Ron Davis (Washington)

This page was current at the end of the individual's last campaign covered by Ballotpedia. Please contact us with any updates.

Ron Davis

Nonpartisan

Elections and appointments

Last election

November 7, 2023

Education

Bachelor's

George Fox University, 2002

Graduate

University of Oregon, 2004

Law

Harvard Law, 2012

Personal

Profession

Consultant

Contact

Campaign website

Campaign Facebook

Campaign Twitter

Campaign Instagram

Personal website

Personal LinkedIn

Ron Davis (also known as Ronnie) ran for election to the Seattle City Council to represent District 4 in Washington. He lost in the general election on November 7, 2023.

Davis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. Click here to read the survey answers.

Biography

Ron Davis earned a bachelor's degree from George Fox University in 2002, a graduate degree from the University of Oregon in 2004, and a law degree from Harvard Law in 2012. His career experience includes working as a consultant.

Elections

2023

See also: City elections in Seattle, Washington (2023)

General election

General election for Seattle City Council District 4

Maritza Rivera defeated Ron Davis in the general election for Seattle City Council District 4 on November 7, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔	Submit photo	Maritza Rivera (Nonpartisan)	50.3	14,221
		Ron Davis (Nonpartisan)	49.4	13,986
		Other/Write-in votes	0.3	92

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	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 28,299
= candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey.
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Nonpartisan primary election

Nonpartisan primary for Seattle City Council District 4

Ron Davis and Maritza Rivera defeated Kenneth Wilson and George Artem in the primary for Seattle City Council District 4 on August 1, 2023.

		Candidate	%	Votes
✔		Ron Davis (Nonpartisan)	44.8	10,105
✔	Submit photo	Maritza Rivera (Nonpartisan)	31.8	7,174
		Kenneth Wilson (Nonpartisan)	21.2	4,772
	Submit photo	George Artem (Nonpartisan)	2.0	460
		Other/Write-in votes	0.2	38

---

	There were no incumbents in this race. The results have been certified. Source	Total votes: 22,549
= 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.
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team.

Endorsements

Ballotpedia did not identify endorsements for Davis in this election.

Campaign themes

2023

Ballotpedia survey responses

See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection

Ron Davis completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2023. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Davis' 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.

I am the product of a teen pregnancy and parents who worked tirelessly to provide a good life for their children. I was the first in my immediate family to get a bachelor's and eventually was lucky enough to graduate from Harvard Law School. Rather than practicing law, I started a tech company focused on improving mental health for call center workers–I’ve been a founder, executive, and consultant in the tech world ever since. My brilliant wife and I moved to Seattle and have been building careers and raising our sons here since. Putting down roots in the neighborhood, raising two kids, and volunteering in this community made me acutely aware of how we have broken Seattle’s promise. You can’t launch a journey like mine in Seattle anymore, and it is even tougher for people who don’t look like me. Seattle should be a place where people can start a career, raise a family, or age comfortably in their homes–without breaking the bank. But special interests have made it unaffordable, driven people onto the street, and destroyed our behavioral health safety net–making our streets unsafe. They broke Seattle’s promise, and it’s time for us to restore it.

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?

• Seattle should be a place where everyone from every background can launch a career, raise a family, and age comfortably in their homes–without breaking the bank. But special interests have hijacked our city and made it unaffordable for young workers, parents, and seniors on fixed incomes. It used to be that normal people could make it in this city. Sure, they might have to work extra hard to get ahead. But now, many work hard just to survive, and seniors on fixed incomes face property tax bills that exceed their old mortgage payments! We have to stop catering to interest groups that drive up housing costs or that demand we don’t raise basic progressive revenue and instead rely exclusively on property and sales taxes.
• No matter what we look like or where we come from, we all want to provide for our families and know that hardship – like losing a job, divorce, addiction, or getting sick – won’t mean homelessness. But today, the activists who created our crisis are at it again. They are fighting to keep taxes for the very richest low—which is why our mental health system has failed. They are also fighting to choke off housing growth. But the leading experts in the world have been very clear – this created our homelessness crisis. To fix this, we have to build housing for the middle class, aggressively fund housing vouchers, tiny homes, affordable and social housing, prevent homelessness for renters on the edge, and rebuild our behavioral health system.
• Our city isn’t safe enough. As a dad and husband, I won’t stop until we fix it. We have to prevent crime–fully funding human services and behavioral health, ignoring the special interests that fight taxing the richest to pick up the tab. We need the right crisis response. Behavioral health workers for mental health and drug crises, traffic cameras for driving infractions, and police for more serious threats. All responders should receive de-escalation training. Let’s restore trust through accountable policing. Good governance requires independent oversight, transparency, and accountability. Finally, we need to rehabilitate people whenever possible, preventing future crimes.

Community Question Featured local question

How important is it to involve residents in the government’s decision-making process? What plans do you have regarding resident involvement in this process?

Incredibly important! I plan to be in constant communication with my coalition of transit advocates, renters, developers, businesses, climate activists, and labor unions. My office will take active steps to engage communities that often do not make their voices heard, like the student body of the University of Washington, the Live Aboard community, and those just barely making ends meet.

Community Question Featured local question

How would you address crime and public safety? Do you have a different stance than current city council policy?

I was endorsed by the Bus Drivers (Amalgamated Transit Union) because they are vulnerable and often face a great deal of serious crime on their buses–and they said I was the only person in my race who had a real grip on policing and hiring markets, crime prevention, and practical ways to address these.

The path to safety for all, including respect for the civil rights of every citizen, has four parts.

We have to prevent crime:

We have to intervene for those most at risk for committing offenses through community violence intervention programming that provides access to jobs and mentors, engagement with mentors, reduces gun violence, and keeps young people busy with positive pursuits.

We have to send the right crisis responder and use the right tool for the job:

We need to send social workers to most behavioral health calls. They have more expertise and are less likely to violate people’s civil rights. Taking this load off can free up tons of police time to respond more quickly, intervene in violent situations, and investigate sex crimes. SPD says 12% of its calls don’t require an officer. An outside audit said it was closer to half. Either way–it’s a lot. We should do as Albuquerque, Denver, and Eugene have done and scale up this alternate response.

Most traffic violations should be automatic and camera-enforced. Traffic stops are where a great deal of racial bias has shown up in policing, and this can be automated to help an overstretched workforce. We just need to ensure we do not over-enforce in already marginalized neighborhoods.

All first responders should be free to use Narcan–we don’t need to waste valuable police time on this either. We also don’t need police to direct traffic at events.

Police will then be able to respond to the more acute situations - impending violence, violence in progress, investigating sex crimes, and the destruction of storefronts.

It should be noted we cannot build a plan around hiring magical numbers of police. SPD expects that with bonuses marketing and politicians’ magic, we’ll still only be able to grow the department this year. This is due to a dire regional, state, and national hiring shortage. 85% of departments in WA are below hiring targets. Some metros–including red ones have as acute of shortages as Seattle. No serious person will build a public safety plan around hiring an impossible number of cops–just like no serious person will plan to make a development pan out by saying they will change interest rates. I’m sure you know that in the private sector, that kind of incompetence gets a person fired. (In politics, it ends up being a slogan!).

We need to restore confidence between the community and SPD through accountable policing:
Any attorney will tell you governance requires oversight - any CEO must submit to a board, and our entire government structure at the federal, state, and local levels is built around mutual oversight. King County Sheriff's Department and Seattle’s Senior officers have real civilian oversight, but Seattle’s front line does not. If our police are not accountable, they will continue to behave in ways that alienate the community, violate civil rights, and keep our city under the watchful eye of the Justice Department, which had to intervene because of our racially biased policing practices. Getting this right will protect our citizens and will begin to heal the relationship between the community and its enforcers.

We need to rehabilitate people whenever possible:

We have decades of evidence that focused, evidence-based practice can significantly reduce reoffending rates and that just straight-up jailing someone may actually increase reoffending rates. We need to prioritize actual safety and use 21st-century, science-based practices, not use the justice system as a way to briefly vet our anger at defendants and create lifelong repeat offenders.

I’d add that the lack of mental health treatment has put too much stress on all parts of the housing chain, and the lack of permanent supportive housing means many affordable housing developers have to manage a fair amount of psychiatric distress in their buildings, and this is backing up even into some regular market rate housing too. Unless we unplug this and get real treatment capacity and more permanent supportive housing, almost everyone will continue to suffer.

Also, one place I think eviction should actually be easier is for behavioral reasons–if someone is a threat to their neighbors, there needs to be a faster process for identifying and verifying this. In this case, the needs of the many need to be balanced against the needs of the few. And if we had real treatment capacity, this harm to the individual would also be mitigated.

Community Question Featured local question

What plans do you have regarding infrastructure?

In 10 years, I want it to be as easy, safe, convenient, and quick to get around the city without a car as it is with one and to achieve vision zero. In 20 years, it should be substantially easier to get around without a car compared to with one, and 90% of trips should be in-neighborhood.

That means legalizing retail without parking in every neighborhood. It means frequent, grade-separated transit that connects all major nodes and many medium nodes. That means building out ST3 in ways that connect to actual places people live, designing and building ST4, and designing and launching a likely ST5. That also means target headways of 3-5 minutes for the busiest lines at peak hours.

It means separate transit lanes to give buses a leg up to catch up on the lost time associated with waiting for a bus, and it means shortening those headways to five minutes wherever possible. It means a complete, separate, hard-barrier-protected grid of biking facilities that connect from everywhere to everywhere. It means full walking facilities everywhere in the city. All of this must be fully accessible along streets that have been turned into safe streets with green canopies.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

Housing, homelessness, public safety, transit, walkability and climate.

Who do you look up to? Whose example would you like to follow, and why?

Historically, I admire Jesus, Gandi, Socrates, Francis of Assisi (even if he was kind of nuts), Wilberforce, and MLK JR–for standing up for what is right, taking the way of peace, and being willing to suffer abuse for it. I admire my parents for how much they sacrificed to make my life, my sister’s life, and our families’ lives possible.
Politically, I admire Sen Elizabeth Warren for her wonkishness and clarity and Sen Mark Hatfield (retired now)--despite being Republican–for standing up to his party regarding the Vietnam War. Locally, I admire Claudia Balducci for her brilliance, leadership, and skill, Girmay Zahilay for the way he brings the community into the process (and his brilliance and big heart), and Teresa Mosqueda for her ability to keep a strong progressive true north and negotiate complex deals with opponents (and her brilliance!).

Is there a book, essay, film, or something else you would recommend to someone who wants to understand your political philosophy?

That’s tough–there are dozens. The first that come to mind are:

After Virtue, Alisdair McIntyre (moral moral)
The Tyranny of Merit, Michael Sandel (moral context)
Justice (moral philosophy)
Success and Luck, Robert Frank (economic and moral context)
Getting to Yes, Roger Fisher (tactical)
The Color of Law, Richard Rothstein (racial and moral context)
Just Mercy, Bryan Stevenson (racial and moral context)
Our Declaration, Danielle Allen - Philosophy of Liberty and Equity
The Affordable City, Shane Phillips (policy)
Homelessness is a Housing problem, Gregg Colburn (policy)
In the Midst of Plenty, Jill Khadduri and Marybeth Shinn (policy)

Streetfight, Janette Sadik-Khan, Seth Solomonow–policy and tactics

What characteristics or principles are most important for an elected official?

Clarity of purpose

Willingness to make tradeoffs to accomplish it
Honesty

Willingness to lose to do the right thing

What qualities do you possess that you believe would make you a successful officeholder?

I'm extremely tenacious, a fast learner, stick to my convictions, and build strong relationships for when things get tough.

What legacy would you like to leave?

Do my part to fight off the climate disaster and the scourges of inequality, racism, homelessness, and autocratic populism.

What is the first historical event that happened in your lifetime that you remember? How old were you at the time?

I have a vague memory of the Challenger blowing up (mostly people talking about it) when I was six. I have an even vaguer memory from when I was preschool-aged about a new report on TV talking about layoffs at my dad’s company (Intel)--call this my memory of the recession in the early eighties (I mostly remember my mom getting panicky).
I much more clearly remember the Berlin Wall coming down when I was nine.

What was your very first job? How long did you have it?

I play the piano, and I had ten students when I was in high school. This lasted for two or three years. As far as a formal job, I worked in retail (a Bagel shop that shut down after six months) and Costco (the summer after my senior year and my winter break).

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Amalgamated Transit Union Local 587, UAW 4121, 46th District Democrats, 43rd District Democrats, UFCW 3000, KC Young Dems, UW KC Young Dems, Sailors’ Union of the Pacific, Transit Riders Union, MLK Labor Union, SEIU 925, Joint Council of Teamsters 28. Seattle Student Union, King County Dems, The Stranger, The Urbanist, Publicola.

Girmay Zahilay, King County Council
Darya Farivar, State Representative
Teresa Mosqueda, Seattle City Council Member
Larry Gossett
Retired 6-term King County Councilmember, Executive Director of the Central Area Motivation Program, UW Office of Minority Affairs, Founder UW Black Student Union, Member Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee
Joe Nguyen
State Senator, Chair of Environment, Energy and Technology Committee, Member, Democratic Assistant Floor Leader, Committee Member, Ways and Means, Human Services.
Nicole Macri
State Representative
Abel Pacheco
Former Seattle City Council District 4 Councilmember, Director, Government and Community Relations, Sound Transit
Dr. Nancy Connolly
Former Seattle 46th District Candidate, Physician, Homelessness Health Advocate
Brady Walkinshaw
Former State Representative for the 43rd, CEO of Grist, Current CEO of Earth Alliance
Vivian Song Maritz
Seattle Public School Board Director, District 4
Lisa Rivera Smith
Seattle Public Schools Board Director
Chandra Hampson
Board Member, Seattle Public Schools, Tribal Management Consultant, Board Member, First Nations Development Institute
Sam Cho
President, Port of Seattle Commission, Board Korean-American Coalition of Washington, Council on Foreign Relations
Toshiko Hasegawa
Seattle Port Commissioner; Executive Director of Washington State Commission on Asian Pacific Affairs
Ryan Calkins
Seattle Port Commissioner
David Hackney
Washington State House of Representatives
De'Sean Quinn
Councilmember, Tukwila City Council; Assistant General Manager, King County Metro
Carmen Rivera
Renton City Council Member
Cary Moon
Former General Election Candidate for Seattle Mayor, Founder of People's Waterfront Coalition
Jeremy Barksdale
Bellevue City Council, MPA, PhD
Jim Street
Former Seattle City Council Member and Superior Court Judge, current climate advocate
Community Leaders
EJ Juarez
Former Director, Progressive Majority, Director of Environmental Justice & Equity, Washington State
Lhorna Murray
President, Strong Together Community Committee, Vice President, Magnuson Park Advisory Council
Sean Haney
President, UW Greek Pride
Jay Lazerwitz
Roosevelt Neighborhood Association President, ArtSpace CoFounder, Seattle Arts Commissioner, Affordable Housing Advocate
Jesse Piedfort
Sierra Club - National Deputy Director, Clean Transportation for All, Former Director, Washington State Chapter; former Chair, 46th District Democrats
Jaime Mayerfeld
Political Science Professor, focused on Human Rights and Ethics, University of Washington
Katie Stultz
Sr. Program Manager, WA Community Alliance, (Former) Sr Political Manager Win/Win Network, Program Director Institute for Democratic Future, Program Director Washington Bus
Angela Compton
Community Organizer w/lived experience of homelessness as a service provider for the unhoused (Compass), King County Policy & Planning Manager for Equitable & Affordable Housing, Board Member, Futurewise
Scott Alspach
Board Member, 46th District Democrats, former Chair, 43rd District Democrats
Robert Cruickshank
Board Member Sierra Club, Washington State Chapter
Evan Briggs
Member, Northeast Seattle Equity and Social Justice Council, Magnuson Park Advisory Council, Documentary Filmmaker.
Mike Eliason
Founder, Larch Lab, Sustainable & Livable Urban Housing Expert
Chris DeVore
Founder and Managing Director, Founders Co-op, one of Seattle's leading Venture Capital Firms
Alan Durning
Executive Director, Sightline Institute (Think Tank), Author/Coauthor of 10 books, Keynote speaker and lecturer at major universities, numerous conferences, and the White House
Paul Chapman
Chair, 43rd District Democrats, Principal Release Manager, Microsoft
Ben Maritz

Former Partner, McKinsey & Co, lead author of McKinsey's 2020 report on King County Homelessness

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Note: Community Questions were submitted by the public and chosen for inclusion by a volunteer advisory board. The chosen questions were modified by staff to adhere to Ballotpedia’s neutrality standards. To learn more about Ballotpedia’s Candidate Connection Expansion Project, click here.

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