Will Pierce County Dems hold onto council majority? Here’s who is running in ’25
Only one of the Pierce County Council’s seven seats is up for election this year. Three people have filed for the Aug. 5 primary, and voters will have the chance to choose between two on the Nov.r 4 election.
The District 5 seat is currently held by Democrat Bryan Yambe, who was appointed after several hours of debate in January. Yambe replaced Marty Campbell, who was elected Pierce County Assessor-Treasurer last November. Yambe will serve through the end of 2025.
Yambe is running in the primary, in addition to Democrat Kimber Starr and Republican Terry Wise, according to filing information.
If Democrats hang onto the District 5 seat, they will have the upper hand in Pierce County politics, with a majority on the council and a Democrat in the Executive’s seat.
District 5 includes the communities of Browns Point, Dash Point, Fife Heights, City of Fife, Midland, North Clover Creek, Tacoma’s Eastside and Northeast Tacoma, Parkland, Spanaway, Summit-Waller and Port of Tacoma. Salaried County Council members make about $137,889 a year as of 2025, according to the county’s current salary class plan.
Learn more about how to register to vote, who your candidates will be and where your nearest ballot box is online at the Pierce County Elections website.
Who are the candidates?
Yambe served three stints as deputy mayor of Fife and four terms on the Fife City Council, as previously reported by The News Tribune. In interviews with the council in January, Yambe said he is most proud of bringing people together, finding compromise and building community. Yambe said traffic safety, affordable housing, homelessness, transportation improvements and economic development were his main priorities, in an interview with The News Tribune earlier this year. He has raised $34,512 and spent $8,781 for his campaign, according to public disclosures.
Starr was considered by the Pierce County Council to be appointed to the District 5 seat in January. She is a current District 5 planning commissioner and manager of the Governor’s Subcabinet on Business Diversity. Starr told the council she is a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, a proud union member, a working mom and had been involved in community work for 40 years, including serving on the Tacoma Community Redevelopment Authority Board and working to secure grants for affordable housing and economic development. According to her campaign website, her top three priorities are “responsible economic development,” affordable housing, “preventing displacement” and public safety with community-based solutions. She has raised $9,176 and spent $6,573 on her campaign, according to public disclosure records.
Wise is a longtime real-estate broker and land-use consultant who lives in the Mid-County area of unincorporated Pierce County. He has served on the Mid-County and Frederickson Land Use Advisory Commission, the Puyallup and Pierce County Housing Advisory Board and is a member of the Commercial Brokers Association and Master Builders Association, he said Tuesday. Wise said he believes the private and public sector need to be more collaborative and that he could provider better leadership. Wise said he would bring expertise in land use and housing to the role and described himself as a collaborative leader that builds people up to a common goal. He had not reported spending or funds raised for his campaign by the filing deadline, according to public disclosures.
This story was originally published May 14, 2025 at 8:00 AM.
