Last month, actor and union representative Ry Armstrong rolled out a campaign challenging Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell, who they argue has fallen well short of campaign promises made in 2021. The Urbanist recently sat down with Armstrong to find out what motivated them to run and what they are pushing to accomplish if elected.
“I’m just tired of the status quo,” Armstrong said. “I am tired of broken promises by people who are in the pockets of corporate interests.”
It’s a pattern that goes beyond Harrell, with Armstrong tracing the trail of broken promises back through Seattle’s last three mayors to Ed Murray, suggesting it explains the lack of progress on key issues. A queer trans person themself, Armstrong said members of the queer community asked them to run, since LGBTQ folks are especially at risk with many of the issues facing the city and country.
“My number one issue is housing and homelessness,” Armstrong said. “I remember when I was in college, Ed Murray calling an emergency on homelessness with a 10-year plan. Now it’s been 10 years, and homelessness is up 20% and specifically, I think youth, LGBTQ, homeless is up even more than that.”
Harrell pledged 2,000 additional homes for the homeless in his first year as mayor, piggybacking on Compassion Seattle, a ballot initiative that had strong business support but was struck down as illegal before it could appear on the ballot.
“I think [Harrell] offered 2,000 shelter beds in 2021 and never fulfilled that promise,” Armstrong said, boldly suggesting their administration could succeed where Harrell failed. “I want to do 1,000 shelter beds in the first 100 days.”
A campaign email from Armstrong underscored their shelter pledge and their hit on Harrell: the “current Mayor who promised 2,500 beds in their first term and has delivered 25 in 4 years.”
Armstrong was critical of Harrell’s statements that he would seek to collaborate with Trump and the praise he offered Trump’s tech billionaire inner circle as “smart innovators.”
“I will not compromise with Trump,” Armstrong said. “He does not believe that trans people like me exist. He wants to take us back to a time that never existed, because trans people have always existed in history.”
While Harrell has recently ramped up rhetoric against Trump, Armstrong was unequivocal that collaborating with Trump’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department was off the table. ICE is tasked with making Trump’s mass deportation promises come true.
“I don’t know what Bruce is gonna do in his actions, but I know what I would do,” Armstrong told The Urbanist. “You would have to put me in jail before I start letting ICE raid our citizens in this city. Like you would have to drag me kicking and screaming off to a concentration camp before I let anything happen to Seattle. I was born and raised here. This is my home. This is my place. So I hope it doesn’t get to that point, but I’m also prepared to fight.”
Armstrong’s 2023 run and resume of work
Armstrong ran for Seattle City Council’s District 3 seat in 2023, but finished seventh in that crowded primary to fill the seat Kshama Sawant vacated with her retirement. They also emphasized housing and homelessness in that race, going to far as to propose conscripting decommissioned naval vessels into service as homeless shelters, as noted in our 2023 interview.
The progressives that did advance in Seattle’s 2023 primary did not do well in the general election, with Tammy Morales the only councilmember to win on a progressive platform. Many observers (myself included) attributed the loss on progressive candidates being badly outspent and losing the messaging battle on key issues.
In response to 2023 losses, Armstrong banded together with other progressive candidates and operatives to found a new political action committee (PAC) called the Progressive People Power PAC. Armstrong served as the group’s board chair, until stepping aside to run for mayor. In 2024, People Power PAC raised $194,000 and spent it on behalf of Alexis Mercedes Rinck, a progressive who won election versus interim centrist councilmember Tanya Woo in a landslide. Rinck was still outspent, but not as badly as most 2023 progressive candidates.
