Girmay Zahilay

Zahilay and his brother were born in Sudan to Ethiopian refugees who had escaped a military conflict. He was three years old when his family immigrated to the United States, settling in the Rainier Valley.[2] Zahilay moved between public housing arrangements in several neighborhoods in South Seattle, including the International District and Skyway, while his mother Abie worked double shifts as a nursing assistant. The family also stayed at a homeless shelter in Downtown Seattle between moves to public housing in NewHolly and Rainier Vista.[3][4]

He graduated from Franklin High School in Seattle and was a research intern at the University of Washington Department of Biology.[5] He majored in biology at Stanford University, where he served as president of the Black Student Union. Zahilay earned a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania and worked as an intern at the Office of the White House Counsel during the Obama administration.[2]

Zahilay worked for the Congressional Hunger Center and New York City Coalition Against Hunger as a community organizer after graduating from college.[3] He then moved to jobs at law firms Skadden Arps in New York and Perkins Coie in Seattle.[2] Zahilay also founded a non-profit, Rising Leaders, that aims to provide mentors for underserved middle school students.[2]

He announced his County Council District 2 campaign in February 2019, becoming the first challenger to six-term incumbent Larry Gossett since 2005.[6] Zahilay campaigned on the expansion of public housing and the replacement of youth incarceration with other methods.[3] Gossett, who had also attended Franklin High School and had led his own Black Student Union at the University of Washington, trailed Zahilay in the primary election by a 37 percent margin.[7] Zahilay defeated Gossett in the November 2019 general election, becoming the youngest member of the King County Council.[8][9] He was sworn in to represent District 2 on January 8, 2020, and was selected to chair the council's Law and Justice Committee.[10]