A new chapter begins: Girmay Zahilay sworn in as King County's seventh elected Executive
It’s official: Martin Luther King Junior County has a new leader.
Shortly after King County certified the returns for the November 2025 general election, Girmay Zahilay was sworn in as the jurisdiction’s seventh elected Executive at a ceremony in Council chambers on the top floors of the King County Courthouse in Seattle. Zahilay succeeds interim Executive Shannon Braddock, the first woman to hold the office, who was honored by the Council for her service at the top of its Tuesday meeting.
“Zahilay assumes leadership of more than 18,000 employees and representation of more than 2.3 million people in the twelfth largest county in the United States,” King County said in a news release. “He becomes the youngest person ever to hold the office, the first immigrant, the first refugee, and the first millennial. He is also the first person ever elected to the office to live outside of Seattle.”
A King County Councilmember since the beginning of 2020, Zahilay announced his immediate resignation from the dais prior to taking the oath of office for both the remainder of Constantine’s current term as well as the next three years. (Ordinarily, the Executive serves a four-year term, but owing to the success of NPI’s 2022 charter amendment switching elections for twelve county positions to even years, Zahilay and five people elected to the King County Council will be serving three-year terms.)
https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2025/11/a-new-chapter-begins-girmay-zahilay-sworn-in-as-king-countys-seventh-elected-executive.html