The 2025 Burien City Council election – the filing for which closed on Friday, May 9, 2025 – has attracted a diverse group of candidates vying for four open positions, with a mix of incumbents seeking re-election and newcomers aiming to bring fresh perspectives to the council.
The Primary Election will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 5, with the top two vote-getters moving on to the General Election on Tuesday, Nov. 4.
Twelve candidates are running for four seats (Positions 1, 3, 5 & 7), including three incumbents.
Incumbents Hugo Garcia, Stephanie Mora, and Sarah Moore have each served on the Burien City Council since Jan. 1, 2022. All were elected in the November 2021 general election and are currently serving four-year terms set to conclude Dec. 31, 2025.
NOTE: Links for each candidate are to their profiles on the King County Elections website.
*denotes incumbent
City of Burien, Council Position No. 1:
- Hugo Garcia*: An incumbent councilmember since 2022, Garcia is seeking re-election. He emphasizes his commitment to community engagement and economic development.
- Jessica Ivey: A Burien resident, Ivey has announced her candidacy, focusing on bringing a fresh perspective to the council.
- Claudio Fernandez: Fernandez has filed to run for Position 1.
- Cameron Boosman: Both have filed to run for Position 1.
City of Burien, Council Position No. 3
- Sam Méndez: Méndez has declared his candidacy, highlighting his dedication to housing affordability and government transparency.
- Rashell Lisowski: Lisowski brings experience as an organizing director at Washington Community Action Network, focusing on community organizing and advocacy.
- Marie Barbon: Barbon has filed to run for Position 3.
City of Burien, Council Position No. 5:
- Sarah Moore*: The current Deputy Mayor, Moore is seeking re-election, emphasizing her work on affordable housing and community engagement.
- Jamie Jo Skeen: Skeen has announced her candidacy for Position 5.
- Gabriel Fernandez: Fernandez has filed to run for Position 5.
City of Burien, Council Position No. 7:
- Stephanie Mora*: Former Deputy Mayor, Mora is running for re-election, focusing on public safety and community development.
- Rocco DeVito: DeVito, a longtime advocate for housing affordability, has announced his candidacy for Position 7.
As part of our award-winning ongoing political coverage, The B-Town Blog will be reaching out to each candidate running for Burien City Council to ask how they plan to govern, what their top priorities are, and how they intend to address the city’s most pressing challenges. Candidate responses will be published in the coming weeks to help inform voters ahead of the Aug. 5 2025 Primary Election.
For more information on the candidates and their platforms, residents are encouraged to visit the official King County Elections website here.
Go Hugo; Go Sarah; Go Sam; Go Rocco
Yes as you say go…go away, go away, go away, go away all of them! Unless of course you want Burien to look and be like it was last year.
More like, go away.
That is an easy choice
What’s clear is many of these candidates are activists who will push failed ideas and agendas from outside Burien, as time goes on the money trail will be from outside the City limits. The days of grandstanding and disorder have thankfully left the Council meetings and many of these activists want to bring it back while serving self-proclaimed Progressive ideals. Don’t fall for the King County or Seattle led policies that these minions want to import to Burien in an attempt to reverse direction from success to again failure.
Rashell Here!
My campaign is about putting integrity over politics. It’s time to value people over political connections and political consultants! Neither of the current political parties is truly serving our interests as working-class people, and the current city council is a MESS, with councilmembers not being grounded in the same realities of the residents that live in Burien.
When you Vote Rashell you’re voting for the only community-based candidate who isn’t paying a high-dollar consultant for political marketing/campaigning. You actually know who and what you’re voting for, because I created my own platform, and have been showing up to fight for working-class people for years. My passion comes from my experience, and the thousands of conversations I’ve had on the doors in Burien. My husband is also a small local Burien business owner. I’d be the only renter on council, and the only person under 35 on council. It’s time to include more residents in our decision-making process at the city level!
You have an interesting article written on Publicola about you…
“..screenshots of the Washington Community Action Network website that promotes Ms. Lisowski as an organization employee [and] a website screenshot hosted by the Transit Riders Union, sponsor of Initiative Measure 24.001, that promotes involvement from Ms. Lisowski in their campaign effort…”
Seems to be your a supporter of a group who has already been meddling with the Burien City Council.