Diogo Magalhaes (Issaquah City Council Position 5, Washington, candidate 2025)
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Diogo Magalhaes ran for election to the Issaquah City Council Position 5 in Washington. He was on the ballot in the general election on November 4, 2025.[source]
Magalhaes completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. Click here to read the survey answers.
[1]Biography
Diogo Magalhaes provided the following biographical information via Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey on October 2, 2025:
- Bachelor's: University of Lisbon, 2010
- Graduate: Catholic University of Portugal, 2011
- PhD: Cornell University, 2019
- Gender: Male
- Religion: Catholic
- Incumbent officeholder: No
- Campaign website
- Campaign endorsements
- Campaign Instagram
Elections
General election
General election for Issaquah City Council Position 5
Russell Joe and Diogo Magalhaes ran in the general election for Issaquah City Council Position 5 on November 4, 2025.
Candidate | ||
| Russell Joe (Nonpartisan) | ||
 | Diogo Magalhaes (Nonpartisan)  | |
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| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Election results
Endorsements
To view Magalhaes's endorsements as published by their campaign, click here. Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Magalhaes in this election.
Campaign themes
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Diogo Magalhaes completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2025. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Magalhaes' responses.
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Professionally, I've spent my career bringing people together to solve complex challenges. I've secured Ford Foundation grants to launch a nonprofit focused on ethical corporate governance, managed a billion-dollar client portfolio at a Fortune 5 subsidiary, and led strategic initiatives at Cornell Law School and Seattle University. In my experience, the most lasting solutions come from listening first, leading transparently, and keeping people at the center of decision-making.
I'm also passionate about legal education and have been fortunate to lecture at law schools in both Europe and the United States. I believe compassion and empathy are essential to effective leadership—showing grace to one another and working together to lift each other up. True progress requires us to be allies to all, rather than contributors to the division we seek to overcome.- First, to Promote Deliberate and Inclusive Housing Strategies:
Issaquah families deserve the chance to put down roots without being priced out. That means smarter zoning reforms, transit-oriented development near our transit center, and mixed-income neighborhoods. I also believe in transforming underused commercial corridors into vibrant third places.
But affordability isn’t just about building more housing units—it’s about strengthening families’ economic foundation. I advocate for living wages, local job creation, and access to affordable childcare and healthcare, so families can afford stable housing with dignity. - Sustainable Energy Independence: We must invest in clean, reliable, and resilient energy systems. That means expanding solar adoption, supporting neighborhood battery storage, and preparing for smart-grid infrastructure that ensures reliability during peak demand. These investments not only cut emissions, but also keep energy dollars in our community, create local jobs, and build long-term resilience.
- Reducing Traffic Congestion I see tremendous opportunity in improving and maximizing our underutilized transit center while championing flexible work policies that reduce congestion. I will prioritize protected bike lanes, walkable neighborhoods, and reliable transit connections. I believe in planning neighborhoods around people—not just cars—to reduce congestion, improve safety, and balance connectivity with livability.
Creating Third Places: Strong communities need spaces where people can connect beyond home and work. I'm committed to fostering public gathering places—parks, community centers, libraries, and walkable neighborhoods—that bring people together, build social connections, and create the support structures we all need to thrive.
Unlike state or federal politics, local government is fundamentally about neighbors working together. We share the same streets, parks, schools, and community spaces. We're equally invested in each other's success—the success of our homes, our families, our careers, and our neighbors. This shared stake in our community's future creates natural common ground that transcends partisan divisions.
City council decisions directly impact our daily lives in tangible ways: the safety of our neighborhoods, the quality of our infrastructure, the vitality of our local economy, and the character of our community. Because these issues affect us all personally, they demand practical solutions rather than ideological posturing.
This proximity—both physical and relational—makes local government uniquely positioned to model the kind of respectful, solution-oriented dialogue that seems increasingly rare at higher levels of government. When we remember that we're making decisions alongside our neighbors, not against political opponents, we create space for the kind of collaborative problem-solving our communities deserve.
Transparency: Elected officials must be clear about their values and positions on the issues. On my campaign website, I provide detailed statements on where I stand and invite constituents to ask me to clarify my position on any issue. Voters deserve to know exactly what they're voting for, and transparency builds the trust necessary for effective governance.
Financial Independence: There is too much money and influence in politics. I am not accepting campaign donations because I believe elected officials should be accountable to constituents, not to special interests or large donors. I strongly support strict limits and caps on campaign contributions to ensure our democratic process remains accessible and equitable.
Empathy, Compassion, and Service: Public service should never be a stepping stone for personal ambition—it should be stewardship of our community. The role of an elected official is to serve with grace, listen with empathy, and lead with compassion. Every decision should be made with the wellbeing of all community members in mind, especially those whose voices are often overlooked.
Listen and Understand: The first responsibility is to actively listen to the community and understand their needs. This means being accessible, attending community events, holding regular office hours, and creating multiple channels for residents to share their concerns and priorities. Effective representation begins with truly hearing what constituents have to say.
Bridge Vision and Reality: Sometimes there's a gap between what communities aspire to achieve and what they're prepared to invest—whether in terms of resources, trade-offs, or lifestyle changes. A council member's role is to help facilitate honest conversations about these tensions, ensuring that policy discussions are grounded in both our values and practical realities. This means helping constituents think through the full implications of different choices.
Prioritize Informed, Inclusive Decision-Making: Every decision should be based on sound information and meaningful community input. This means making data and analysis accessible to the public, engaging constituents early in the decision-making process—not just at the final approval stage—and ensuring that diverse voices are represented at the table. Residents shouldn't just be informed of decisions; they should be partners in shaping them.
My hope is that my service demonstrates that effective leadership isn't about winning arguments—it's about building bridges. It's about recognizing that we are all here but for the grace of each other, and that our shared humanity must always come before political differences.
If I can leave Issaquah a more connected, compassionate community—where people feel genuinely heard, where diverse perspectives are welcomed at the table, and where we approach our differences with grace rather than judgment—then I will have succeeded.
Ultimately, I want to be remembered as someone who helped foster a culture of true allyship in our community: one where we actively work to lift each other up, where we extend empathy even when it's difficult, and where we prove that local government can be a force for unity rather than division.
Both novels remind us that our lives are mosaics—composed of different dreams, shattered hopes, yearnings and loss, moments of happiness and bliss. Nothing is linear, nothing is certain. Life is complex and often difficult, and yet we hope.
There's a Latin phrase that resonates deeply with me: aurora spes; nox pax—in the morning, hope; at night, peace. I can't think of anything more important to ask for. These books embody that sentiment: they acknowledge life's struggles while celebrating our resilience and our capacity to find meaning even in hardship.
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.
Other survey responses
Ballotpedia identified the following surveys, interviews, and questionnaires Magalhaes completed for other organizations. If you are aware of a link that should be added, email us.
See also
2025 Elections
External links
Footnotes
