PubliCola Questions: City Attorney Candidate Erika Evans
The former DOJ prosecutor is taking on Republican incumbent Ann Davison.
By Erica C. Barnett
Ann Davison, Seattle's one-term Republican city attorney, is vulnerable.
The reasons are both obvious—did I mention she's a Republican? How about the fact that she became a Republican after Trump's first election?—and not-so: Davison has led the way on some initiatives that have proved to be quite controversial, including punitive crackdowns on drug use and sex work, but can't point to measurable results, such as fewer people using fentanyl in public or a reduction in sex trafficking—the ostensible reason for reintroducing the city's "prostitution loitering" law.
Three candidates have stepped forward so far, all running against Davison from the left. Erika Evans, until recently an assistant US Attorney at the Department of Justice, says her experience in both the federal government and the city attorney's office, where she worked in both the civil and criminal divisions under former city attorney Pete Holmes, gives her a unique perspective on the role.
Evans has also worked as a pro tem municipal court judge outside Seattle, is past president of the Loren Miller Bar Association, and co-chaired the Washington Leadership Institute, which helps lawyers from underrepresented groups develop their careers.
We spoke on Monday.
PubliCola (ECB): Tell me a little bit about yourself and your background.
Erika Evans (EE): I was born and raised in Tacoma, Washington. My grandparents instilled the values in me, early on, of standing up when something’s wrong and of standing up for community and public service. Before I started law school, I wrote a letter to myself about why I wanted to be an attorney—to serve and represent my community—and that’s what I’ve done.
I’m running because my values, and the reason why I became an attorney, were completely obstructed in my previous role as an assistant US Attorney, with the crazy executive orders that have come down from the Trump administration. They are completely counter to the values that I hold. I’m someone that is willing to fight and go up against Trump for what is happening. People are scared. That’s why I’m running for city attorney— because I have the values and experience to fight Trump.
ECB: Were you laid off in the recent purges or did you resign—and what were your responsibilities there?
EE: I resigned last Friday on my own terms. I wasn’t fired. I didn’t take Musk’s deferred resignation offer.
I was one of the civil rights coordinators. We were responsible for the prosecution and investigations of hate crimes and also violations by law enforcement officers who violate people’s rights. I was also in the violent crimes and terrorism unit. I’ve been involved with getting hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills off the street, getting unlawful firearms off the streets.
ECB: As a federal employee, I’m sure you have lots of thoughts about what the Trump administration is doing to gut the justice department and the rest of the federal government. Where do you think the city attorney’s office could be stepping up to speak or act out against the administration, and how has Davison’s office fallen short?
EE: The city attorney absolutely does not need to be afraid to challenge President Trump and stand up to him. We need to make sure that Seattle is safe for all people. I think a big role the city attorney’s office can play right now is bringing affirmative litigation when it affects the city of Seattle as well as partnering with the attorney general on some of these issues.
A big failure we’re seeing is [Davison] hiding and not doing anything and not saying anything when people are really afraid right now. I was speaking with a professional who said they recently started bringing multiple pieces of ID around with them in Seattle because they were scared of being identified as potentially an immigrant.
Ann has isolated herself. She quit the Democratic Party to become a Republican during the Trump administration. She’s not in community and just not being responsive to what’s going on, and that’s not leadership.
ECB: What did you think of Davison’s decision to join the lawsuit challenging Trump’s executive order threatening to pull federal funding out of sanctuary cities like Seattle, which came a couple weeks after it was filed?
EE: I think it was obviously too late when she jumped in. She also did it at a time when she was getting pressure from the mayor to do something. She also defined [the issue] as local control and that’s weird—it’s not what this is about. This is about protecting our community members who live here—our neighbors, our friends, and people we care about and love. She’s done the bare minimum, and that’s not what our city deserves at all.
ECB: What are your top priorities if you’re elected and how will you distinguish yourself from the current group of candidates, which also includes Rory O’Sullivan and, in the left lane, Nathan Rouse?
EE: My top priorities are public safety, leading with a restorative justice model, and not being afraid to fight back for our community and the city of Seattle. What sets me apart is my lived experience, my professional experience, and my community leadership. Navigating the world as a Black woman, running for an elected prosecutor position in a world where our work will affect communities of color, coming from a background of being a federal prosecutor and actually doing the work of prosecuting in the federal courts, and community leadership, being the head of the largest diverse bar association in our state.
ECB: Davison has been very proactive on legislation, actively advocating for laws like SOAP and SODA, which target drug users and people who pay for sex. Is there legislation that you will push for if you're elected?
EE: I think that while the city attorney is not a legislative role, there’s definitely room for using the power to advocate. At the end of the day, our values are: We care about community and people being safe, we want people to have homes, we want people who are dealing with addiction to have treatment. Those are the values that Seattleites care about.
When we’re talking about SOAP and SODA, there were a lot of promises from Ann on that. We’ve seen from the Seattle Times article that it’s not even being enforced. There’s way more effective tools for going after things that matter. That’s the experience I have—going after high-level traffickers, understanding the dynamics of that, knowing how to partner with our federal prosecutors that are doing that work.
ECB: Some have accused Davison of being slow to prosecute crimes like domestic violence and DUI, blaming the crime lab backlog for the DUI cases. Would you prioritize these kinds of cases above other cases like drug arrests and prosecutions under the new SOAP and SODA laws?
EE: I think that comes from just a lack of experience. It’s not fair to communities when we’re having drivers that are driving intoxicated and putting others at risk and there’s no accountability. It needs to be swift.
I think Ann’s high-utilizer [initiative] definitely has an overemphasis on incarceration, and people are cycling through that without exiting to long-term solutions. There needs to be behavioral health and resources for people that are going through a revolving door, not just locking people up.
ECB: Can you respond to the argument that jail gives people a “time out” and an opportunity to become clear-headed enough to think about treatment, stable housing, and other services they may not be clear-headed enough to consider when they're out on the street?
EE: Being at the federal level, I saw that drugs get into the jails and people use drugs in jail all the time. I prosecuted someone that was smuggling them in. Jail is not really a place to have the resources and support people need.
ECB: Do you think the city attorney was right to end community court, and would you try to replace or revive this resource?
EE: I think it was a disaster to get rid of community court. When you’re talking about opportunities for people to get a case dismissed and comply with services and get help, that should definitely be available.
ECB: As city attorney, you’ll have to defend the city even when you personally don’t agree with its actions. How will you handle that part of the job? And is there anything the city attorney's office can do upstream to reduce the number and size of these settlements, which continue to grow every year?
EE: Working in that office on the civil side, I had cases where the city was our client, and SPD is our client too. On the other end, there were cases I worked on where we were representing the city because officers were suing the city. That’s absolutely what part of the role is—you have a responsibility to city of Seattle agencies and you’re their attorney.
It’s important to try to avoid things in the first place, and I’m thinking of the precinct liaisons that are in every police department precinct and how we are training offices to interact with communities to avoid those lawsuits. And experience is needed at that top level—someone that’s actually done those cases and knows some of the pitfalls that can be resolved.
ECB: Ann Davison is a Republican. In what ways should that a concern to Seattle voters going into a second Trump administration?
EE: We are at a terrible and crazy time where we have attacks on communities of color, on LGBTQ+ communities, on our immigrant communities, on our identities. All of that is stuff that Trump has told us he is going to be coming after and has come after. All these things put our communities at risk. People are scared right now, and having [a city attorney] that is not saying anything is disgraceful. And we absolutely need someone that understands the federal system, that has served in it and is willing to fight against Trump and all the things that are coming. We need to be not just reactive—we need to be proactive.
We talked about my decision to leave my position. We got a note and an executive order from Pam Bondi and the White House. It said that as US Attorneys, we are Trump’s lawyers, and that is their interpretation of the law. They were completely taking away our independent discretion. You asked about Ann during a Trump administration. It hones the importance of having a leaders that understands their oath is to the constitution, upholding the law, and protecting people. That is what I represent and the job I will do as city attorney and that is something that has been lacking.