Ann Davison

Ann Davison is the Seattle City Attorney in Washington. She assumed office on January 1, 2022. Her current term ends on December 31, 2025.

Davison is running for re-election for Seattle City Attorney in Washington. She is on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025. She advanced from the primary on August 5, 2025.

Davison (Republican Party) ran for election for Lieutenant Governor of Washington in 2020. She lost in the primary election on August 4, 2020. She also ran for election to the Seattle City Council to represent District 5 in 2019. She lost in the general election on November 5, 2019.

Biography

Davison received a B.A. in sociology from Baylor University and a J.D. from Willamette University College of Law. She worked for the Seattle SuperSonics from 1996 to 2001 and was a law clerk in Marion County District Attorney’s Office in Salem, Oregon. She became a practicing attorney and arbitrator in Seattle in 2005.^[1]

Elections

2025

General election

The candidate list in this election may not be complete.

General election for Seattle City Attorney

Incumbent Ann Davison and Erika Evans are running in the general election for Seattle City Attorney on November 4, 2025.

		Candidate
		Ann Davison (Nonpartisan)
		Erika Evans (Nonpartisan)

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Seattle City Attorney

Erika Evans and incumbent Ann Davison defeated Rory O'Sullivan and Nathan Rouse in the primary for Seattle City Attorney on August 5, 2025.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Erika Evans (Nonpartisan)	56.0	106,137
✔		Ann Davison (Nonpartisan)	33.5	63,510
		Rory O'Sullivan (Nonpartisan)	5.8	10,959
	Submit photo	Nathan Rouse (Nonpartisan)	4.8	9,057

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. Source	Total votes: 189,663
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Endorsements

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2021

General election

General election for Seattle City Attorney

Ann Davison defeated Nicole Thomas-Kennedy in the general election for Seattle City Attorney on November 2, 2021.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Ann Davison (Nonpartisan)	51.6	132,638
	Nicole Thomas-Kennedy (Nonpartisan)	47.8	122,947
	Other/Write-in votes	0.6	1,542

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 257,127
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Seattle City Attorney

Nicole Thomas-Kennedy and Ann Davison defeated incumbent Pete Holmes in the primary for Seattle City Attorney on August 3, 2021.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Nicole Thomas-Kennedy (Nonpartisan)	36.4	71,367
✔	Ann Davison (Nonpartisan)	32.7	64,179
	Pete Holmes (Nonpartisan)	30.6	60,093
	Other/Write-in votes	0.3	500

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 196,139
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Steve Fortney (Nonpartisan)

Candidate profile

Ann Davison

Incumbent: No

Political Office: None

Biography: Davison received a B.A. in sociology from Baylor University and a J.D. from Willamette University College of Law. She worked for the Seattle SuperSonics from 1996 to 2001 and was a law clerk in Marion County District Attorney’s Office in Salem, Oregon. She became a practicing attorney and arbitrator in Seattle in 2005.

Key Messages

The following key messages were curated by Ballotpedia staff. For more on how we identify key messages, click here.

Davison said the city needed "balanced leadership that makes us smart on crime: proactive not reactive” and that she would "focus on improving efficiencies within division in regards to zoning” and “transform existing Mental Health Court to specialized Behavioral Health Court for cases that involve mental health, substance use disorder or dual diagnosis."

Davison said that repeat offenders are under-prosecuted in the city: “The experience we all have in the city of Seattle is the under prosecution of the crimes. … There is a clear neglect in the city.”

Davison said that increasing the Seattle Law Department's budget would not result in better outcomes, because "the last 12 years of what we had is not working. We can see that the programs that are there, although many are well-intentioned, we’re not seeing the measurable outcomes that we need to have for the public, and for those who are the most vulnerable, needing our help.”

Show sources

Sources: Neighbors for Ann, "Meet Ann," accessed July 19, 2021KIRO 7, Surprisingly tight race for Seattle city attorney as voting begins, July 19, 2021Seattle Times, "The Times recommends: Ann Davison for Seattle city attorney," July 15, 2021; Neighbors for Ann, "Meet Ann," accessed July 19, 2021

This information was current as of the candidate's run for Seattle City Attorney in 2021.

2020

General election

General election for Lieutenant Governor of Washington

Denny Heck defeated Marko Liias and Joshua Freed in the general election for Lieutenant Governor of Washington on November 3, 2020.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Denny Heck (D)	45.6	1,658,405
	Marko Liias (D)	33.5	1,218,548
	Joshua Freed (R) (Write-in)	0.0	0
	Other/Write-in votes	20.9	759,076

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 3,636,029
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Lieutenant Governor of Washington

The following candidates ran in the primary for Lieutenant Governor of Washington on August 4, 2020.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Denny Heck (D)	25.0	596,289
✔		Marko Liias (D)	18.5	441,791
		Ann Davison (R)	12.0	285,597
		Marty McClendon (R)	11.4	271,995
		Dick Muri (R)	10.1	241,939
		Michelle Jasmer (D)	8.9	212,387
		Joseph Brumbles (R)	7.3	174,823
	Submit photo	James Rafferty (D)	2.4	57,405
		Bill Penor (R)	2.1	49,225
	Submit photo	Matt Seymour (L)	1.1	27,125
		Jared Frerichs (L)	0.9	20,847
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	5,205

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 2,384,628
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

C. Mark Greene (Citizens' Party)
Steve Hobbs (D)
Cyrus Habib (D)

2019

General election

General election for Seattle City Council District 5

Incumbent Debora Juarez defeated Ann Davison in the general election for Seattle City Council District 5 on November 5, 2019.

	Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Debora Juarez (Nonpartisan)	60.6	19,532
	Ann Davison (Nonpartisan)	39.1	12,588
	Other/Write-in votes	0.4	114

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 32,234
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Seattle City Council District 5

The following candidates ran in the primary for Seattle City Council District 5 on August 6, 2019.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Debora Juarez (Nonpartisan)	45.1	11,085
✔		Ann Davison (Nonpartisan)	26.7	6,564
		John Lombard (Nonpartisan)	13.0	3,201
		Tayla Mahoney (Nonpartisan)	7.1	1,742
	Submit photo	Mark Mendez (Nonpartisan)	6.3	1,558
		Alex Tsimerman (Nonpartisan)	1.5	376
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	50

	Incumbents are bolded and underlined. The results have been certified. Source 1 Source 2	Total votes: 24,576
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Click here for more information about the 2019 race, including endorsements and campaign finance data.

Campaign themes

2025

Ann Davison has not yet completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey.

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Other survey responses

Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Davison completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.

VoteWA Profile

2021

Ann Davison did not complete Ballotpedia's 2021 Candidate Connection survey.

Campaign website

Davison’s campaign website stated the following:

“

General Goals

Our city must reconcile that it is failing to meet the needs of the most vulnerable as well as the basic functions of protecting public health and safety. Twelve years of status quo in the City Attorney’s office has greatly contributed to our decrease in the livability of Seattle for everyone. Factual observations tell us clearly this status quo approach is not working for anyone here, but for those wanting to engage in enterprise crime, those seeking to commit violent offenses, or stay in power. With apathy from the current City Attorney in place of prosecutorial discretion, public health and safety are now at a critical state.

When I moved to Seattle in 1996 for a job in the Sonics’ front office, our city had found a way to meet the needs of the most vulnerable in our city. Before my first child was born, in 2008, walking to the courthouse downtown was safe. But by the time I had my second child in 2011, our streets were becoming dangerous. Now, employees and jurors are told not to use the main entrance because it’s so unsafe, and recently 33 judges have urged the condemning of the park right outside the courthouse doors. The same can be said for many of our neighborhoods. The current city attorney was elected in 2010.

When my kids began to ask questions about why people were left living alongside Seattle’s roadways in unconscionable conditions, less humane than in a UN Cambodian refugee camp where I worked with people fleeing civil war, it was time to become civically engaged. With the exact same motivations as my previous campaigns because Seattle as experienced no improvement on homelessness, this ONE seat change can directly impact public health and safety for everyone. We must see change in this office because even our children know what’s happening in our city isn’t right. It is that obvious.

We've known in Seattle now for the last two decades that homelessness is a growing problem. But we've been so busy fighting each other, filing lawsuits, campaigning to block ideas that we perceive as imperfect or having some unintended consequences, that we've found ourselves with no progress at all. This fight will never be won by winning more people over to our own point of view. Instead, we make progress by focusing on our community and everyone in it as a whole. It's comforting to think that there are villains in this story - big bad government, large corporations, law enforcement, courts, and other systems that have contributed to our current situation. And all of these organizations have their faults - they all need to do and be better.

The real promise lies with each of us - our ability to listen, to have more actual empathy for the people with whom we find ourselves in opposition; to understand the needs, hopes and dreams of everyone in our community, especially our most vulnerable neighbors. The best solutions will happen when we change the incentives that have led us to where we are, incentives around law enforcement, housing development, and the delivery of services. Sometimes the best path forward is emotionally unintuitive for us, but we have to be willing to put the needs of others ahead of those emotional intuitions. It might mean changing the way we police or enforce rules, or creating alternatives to jail, or incorporating new services in jail to give people who do end up there the chance to leave better than when they entered. But it doesn’t mean we don’t maintain the limits for societal activity that elected policymakers have made into laws.

It's more expensive to hide from the problem, hoping it will go away if we are just forceful enough, than it is to deal with it head-on. For the majority of people in Seattle, homelessness is the single most important issue of our time. Solving it will require every single one of us to take stock of what we can do to address it. I can think of few positions that hold more promise for progress than that of the City Attorney of Seattle.

The City Attorney is a critical link to public safety, downtown and in our neighborhoods, deciding when to prosecute many types of criminal activity. We need balanced leadership that makes us smart on crime: proactive not reactive. We need a collaborative leader bringing actual compassion, who seeks progress and establishes working relationships within our city and region to restore public safety. By fixing this critical link of public health and safety and ending 12 years of status quo, we will begin to see improvement in the livability of our city. We can create a safer, more compassionate city for all of us.

Criminal Division

Transform existing Mental Health Court to specialized Behavioral Health Court for cases that involve mental health, substance use disorder or dual diagnosis.

Provide medicalized treatment and care for substance use disorder when needed for in custody cases.

Continue bail reform progress.

Monitor high frequency people at the highest level of the office for when alternatives do not provide responsiveness

Improve review of case referrals.

Civil Division

Provide trusted legal advice to those deciding policy in our city

Set clear compliance standards for city departments

Focus on improving efficiencies within division in regards to zoning

Administrative Division

Focus on not increasing budget but better service to Seattle for same dollars. The budget has been growing 50% faster than the city budget, with 13,000 referrals in 2019, 7,300 charged and less than 1,000 cases going to court.

Administrative: 10M (30% of budget)

Civil: 15.6M (44% of budget)

Criminal: 8.6M (24% of budget)

Precinct Liaison .7M (2% of budget)

TOTAL: 35.4M^[2]

”

—Ann Davison’s campaign website (2021)^[3]

2020

Ann Davison did not complete Ballotpedia's 2020 Candidate Connection survey.

2019

Ann Davison completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Davison's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.

Expand all | Collapse all

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

Ann came to Seattle to work for the Seattle SuperSonics. She is now an attorney and mother of two elementary-aged kids who were born in Seattle. She is an avid member of her community. Ann lives in north Seattle with her family where she has volunteered to coach kids' soccer for over four years.

Ann also helped the UN Border Relief Operation to do a survey in the Cambodian refugee camp along the Thai/Cambodian border in Surin, Thailand.

Ann is also a teacher. For a year, she taught conversational English to Thai college students at Yonok College in Lampang, Thailand. Currently, she teaches International Business Law in the Global Business Program to international students at the University of Washington Continuum College.

Ann holds a JD from Willamette University College of Law and a B.A. in Sociology from Baylor University. She's been in private practice since 2005 and also is an arbitrator.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Emergency response to homelessness like a natural disaster response
Public safety
Addiction prevention & treatment

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

We need a proportional response to the declared state of emergency on homelessness in 2015. Responding similarly to what would occur for a natural disaster causing many to become unsheltered overnight, we need to finally provide enough emergency shelter through repurposed vacant commercial buildings to provide safe and hygienic conditions for people. We then need to enforce our laws so we can all live in close proximity of one another. Then redirecting funds to provide treatment for those needing addiction treatment and housing and mental health treatment and housing.

Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.

External links

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Candidate

Seattle City Attorney

Website

Officeholder

Seattle City Attorney

Website

Personal

Footnotes

↑ Neighbors for Ann, "Meet Ann," accessed July 19, 2021
↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
↑ Neighbors for Ann, “Goals,” accessed July 20, 2021

Political offices
Preceded by Pete Holmes	Seattle City Attorney 2022 - Present	Succeeded by NA

[1] Neighbors for Ann, "Meet Ann," accessed July 19, 2021

[quotedisclaimer-2] Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.

[3] Neighbors for Ann, “Goals,” accessed July 20, 2021

[1]

[2]

[3]

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Ann Davison

Biography

Elections

2025

General election

General election for Seattle City Attorney

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Seattle City Attorney

Endorsements

2021

General election

General election for Seattle City Attorney

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Seattle City Attorney

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

Candidate profile

2020

General election

General election for Lieutenant Governor of Washington

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Lieutenant Governor of Washington

Withdrawn or disqualified candidates

2019

General election

General election for Seattle City Council District 5

Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Seattle City Council District 5

Campaign themes

2025

Other survey responses

2021

Campaign website

2020

2019

See also

External links

Footnotes

Information about voting

2025 Elections

2026 Elections

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