King County Elections certified the Aug. 5 Primary Election results on Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025, confirming that voter turnout in the Burien City Council race reached 31.26 percent, with 9,492 ballots counted out of 30,366 registered voters.
The final results highlight strong showings by incumbents, and also narrows the field to two candidates in each contested race for the Nov. 4 General Election.
Burien’s 31.26% turnout in this election reflects a modest decline from the roughly 37 percent seen in 2023 — a difference of almost six percentage points.
Position 1: Garcia in commanding position
Incumbent councilmember Hugo Garcia advanced easily with 48.7 percent of the vote. His closest challenger, Jessica Ivey, secured 25.6 percent, positioning her as the second finalist. Claudio Fernandez finished with 19.4 percent, while Cameron Boosman trailed with 5.9 percent. Garcia’s near-majority suggests he will enter November as the frontrunner, though Ivey might consolidate support from voters who backed Fernandez.
Position 3: Mendez leads but faces Barbon challenge
Sam Méndez topped the three-way Position 3 contest with 48.5 percent, setting up a general election match against Marie Barbon, who earned 30.8 percent. Rashell Lisowski, who drew 20.3 percent, was eliminated.
Position 5: Moore dominant in primary
Incumbent councilmember Sarah Moore posted the strongest performance of the night, collecting 63 percent of the vote against two challengers. Gabriel Fernandez secured 23.2 percent to advance, while Jamie Jo Skeen was eliminated with 13.3 percent. Moore’s commanding margin suggests she may be difficult to unseat in November, barring a major shift in voter sentiment.
Nov. 4 General Election Ballot
The ballot for the Burien City Council in the Nov. 4, 2025 General Election will include:
Position No. 1:
Position No. 3:
Position No. 5:
Position No. 7 (not in primary due to having only two candidates):
*indicates incumbent
For more information on local candidates running in the 2025 election, read our 2025 Voters Guide here.
It’s so unfortunate that voters ignore the damage that those candidates have caused, and or will bring Burien. They have collectively called for less Law Enforcement, consider the necessary and legally sound crackdown on encampments and open drug use as cramping individuals freedom to do as they wish. If they could be even more under the influence of outside interests and money Burien would become the poster child of further failed Progressive ideals and nonsense.
I so much agree with you Louis. I worked for a company for 25 yrs and retired from there but before hand I saw the company hiring younger people more and more and at first thought why, us older long time employees knew what we were doing… and as time went on I saw the good these younger employees were to the company (still going strong). This is what the City of Burien needs, we need these new fresh-faced candidates Barbon, Fernandez…in office/council, get these current, Garcia and Moore out of here and their wanna-be’s Mendez… not in.
Yeah, these leftist front runners govern like life is one big therapy session and you cannot govern a city or a country that way. It leads to constant policy failures and more problems, all while they try to save face by saying, “Look, we helped these specific minority groups.” They call it major progress, even though it only benefits a tiny segment of the population. Meanwhile, they seem to forget there’s an entire, MUCH broader community out there that they totally mislead, disregarded, and pushed aside (while further isolating their own minority). This type of governing is toxic and brings down economics on every level whether its in a city or a country.
A lot of this started during 2020 when every minority known to the US started to speak out on all platforms because the government and local cities were caving to the B.S. excuses (indoctrination) and the wants and the needs of a select few. There are more statistics about democrats and liberals created by THEIR own actions in the last 5 years to make their parties pretty pathetic. (Hence why many of their prominent leaders are calling for reform lol ) At this point, there are simply too many examples of failed leadership and poorly implemented “change” to ignore.
If the voters elect Hugo, Sam, Sarah, and Rocco, we can prepare ourselves for more homeless encampments in our town as these folks are willing to assist a small minority at the expense of the majority of hardworking citizens and of a downtown that people have worked to build for years. Voters, please recall the previous homeless encampments. Do you want that again?
Electing Hugo, Sam, Sarah, and Rocco = goodbye functioning Burien, hello again lawlessness, failed governing, and increased drugs & crime. VERY UNFORTUNATE FOR THE CITY OF BURIEN AND ITS RESIDENTS
All of them take money from groups affiliated with the Homeless Industrial Complex in devotion and service to the never ending grift, the HIC would then influence them to serve as minions to advance more failed programs to complete the circle of dysfunction.
For anyone questioning the progressive’s intent, I’d check out Sam Mendez’s responses in this Urbanist interview. He states his priority is to overturn the camping ban and he wouldn’t sweep a camp under ANY circumstances. Electing Sarah, Sam, Hugo and Rocco would absolutely kill any progress we’ve made on public safety as a city.
https://www.theurbanist.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Sam-Mendez-Urbanist-Questionnaire-Responses-for-Publication.pdf
Mendez is just a puppet on a string and those in council now (Moore and Garcia) know this and will run with it!
Sam says he’s wanting more sidewalks and walkability, the junkie filled tents he’s also OK with will be on those same sidewalks and fulfilling two of his priorities. Wow, brilliant.
I think Rocco wants more sidewalks too and never put 2 and 2 together that, that may be the reason! Did you see Stephanie’s interview with John Curley, if not here it is? A lot of interesting facts…
https://youtu.be/CuEh5uV2ObE?si=TW80Z0kRqDu8ZPgp
Am I understanding right that you think Rocco and Sam want sidewalks just to expand the homeless population onto them? Whatever else you might feel about their policies, please do yourself a favor and check in with your fear. A few dozen homeless people had a camp in downtown 2 years ago, and you want to keep the other 50k of us from getting expanded walkable infrastructure? Is that right? Enjoy cutting off your own nose, do you?
Tom T, come on man. I’m pretty confident that was a tongue in cheek joke. But in all seriousness, there is zero budget for sidewalks at this point, so it is moot.
This is the issue with the progressive slate. They desperately want Burien to be something it isn’t. We don’t have the ability to fund any of the services or infrastructure upgrades they are promising. This is going to be even more true if they continue to try to run off our biggest sales tax contributors (like Burien Toyota). How likely is it that a hotel we’d be successful in luring a hotel project if Sam, Rocco, Sarah and Hugo accomplish their stated priority of repealing the camping ban and not sweeping under any circumstances?
Sam can’t answer anything specific in regards to long term, sustainable funding. I had a back-forth with him via e-mail and he refused to answer a single question related to where his funding would come from (or what he would do with folks who refused services or to go to a sanctioned camp site).
He touts his experience as a government attorney (I.e., never seen the inside of a courtroom or handled litigation), but he appears to have little to no understanding of how to be a proper fiduciary for the city. IMO, this is why bureaucrats like Sam and Rocco have no place in the council.
I love sidewalks and every street deserves them, what I don’t want is City Council members or candidates advocating for a return of drug addled squatters setting up all over town again, on sidewalks or not. How can anyone advocate for the dysfunctional existence and misery that happens in such encampments and want that spread throughout the City again while using compassion as an argument? The City leads with services, these candidates tout misguided ideals that link them to the profound failures of the Homeless Industrial Complex and just condone further suffering thru virtue signaling. Plus, how’s Burien going to build sidewalks when there’s a 2 million dollar budget shortage?
Tom T, I agree we desperately need side walks, especially on 4th Ave between 156th or 158th, it’s scary and the poor school kids take their life in their hands just trying to get to and from school
The current slate of leftist front runners for the council seem to more concerned about which laws will they will allow people to break vs keeping the city safe and clean for folks who obey the laws of the land and actually pay …. for everything ! Drug users in our streets? No problem – shoot up. Camp and litter where ever you want ? No problem – this land is your land. Cross boarders vs going through the process to enter the country legally ? No problem – come on in! I mean it is all about equity right ? For the law abiding, tax paying citizens of Burien….. what laws do we get to break, or doe we just get to keep writing the checks? Compassion ? Yes but accountability comes first. We cant let these people lead the city down a well worn path of self destruction of failed policies to satisfy their savior fixation.