Election: Whatcom County Council race pits left-leaning Bellingham candidates
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Whatcom County Elections 2025
These are the Whatcom County races we’re following for the Nov. 4, 2025 election.
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An open seat on the Whatcom County Council features two candidates from the political left seeking to replace District 2 Councilman Todd Donovan, who is not running for a third consecutive term.
Elizabeth Boyle and Maya Morales were the top candidates in a three-way August primary race. Boyle placed first with 54% of the vote and Morales was second with 24%.
District 2 covers northern Bellingham, including Columbia, Silver Beach and other neighborhoods. It is one of five County Council districts. There are also two at-large members on the seven-member council.
The County Council makes laws, appoints members of advisory committees and controls the purse through its budget authority.
All County Council races are nonpartisan, but the two major parties usually endorse candidates. Both Boyle and Morales have support from Democrats and Democrat-allied groups.
Only those who live in District 2 can vote in this race. Ballots will be mailed to registered voters on Wednesday and must be postmarked or placed in a drop box by 8 p.m. on Nov. 4 in Washington’s all-mail election.
Elizabeth Boyle
Elizabeth Boyle of Bellingham is an organizational consultant and has worked with local government and nonprofits in areas such as community health, the opioid crisis, youth well-being, and tribal environmental advocacy.
She has worked with the Bellingham Schools Foundation and is a board member at the YWCA, which offers shelter and other assistance to women and children.
Housing is Boyle’s primary focus, calling it “foundational for public health” in an interview with the League of Women Voters.
“The lack of affordable housing is the most urgent issue facing Whatcom County,” Boyle told The Bellingham Herald in an email. “Housing is the foundation for a healthy, stable life. Without it, it’s harder to stay employed, care for children, manage health, or feel safe. At the community level, housing is also the intersection of other key issues, including the environment, the opioid crisis, and overall affordability.”
She told The Herald that her plan to address the housing crisis has three pillars:
- Build more housing, including “homes of all shapes and sizes, maximizing density and infill in urban growth areas” and easing the permit process.
- Strengthen renter protections, cap excessive rent hikes and limit so-called “junk fees” as Bellingham has done.
- Expand access to emergency shelters and transitional housing, including tiny home villages and low-barrier shelters.
At the recent meeting of the Bellingham City Club, Boyle said she brings a “strong sense of collaboration” to government.
Boyle has a degree in business administration from West Virginia University and previously owned and operated two businesses, Decorating Your Life and Treasury of Memories. She served in PTA leadership for 12 years.
According to her campaign website, her endorsements include the Nooksack Indian Tribe, Lummi Nation, the Whatcom Democrats, the 40th and 42nd Legislative District Democrats, the Riveters Collective and several labor unions, including the Service Employees International Union 1099 NW, the Northwest Washington Central Labor Council and the Bellingham/Whatcom County Firefighters IAFF Local 106. She is also endorsed by environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club, and groups such as Planned Parenthood, the Whatcom County Association of Realtors and the Washinton Housing Alliance.
Boyle leads the candidates with $32,047 in contributions through Oct. 9, according to reports filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission. More than $22,000 of her contributions came from individual donors.
Maya Morales
Maya Morales of Bellingham is a member of the Whatcom County Charter Review Commission, a panel that voters elect every 10 years to study the county charter and propose changes to the document, which is like a constitution.
Morales earned a bachelor’s degree in fine art and women’s studies from the University of California at Santa Cruz and a master’s degree in teaching English to speakers of other languages from the School for International Training Graduate Institute in Vermont.
Housing and poverty are her primary concerns locally, Morales told The Herald in an email.
“Whatcom County must work in concert with our cities to build quality affordable housing, and to ensure access to the stability and privacy of ownership for working families and individuals currently locked out of an increasingly impossible real estate market that’s privileged hedge funds and cash buyers. We need to repair and care for existing affordable housing, skill up our workforce in sustainable jobs that support our community and protect our region, and we must ensure that local entrepreneurs can explore new building materials and methods,” Morales said.
Morales called herself “an unconventional candidate” at a recent election forum sponsored by the Bellingham City Club. She referred voters to her core values listed at her campaign website.
“It’s really important to have honest conversations about financial well-being in our community and the fact that we have over 50 percent of our county and definitely Bellingham that is cost-burdened and cannot afford all bills every month. That’s a big deal, and when you think about the way that that plays out in people’s lives,” she said at the City Club forum.
Before her election to the Charter Commission, Morales worked for the WA Low Income Housing Alliance during the 2023 legislative session, urging passage of rent stabilization and other renter protection bills.
She worked to pass the People First Bellingham initiatives in 2021, including a ban on facial recognition technology and predictive policing software. She also advocated for the consumer protections under the My Health My Data Act, which passed in 2023.
“I offered bill redlines to key sponsors, the Attorney General’s Office, vetted some definitions and was invited to the bill signing to celebrate our coalition’s major win,” Morales said.
She is founder of WA People’s Privacy, which advocated for the measure.
According to her campaign website, Morales is endorsed by LPAC, which supports LGBTQ+ women candidates; FairVote Washington; Women of Color in Politics; the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington; and the Alliance for Gun Responsibility, and others, including Planned Parenthood, Pro-Choice Washington, the Service Employees International Union 1099 NW and the United Food and Commercial Workers Union 3000.
She reported raising $9,832 through Oct. 9, according to reports filed with the state Public Disclosure Commission.
This story was originally published October 13, 2025 at 1:05 PM.
