Eddie Lin

Edward Chia Lin is an American politician and attorney who is the councilmember for Seattle City Council District 2. He was elected in 2025, in a special election following the resignation of Tammy Morales.

Early life and career Lin was raised in the "Research Triangle" of North Carolina. His father was a Taiwanese immigrant and his mother is white; they both met while attending Duke University and married only a few years after Loving v. Virginia outlawed bans on interracial marriage.

Lin moved to Minnesota and attended Macalester College, where he met his wife. The couple moved to Seattle in the late 1990s after she finished her degree, though he did not complete his. Lin would complete his undergraduate degree and his J.D. degree from Seattle University, while his wife earned her Masters degree from the University of Washington. Lin was one of six finalists nominated by a councilmember for the appointment, being nominated by Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck. Morales' seat was eventually filled by the appointment of Mark Solomon, who did not run for reelection to the seat.

In late February, Lin announced his campaign for the special election to serve the remainder of Morales' term. In the August primary, Lin came in first with 47% of the vote, and advanced to the general election with Ducksworth, who earned 29%.

Lin ran as a progressive, pushing for a capital gains tax, increased affordable housing construction, and restructuring the Seattle Police Department to include social workers. Ducksworth focused his campaign on advocating for greater training and apprenticeships in the trades, partnering with gun violence prevention organizations, increasing the size of the police department, and completing the Rainer Beach Skatepark.

In the general election, Lin won in a landslide with 68% of the vote, with Ducksworth earning 31%.

Tenure Lin was sworn into office on November 25, 2025. He became the chair of the Land Use & Sustainability Committee.

In his first roughly 100 days in office, Lin sponsored bills to update the permitting process to make development more efficient and to align the Seattle Municipal Code with the Keep Washington Working Act.

In April 2026, in response to a Seattle Times article that said 5 large-scale data centers were proposed to be built in Seattle, Lin proposed a bill to create a one-year moratorium on the creation or expansion of any large data centers within city limits. In June 2026, the moritorium passed the City Council unanmimously, making Seattle the largest city in the United States to ban data centers.

Personal life Lin is married with two children; his wife works as an educator.