Crossing the Edmund Pettus Bridge. Standing on Medgar Evers’ driveway. Looking over the balcony of the Lorraine Motel. At 16, Alexis Mercedes Rinck had heard stories of these Civil Rights Movement landmarks from her politically engaged grandmother, who was raising her, but in 2012, Rinck was there. And she was meeting the people—sung and unsung—of the struggle.

“You won’t find their names in history textbooks, but they’re here, they’re alive,” she says. “They are people who organized folks in their backyards, who kept people fed during that time, who tended to people’s wounds when they were trampled on Bloody Sunday. It was such a profoundly impactful experience.”

Rinck’s hands-on approach as an at-large member of the Seattle City Council draws from her organizing background. Elected in 2024 with record-breaking votes (205,000) and as the youngest councilmember (29), she quickly faced challenges: running for re-election immediately and serving as a lone progressive amid moderates. She turned both of these to her advantage, showing up everywhere with verve.

“I’m out and about a lot,” Rinck says. “People need to not just see me, but know who I am and what my office is about. We call ourselves the people’s office, and every day we challenge ourselves: how are we upholding that promise of being accessible, being accountable, and serving the needs of working people in this city?”

In her first year in office, Rinck and her team showed up at picket lines, helped save a bus-only lane on the G line, and advocated for the residents of Tent City 4 when decisions surrounding their city-owned site in Lake City were in limbo. She came out on the hottest day of the year to help restore a beloved yet contested guerilla art mosaic of a sainted rat, saying, “Let the people have rats.”

Rinck visibly led from within, pointing to legislation to build more community-led affordable housing, funding to support immigrant refugee communities, and defending the city’s code of ethics among her battles. She also forged an unlikely alliance with former Mayor Bruce Harrell in response to the urgent budget crisis, presenting the voters with a progressive tax proposal (Proposition 2), which they approved handily.

Voters have also shown their approval of Rinck, re-electing her last November. “I think we showed that progressives can deliver,” she says. If you have anything you want to run by her, consider riding the bus: “I get stopped on the bus all the time,” she reveals. “I’ve had somebody sit down next to me and say, ‘I need to understand why you voted on this thing the way that you did.’ And I say, ‘okay, let’s talk about it!’”