| Lorena González | |
| Office: | President of the Seattle City Council |
| Term Start: | January 6, 2020 |
| Term End: | January 1, 2022 |
| Predecessor: | Bruce Harrell |
| Successor: | Debora Juarez |
| Office1: | Member of the Seattle City Council for Position 9 |
| Term Start1: | November 24, 2015 |
| Term End1: | January 1, 2022 |
| Predecessor1: | John Okamoto |
| Successor1: | Sara Nelson |
| Birth Name: | Maria Lorena González |
| Birth Date: | 20 February 1977 |
| Birth Place: | Prosser, Washington, U.S. |
| Children: | 1 |
| Party: | Democratic |
| Education: | Yakima Valley College Washington State University (BA) Seattle University (JD) |
Maria Lorena González (born February 20, 1977) is an American lawyer and former politician who was a member of the Seattle City Council from position 9. She was the first Latino elected to the council.[1] She was a candidate for mayor of Seattle in 2021 but was defeated by Bruce Harrell 59 percent to 41 percent.
González was born on February 20, 1977, in Prosser, Washington and raised in Grandview.[2] [3] She has five siblings. Her parents came to the United States as undocumented immigrants in the early-1960s and became legal permanent residents in the 1970s. Her mother became a citizen in 1996.[4] She described her early life as a "Spanish-speaking migrant farmworker household."[5] González was crowned Grandview Miss Junior in 1994.
González attended Yakima Valley College at the Grandview Campus and earned a degree in business from Washington State University in 1999. During this time, she says she worked three jobs and relied on assistance from scholarships to pay for her education.[6] She moved to Seattle in 2002 and began attending the Seattle University School of Law, earning her Juris Doctor in 2005.[7]
After graduating from law school, González worked for a short time as an attorney at Gordon Thomas Honeywell and then for seven years with the law firm of Schroeter, Goldmark, and Bender.[8] [9] In 2012, she represented a Latino man in a civil rights case against the city of Seattle for discriminatory police conduct. Her client received a $150,000 settlement, but she told The Seattle Times that the Seattle Police Department seemed incapable of admitting that the incident was an example of biased policing.[10] In 2014, she became legal counsel to Seattle Mayor Ed Murray.
In 2015, González ran for the ninth position on the Seattle City Council after Sally J. Clark dropped her reelection bid for one of the two remaining at-large seats on the council. González won the election with more than 78% of the vote,[11] and replaced John Okamoto, who was temporarily on the council after Clark resigned to take a job at the University of Washington. González was the first Latina to be elected to the council. In 2017, González was reelected to office with more than 70% of the vote.[12]
González was selected as the Council President in January 2020, succeeding Bruce Harrell.[13]
González was a supporter of the Bernie Sanders 2020 presidential campaign.[14]
See main article: 2020 Washington elections. On August 8, 2019, González announced her intention to run for state attorney general in the 2020, to replace Bob Ferguson who was expected to run for governor.[15] She also announced her intention to remain a member of the Seattle City Council during the campaign.[16] On August 22, 2019, González suspended her campaign following Ferguson's decision to run for re-election after Jay Inslee announced he was running for a third term as governor.[17]
See main article: 2021 Seattle mayoral election. In February 2020, González announced her candidacy for the 2021 Seattle mayoral election.[18] She came in a close second in the top-two primary, trailing Bruce Harrell by less than four thousand votes but was defeated in the November general election by Bruce Harrell, by a margin of 59% to 41%.[19]
González has lived in Seattle since 2002 as a resident of the Capitol Hill, First Hill, Ballard, South Park, and White Center neighborhoods. Lorena currently resides in West Seattle's Alaska Junction.[20] She married her husband in November 2017 and they have a daughter.[21] [22] [23]