City of Yakima

Dulce Gutierrez is running to represent District 1 on the Yakima City Council. A child of immigrant agricultural workers, she became one of the first Latinas ever elected in Yakima. She held her seat from 2015 to 2019, where she served as assistant mayor for two years. Gutierrez is also a long-time organizer with the Washington State Labor Council, where she works with union members and assists with immigration services.

As a council member, Gutierrez has lived up to her dedication to safe communities, affordable housing, and improved infrastructure. She voted to fund gang prevention and intervention support in public schools and helped create a community diversion program to assist people struggling with drug abuse. She also voted to fund new housing for lower-income residents and homeless veterans and supported the creation of Camp Hope to provide a safe place for people living on the street. Gutierrez has supported funding improvements to the city's transportation network, pool, playgrounds, and community center, integrating solar energy into these new projects.

Gutierrez's opponent is Republican-endorsed Leo Roy, a businessman who says he wants to focus on homelessness and crime while being a voice for small business owners. Roy does not name any proposals for how he will address the lack of affordable housing, instead endorsing policies that have only further criminalized people in poverty while solving nothing. Although he claims to support some infrastructure improvements like adding street lighting, his platform is heavily focused on removing the paid parking downtown that funds lighting, trees, and accessible sidewalk repairs. Roy's statements indicate that he would prioritize the interests of downtown businesses over the wellbeing of the community as a whole.

Gutierrez has been a powerful voice for the immigrant community and working people. She has earned your vote to represent Yakima City Council from District 1.
 

Soneya Lund is running to continue representing District 5 on the Yakima City Council. Lund is a small business owner, foster parent, and volunteer with numerous nonprofits that help lower-income community members. She is the current vice president of the board at Rod's House, where she became dedicated to working with youth who are experiencing homelessness and other struggles.

If re-elected, Lund would prioritize safety, housing, and economic opportunity for all of Yakima's residents. Her approach to safety focuses on holding businesses and hotels accountable for allowing people to be harmed through prostitution, gang violence, or drug dealing at their properties. Her view on housing focuses on permanent solutions like building affordable housing and getting people access to resources, not pushing people from place to place or ignoring them. As the owner of a local salon herself, Lund also has suggestions for how to streamline business permits and increase economic opportunities.

Lund has described her politics as "right down the middle," and she is dedicated to working across party lines, but her track record is decidedly progressive. Notably, she voted to maintain the city's climate commitments, add paid parking downtown to fund well-paved roads and sidewalks, and increase a tax that would have funded permanent affordable housing. 

Challenging Lund is Rick Glenn, a Republican-endorsed property manager who has worked in a variety of roles, from retail to banking, but is best known as the president of the Yakima Valley Landlords Association.

Most of Glenn's political involvement has involved opposing protections for renters. When the city wanted to use federal money to build affordable homes and provide funds for first-time homeowners, Glenn argued that the federal money should be given to landlords. He has also been critical of Washington's ban on evicting families during the pandemic - his son (who owns the buildings that Glenn manages) even sued Governor Inslee over the eviction moratorium.

If elected, Glenn would favor the interests of the wealthy landlords over the basic needs of working people. Lund is the best choice in this race for Yakima City Council, District 5.
 

There are no progressive candidates running in this race. Holly Cousens is running for re-election to the Yakima City Council in District 7. Cousens has served on the council since 2016, and was named assistant mayor in 2020. She currently works full-time as a business technology professor at Yakima Valley College.

Cousens is running on a moderate conservative platform that focuses on increasing police presence, reducing spending, and benefitting downtown businesses. Her voting record trends conservative as well - she voted against a sales tax that would have funded much-needed affordable housing, and she voted in favor of allowing ICE to continue deportation flights into Yakima.

Reedy Berg is a Trump Republican who is challenging incumbent Cousens. Berg readily acknowledges that he lacks political experience or business expertise, and his platform only contains vague suggestions for how to address homelessness, crime, and economic issues.

On social media, Berg has re-shared videos of Donald Trump's speeches where he criticizes "wokeness" in schools, and he claims that the city is cutting policing to fund Pride Month.

Although we disagree with Cousens on many important issues, her political experience and more moderate stances than Berg make her the better choice for Yakima City Council, District 7.