Pramila Jayapal enters U.S. House race with blast at 'the 1 percent'

From left, Pramila Jayapal, interim Seattle Police Chief Henry Bailey, City Councilman Bruce Harrell and Ron Sims listen as Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announces the appointment of Bailey on Jan. 8, 2014 at City Hall. less From left, Pramila Jayapal, interim Seattle Police Chief Henry Bailey, City Councilman Bruce Harrell and Ron Sims listen as Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announces the appointment of Bailey on Jan. 8, 2014 at City ... more Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO, SEATTLEPI.COM Photo: JOSHUA TRUJILLO, SEATTLEPI.COM Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Pramila Jayapal enters U.S. House race with blast at 'the 1 percent' 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

State Sen. Pramila Jayapal, D-37, on Thursday announced that she is running for the 7th District U.S. House seat being vacated by Congressman Jim McDermott, taking Occupy-style blasts at "the 1 percent."

Jayapal, 49, is an activist whose involvement has included the post-9/11 "Hate Free Zone" campaign in Seattle, as well as founding OneAmerica, a group which has fought astutely and effectively for immigrant rights.

She lives in the neighboring 9th District, the state's first majority-minority congressional district, and has been seen as heir apparent to U.S. Rep. Adam Smith. But Jayapal does not need to reside in the 7th District to run there.

"The corporations and special interests have their voice in Congress, and they have too many members scared of their power," Jayapal said in her initial fundraising appeal.

"What Congress needs is a progressive voice who is unafraid to take on these powerful interests -- who is willing to fight for all Americans, not just the wealthiest 1 percent."

Last year, Jayapal was a high-profile backer of socialist Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant, and echoed Sawant's class-based politics when she spoke to a Sawant rally at Town Hall Seattle.

Jayapal spoke of gentrification and displacement, and argued that Seattle is "increasingly becoming a white city."

"This is about the movement for justice in a system that is stacked against working people," she argued. "Kshama is going to anchor a progressive left on the Seattle City Council and she's going to demand a different vision of our city."

There are echoes of that speech in Jayapal's first appeal for campaign dollars.

"We need to fight not for the 1 percent but for working men and women, not just for austerity but Social Security, not for deportations and breaking up families but building stronger middle-class families, not for private schools, colleges and prisons, but public education, college debt relief and criminal justice reform."

In a Thursday interview, Jayapal reflected that it is more about "values" than class, and that she intends to be a "bold voice" for a progressive constituency. Jim McDermott has been one of Congress' most liberal voices, a fiery opponent of the Iraq War and collaborator in the "Hate Free Zone" campaign.

"Yes, class is a piece of that along with race and gender," she added. "It is about working for the interests working families. It is about such matters as debt free college. I've got a 19-year-old and a whole generation doesn't think college is viable."

Jayapal announced for Congress at Seattle Central College, which was home to Occupy Seattle in 2011.

SCC is center-to-left/activist Seattle. Offices of The Stranger are a few blocks away. The Stranger has already wet itself at the prospect of Jayapal's candidacy.

But the 7th Congressional District, while solidly Democratic, stretches northwest to Shoreline and Edmonds, southwest to Burien and Vashon Island, and through prosperous neighborhoods northeast Seattle.

About 25 percent of its voters are constituents of King County Council Chair Joe McDermott, who announced Wednesday that he is running in the 7th District.

State Rep. Brady Walkinshaw, D-43, who entered the race even before Jim McDermott got out, represents such neighborhoods as the University District, Wallingford and Capitol Hill.

Walkinshaw has raised about $300,000 and lined up endorsements from key leaders of the LGBT community, prominent environmentalists, Seattle City Council members Tim Burgess and Lorena Gonzalez, and longtime Democratic activists.

Jayapal is an immigrant, having arrived in America when she was 16.

She has certainly arrived in Seattle politics. She helped create the city's Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs, and co-chaired the search committee for a new Seattle Police Chief. She overwhelmed multiple opponents in 2014 to win a State Senate seat in Central Seattle.

In 2015, she spoke at the Sawant event -- alongside leather-lunged radicals denouncing the Democratic Party -- as well as the big Bernie Sanders-for-President rally at the UW's Hec Edmundson Pavilion.

She supported Sawant, but was atop a list of progressive activists who endorsed the reelection of Seattle City Council President (at the time) Tim Burgess. (Burgess has endorsed Walkinshaw.)

In Olympia, she has sponsored legislation to raise the state minimum wage, to provide for two free years of community college tuition, and to pre-register to vote teenagers who are receiving their driver licenses.

She has worked with a Republican, Secretary of State Kim Wyman, on voter registration, and has lined up GOP cosponsors of the college tuition proposal. State Sen. David Frockt, D-46, once a prospective 7th District candidate, spoke at Jayapal's announcement on Thursday.

Can Jayapal pursue an ambitious agenda in Olympia while putting together a campaign for Congress?

"I get very little sleep and have a lot of energy," she said.