Current Burien Mayor Sofia Aragon this week tossed her hat into the ring for a seat on the King County Council, according to a Public Disclosure Commission filing dated Feb. 3, 2023.
Aragon will be running for the open District 8 seat held by outgoing incumbent Joe McDermott. She will face off against Teresa Mosqueda and perhaps others (the filing deadline for King County is the week of May 15–19) in the primary election on Aug. 1, 2023, with the two top vote-getters moving on to the general election Nov. 7.
Aragon has served in Position 6 on the Burien City Council since 2020, and was selected as the first woman of color Mayor for Burien in January, 2022. She is in the second year of that two-year term.
She was first elected to the council in 2019, defeating incumbent Debi Wagner.
Her current term expires Dec. 31, 2023.
According to her bio on the City of Burien’s website:
“Aragon lives with her husband in Burien. Aragon’s passion is to apply her experience and expertise to shape public policy. Strong public policy creates opportunity for all. As a registered nurse and attorney, she worked in Olympia for over a decade to advocate for affordable and accessible health care, protecting public health, workplace safety, and ensuring differing opinions are included when developing public policy.
“She moved on to be the executive director of the Washington Center for Nursing, a private nonprofit organization focused on building a strong and diverse nursing workforce. In this role she works with business and education leaders to build a health workforce our communities need. While Burien is moving forward for plans for more growth, planning should include community needs such as strong schools and access to health and social services.
“Aragon has served on numerous statewide advisory committees under Governors Locke, Gregoire, and Inslee.
“With a public school foundation, she earned her first degree from the University of Washington with a bachelor of arts in economics. She went on to receive a bachelor of science in nursing from Seattle University and a law degree from Loyola University-Chicago.
“Her hobbies include playing tennis and traveling with her husband and stepdaughter.”
