State Sen. Bob Hasegawa to run for Seattle mayor

Washington State Sen. Bob Hasegawa will run for Seattle mayor.

For KIRO 7 News at 5, p.m. Essex Porter is following the mayoral race as candidate filing week ramps up. Watch on-air or here.

The candidate fling period end May 19.

Hasegawa is a lifelong resident of the 11th District, which stretches over Seattle’s Georgetown, SODO, and Beacon Hill neighborhoods – down to Tukwila and then east covering parts of Renton.

As a longtime labor and social justice activist, Hasegawa writes in his biography that he works to protect civil rights, democracy, and the environment.

Recently, he voted against a Senate bill that would have eliminated Washington's rule to allow transgender people to use the bathroom consistent with their gender identity. Hasegawa voted against the reversal, saying that the rule was protecting civil rights.

Hasegawa introduced a populist bill this year to establish a state-run bank similar to the one in North Dakota. The state-bank idea died in Washington for the fifth session in a row. Read how a state-bank would work here.

Incumbent Mayor Ed Murray took office in 2014. Murray, who led the push to increase Seattle's minimum wage to $15 an hour and has emerged as a critic of President Donald Trump's policies, was not expected to face serious competition for re-election.

Murray has been at the center of headlines recently over a lawsuit alleging that he sexually abused a homeless, drug-addicted teen in the 1980s.

Cox Media Group