{"id":500639,"date":"2026-01-08T05:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T05:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/500639\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T05:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T05:40:16","slug":"kesha-hodge-washington-chosen-as-new-phoenix-vice-mayor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/500639\/","title":{"rendered":"Kesha Hodge Washington chosen as new Phoenix vice mayor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PHOENIX \u2014\u00a0Phoenix\u2019s next vice mayor is Kesha Hodge Washington, who first joined the City Council as the representative of District 8 in April 2023.<\/p>\n<p>She first moved to Arizona in 1999 after growing up in the U.S. Virgin Islands and was <a href=\"https:\/\/www.phoenix.gov\/administration\/mayorcouncil\/district8.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sworn in<\/a> as the Phoenix City Council\u2019s first African-American woman.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThank you to my council colleagues for the trust and to the residents of District 8 who inspire my work,\u201d Washington <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PHXdistrict8\/status\/2009049670949998872\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">posted on X<\/a>. \u201cI remain committed to leading with integrity and building a Phoenix that works for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an official statement, the newest vice mayor reflected on several of her working projects on housing affordability, economic improvement and community safety throughout her district, which ranges from South Mountain to Camelback East Village.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI look forward to working closely with Mayor Kate Gallego and my Council colleagues to advance policies that strengthen our neighborhoods, expand opportunity and ensure Phoenix remains a city where all residents can thrive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Washington has a professional background in law, clerking at the Arizona Court of Appeals and serving as assistant attorney general after earning a law degree from Arizona State University.<\/p>\n<p>District 4 Councilwoman Laura Pastor offered her congratulations on Wednesday, stating that Washington brings \u201chistoric leadership\u201d and \u201clegal expertise\u201d to a position that requires both.<\/p>\n<p>Councilwoman <a href=\"https:\/\/ktar.com\/arizona-news\/ann-obrien-selected-vice-mayor\/5647578\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ann O\u2019Brien<\/a> is the outgoing vice mayor. She was selected in January 2025.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/pwmoses11\" data-show-count=\"false\" rel=\"noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Follow @pwmoses11<\/a><\/p>\n<p>We want to hear from you.<\/p>\n<p style=\"margin-top: 0px;\">Have a story idea or tip? Pass it along to the KTAR News team <a href=\"https:\/\/ktar.com\/arizona-politics-news\/new-phoenix-vice-mayor\/5802944\/mailto:stories@ktar.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ktar.com\/newsletters\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/KTAREmail-830x100-1.jpg\" height=\"44\" width=\"365\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"mobile-signup\"\/>\t&#13;<br \/>\n\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/KTAREmail-830x100-1.jpg\" height=\"100\" width=\"830\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\" class=\"desktop-signup\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>                    <script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014\u00a0Phoenix\u2019s next vice mayor is Kesha Hodge Washington, who first joined the City Council as the representative&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":500640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[7155,5229,5643,1587,316,1589,7154,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-500639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-92-3-ktar","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-arizona","11":"tag-az","12":"tag-home","13":"tag-phoenix","14":"tag-phoenix-and-arizona-breaking-news-and-news-headlines-home","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115857878144730469","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}