Debora Juarez

Debora Juarez is an American lawyer and politician who served as the president of the Seattle City Council. She was first elected in 2015 to represent the 5th district. A member of the Blackfeet Nation, she was the first Native American person elected to the council.

Juarez was the first member of her family to attend college.

Seattle City Council Elections In 2013, Seattle voters approved changing seven of the nine at-large district seats to district-based starting in 2015. In 2015, Juarez ran for the district 5 position, which represents North Seattle and had no incummbent councilmember. In the August primary, Juarez came in first against seven challengers, with 39.25%, and advanced to the general election with ex-clergy member Sandy Brown, who earned 19.88% of the vote. Brown ran on creating local improvement districts to pay for sidewalks, which Juarez criticised saying that they would unfairly benefit wealthy neighborhoods. Juarez supported imposing developer impact fees as well as pushing for greater funding for sidewalks in SDOT's budget. In the August primary, Juarez came in first with 45.1% of the vote and advanced to the general election with lawyer Ann Davison Sattler, who earned 26.71%. She and Davison Sattler sparred on homelessness, with Juarez focusing on increasing funding and affordable housing, while Davison Sattler focused on housing up to 2,000 homeless people into abandoned warehouses while not increasing funding for homelessness services.

In the general election, Juarez defeated Davison Sattler, 60.59% to 39.05%.

Tenure Juarez was the first Indigenous person to serve as a Seattle city councilmember, and later the first Indigenous Council President. Near the end of her first year in office, Crosscut.com described Juarez as a "wildcard councilmember" for her voting record and manner of "speaking more bluntly than most politicians would".

As a councilmember, Juarez is well-known for focusing on her district and advocating for major capital projects, including the Northgate Pedestrian and Bicycle Bridge over Interstate 5 and a controversial police station in her district. After members of the council were criticized for a 2016 vote against a street vacation necessary for a new arena to be built in the SoDo area, Juarez took a lead in the redevelopment of the Seattle Center Arena and was appointed chair of the Select Committee on Civic Arenas. In September 2018, the council unanimously approved a renovation of the arena with plans to attract an National Hockey League team to the city. Juarez was appointed to the District 5 seat again in July 2025 to serve the rest of Cathy Moore's term after her resignation.

Personal life Juarez lives in the Pinehurst neighborhood of Seattle.

In 2012, Juarez pleaded guilty to driving under the influence after crashing her car in Seattle's Northgate neighborhood.

Electoral history 2015 election

2019 election