Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda was elected in November 2017 to serve the over 725,000 residents in Seattle as the citywide Councilmember in Position 8 for a four-year term. She is a mama-to-be and ran as a Labor Democrat. Mosqueda’s top priority on City Council is promoting healthy communities, lifting-up working families, and creating more affordable housing for all residents through the city.  Mosqueda works every day to build an economy that works for all, and has dedicated her career to amplifying the voices of the most vulnerable in our communities. Mosqueda Chairs the Housing, Health, Energy and Workers’ Rights committee, was named one of Seattle’s Most Influential People 2018 for her work on critical legislation in her first year in office, and was awarded the Local Progress 2019 Ady Barkan Progressive Champion Award.  She is also the first first-time candidate in the Nation to win using publicly financed campaign vouchers committed to only taking small dollar contributions and engaging new voters with Democracy Vouchers. Mosqueda is a member of the National League of Cities, appointed to their National Housing Affordability Taskforce, and is on the Human Development Committee.

After graduating from the University of Washington, Councilmember Mosqueda’s first job was helping low-income Latino seniors receive access to healthcare, housing and transportation assistance at Sea Mar Community Health Centers. Struck by the inequities of the healthcare system, Teresa sought out to change it and earned her Master’s Degree in Public Administration with a focus in public health from The Evergreen State College. Upon completing her graduate degree, she went on to work at the Washington State Department of Health, then the Children’s Alliance and the Community Health Plan of Washington (CHPW). During her time with as a lobbyist with Children’s Alliance, she led the implementation of Apple Health for Kids to cover every kiddo in our state, helping ensure that every child in the state regardless of citizenship status had access to health care. While at CHPW she was the lead on health care reform during the year of the Affordable Care Act’s passage. She went on to be the head lobbyist at the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, representing more than half a million workers in the state. During that time Mosqueda helped lead the passage of Medicaid Expansion and Washington State’s Affordable Care Act implementation, because she knows that health care is a human right and was appointed by two governors to serve as the consumer advocate on the health insurance exchange board to help ensure the lowest income and the most marginalized were the first ones to get the insurance they need. As the Political and Strategic Campaign Director of the Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, Teresa worked on legislation, campaigns and engaged in political advocacy to advance immigrant and refugee rights, enact new worker protections, and protect workplace safety. Most recently, she helped to successfully run and win the statewide Minimum Wage and Sick Leave Initiative (I-1433) guaranteeing paid leave for all workers and raising the wage for all working families.

Councilmember Mosqueda is a third-generation Mexican-American, the daughter of educators and activists.  She grew up in Olympia Washington and some of her earliest memories are being in rallies to protest wars and injustice with her parents and little sister. Mosqueda lives in West Seattle, where they enjoy running, movies and every ounce of sunshine they can soak in during the clear days in Seattle!