing from the Brunch & Ballot series was Mayor Bruce Harrell, who was invited but did not attend the community forums.
His absence didn’t go unnoticed — particularly because the questions being asked were directly tied to his administration’s priorities: housing affordability, reparations, public safety, and generational wealth-building.
Several candidates and community leaders referenced Harrell’s proposed $80 million reparations initiative, calling it a welcome first step but emphasizing that lasting repair requires more than symbolic funding.
Speakers challenged city leadership to expand the scale, deepen the partnerships, and ensure that Black-led organizations are the ones designing, implementing, and governing these programs.
In that context, Harrell’s absence felt symbolic — a reminder of the distance between policy and presence.
As one community member put it afterward, “You can’t build equity from behind closed doors.”For the people in that room, the message was clear:
showing up matters.
Leadership isn’t just about budgets or proposals; it’s about proximity, listening, and accountability to the communities most affected by the city’s decisions.
Closing: The Future We Build
Seattle’s 2025 election is more than a contest of candidates — it’s a reckoning with history and a rehearsal for the future.
Each forum made one thing clear:
Black Seattle isn’t waiting for inclusion. It’s leading the conversation, setting the agenda, and defining the values that will shape the region’s next era.
At LikaVibe, that’s what we’re here to amplify — not politics as usual, but the people building something new.
As the last applause faded, Wyking Garrett stepped forward with a reminder that resonated beyond the walls of the forum:
“We don’t wait for change,” Garrett said. “We build it.”
That moment summed up the spirit of the entire series — from South Seattle to the Central District — a movement of community architects reclaiming power, policy, and possibility in real time.
