About Councilmember Dan Strauss

Council district: 6
In office since: 2020 
Current term: January 2020 - December 2024

Councilmember Dan Strauss has been helping to build up community his whole life.

Beginning in his first ever job as a paperboy for the Ballard News Tribune, Strauss has focused his career in public service. Most recently, Strauss served as a senior policy advisor for former Seattle City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw, and as a legislative assistant to Senator David Frockt.

In Olympia as a legislative aide, Strauss spearheaded the first version of Washington’s Extreme Risk Protection Order, a law designed to temporarily restrict access to firearms from people who demonstrate a threat to themselves or others. When the legislature failed to pass responsible gun legislation, he went to work for the Alliance for Gun Responsibility on the Extreme Risk Protection Orders Initiative (I-1491), which he helped get passed in 2016 with over 70 percent of the vote.

Strauss has volunteered for the Northwest Youth Corps, King County Search and Rescue, and the AmeriCorps National Civilian Community Corps, and on several service missions in and out of state.

Strauss graduated from Whittier College with a degree in Political Science and earned a Master of Public Administration degree and Certificate of Nonprofit Management from the University of Oregon.

As the son of two social workers, Strauss was born and raised in Ballard, where he grew up with a strong sense of community.