Meet Joe Mallahan
Joe Mallahan's vision for Seattle is a blend of progressive ideals and tangible outcomes. His track record, from expanding housing access for formerly homeless mothers to spearheading a national program at T-Mobile that gave millions of credit-challenged Americans access to affordable internet service, highlights his dedication to real change.
Vote Joe Mallahan for Seattle Mayor
Real Leadership for Seattle’s Next Chapter
Born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, Joe Mallahan’s core values are shaped by his family’s commitment to fairness, dignity, and the notion that progress is paved through collective power. Stories of his grandfather, a longshore worker in Bellingham, coming home bloodied from clashes with union busters, instilled in him a lifelong respect for the power of organizing and standing up for what’s fair.
One of those core values is that real leadership means listening first, centering lived experience, and building solutions alongside the people closest to and most impacted by the problem. As the new president of a struggling home improvement chain in Chicago, he worked night shifts shoulder-to-shoulder with employees to help rebuild the company into a profitable business with an engaged and invested workforce.
While living in Chicago in the 1990s, he was a founding member of a housing justice coalition that brought together 10,000 Chicagoans to secure housing for formerly homeless mothers, despite fierce resistance from political elites. During that same time, he became an organizer with the Industrial Areas Foundation, the same organizing network where Barack Obama began his career in public service a decade earlier. This early organizing and advocacy work showed him the power of building coalitions that cut across race, class, and neighborhood, and to lead by listening, staying accountable to community, and never backing down when people’s dignity is on the line.
As an executive at T-Mobile, he didn’t just sit in a corner office. He held listening sessions with employees and customers to understand the barriers people face every day and figure out how he could help, and then he delivered. These conversations and customer-driven solutions were the foundation of his most impactful innovations and initiatives during his time at the company. Joe also helped them take one of their earliest steps towards becoming an industry leader in equitable internet access, leading the launch of a national program that gave millions of credit-challenged Americans access to affordable internet service.
He is a decade-long volunteer and board member of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, supporting survivors and strengthening public safety rooted in care.
Joe holds a Master’s in Japan Studies from the University of Washington, studied development economics in Yokohama as a Monbusho Fellow, and earned an MBA in finance from the University of Chicago.
Seattle faces real challenges, but we’re also rich in creativity, courage, and community. Joe Mallahan is running for mayor to help us harness that power, not just to manage the city, but to lead it into a better future where communities are heard, challenges are met head-on, and no one gets left behind.