By: Jack Marchesi and Max Modenessi

Seattle is a city known for the strength of its leftist organizing. The election of City Councillor Kshama Sawant of Socialist Alternative in 2013 has provided the city with a strong base for electoral organizing outside of the Democratic Party. Seattle DSA has embraced the city’s political conditions by endorsing two candidates running in this year’s elections as independents against Democratic incumbents, Nikkita Oliver in the race for Mayor, and Jon Grant (who is a DSA member) in a race for City Council. The two candidates, and Seattle DSA, believe that electoral strategy outside of city’s entrenched Democratic establishment has the potential to build a strong, independent, and explicitly socialist left in Seattle.

Nikkita Oliver is an activist, lawyer and educator. She is running to replace Mayor Ed Murray, who ended his own re-election campaign after allegations of sexual abuse. Oliver grew up in Indianapolis, IN—a multiracial Midwestern city that she cites as a direct influence on her commitment to intersectional activism. Her mother’s background includes poverty within a family of white farmers, and her father, a Black man, struggled to stay afloat in a system that failed him. Though her parents did not live together, her encounters with her father hold a forceful influence on her commitment to activism. Her father fluctuated in and out of prison and eventually ended up being homeless, an issue that is a central focus of Oliver’s campaign. In an interview with The Fader, Ms. Oliver mentioned a time where her father called her asking for grocery money—she was sixteen at the time. “That moment really cemented that I was going to work against these things that allowed those injustices to happen.”

Oliver is running for office as a member of the Seattle Peoples Party, which describes itself as a “community-centered grassroots political party led by and accountable to the people most requiring access and equity in the City of Seattle.” The Peoples Party is running on a progressive agenda that includes fighting for permanent housing for homeless seattle residents, creating a permanent Community Policing Commission that would oversee the Seattle Police Department, and divesting city funds from fossil fuels. Oliver’s campaign has united many of the groups on Seattle’s left, and counts endorsements from the Seattle Green Party, Socialist Alternative, the International Socialist Organization and the Seattle Education Association as well as Seattle DSA.

Jon Grant, who is running for City Council, has managed to assemble a similarly broad coalition of Seattle’s leftist groups and will be listed on the ballot as an independent democratic socialist. He has also been endorsed by SEIU Local 6 and Our Revolution Ballard. Grant is a community organizer who has worked for the Seattle Tenants Union and fought, along with Councilwoman Sawant, to raise Seattle’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. Grant was the first candidate that Seattle DSA ever endorsed, and soon after winning DSA’s endorsement, he decided to become a member himself.

Grant, Sawant and Oliver have all pledged to fight for a three-part affordable housing plan by establishing rent control, imposing higher taxes on wealthier business to fund public housing for low income residents, and increasing affordability requirements for new developments (which can be as low as 2% in some parts of the city). Seattle is facing an affordable housing crisis, and the issue will play a central role in electoral campaigns this year. Grant and Oliver have put forward a program that explicitly states that healthcare is a human right.

Seattle DSA decided to make endorsements after it sent candidate questionnaires to every candidate running for office in Seattle. The questionnaires asked candidates about their positions on issues including wage theft, paid family leave, police violence, criminalization of the homeless, and protection of undocumented Seattle residents. “We did our best so that they couldn’t wiggle out of it, they had to take a position one way or another on policy issues,” Markovčič said. Dozens of candidates responded to the questionnaires and endorsements were decided by a vote of the chapter’s membership. The chapter’s endorsement has been matched with canvassing efforts for both Grant and Oliver.

In 2013, Kshama Sawant’s victory inspired socialists across the United States. This year, Seattle’s left hopes to provide similar inspiration. Seattle DSA’s decision to join with other leftist groups to support independent candidates is one that they hope will contribute to the creation of a lasting, independent, and socialist political force in Seattle’s politics.