Kshama Sawant Will Announce Reelection Bid Thursday

SEATTLE, WA - Seattle Councilwoman Kshama Sawant will kick off her 2019 reelection campaign Thursday with a bit of activism. Her campaign launch announcement will happen at Saba Ethiopian Cuisine in the Central District, a business facing displacement due to what Sawant calls "upscale corporate development."

Sawant will be vying for her third term on Council in 2019, and three people have already filed to run against her: Capitol Hill businessman Beto Yarce; Logan Bowers, owner of the Hashtag Cannabis recreational marijuana stores in Fremont and Redmond; and Pat Murakami, who ran and lost (despite a Seattle Times endorsement) in 2017 against Lorena Gonzalez in District 9

Sawant had her hand in two of the loudest City Council issues of 2018: the head tax and preserving the Showbox.

Sawant began agitating for a head tax (originally called the Housing, Outreach, and Mass-Entry Shelter proposal) in City Council during the 2017 budget process and initially wanted the head tax to be $200 per employee. The Council eventually passed a $275 per employee tax for businesses with revenue over $20 million annually. The tax was repealed on June 12.

Had it stayed in the place, the head tax would've been a nice bookend to Sawant's first - and arguably biggest - policy victory: the $15 minimum wage ordinance passed in 2014.

(Seattle's minimum wage just hit $15 per hour for smaller employers. Employers that pay a certain amount in either tips or health insurance are only required to pay $12 an hour currently).

In the Showbox fight, Sawant brought large crowds to City Hall - including Death Cab For Cutie member man Ben Gibbard - to demand the venue be preserved as a landmark. She is using a similar tactic to try to save a Haller Lake trailer park - and Saba Ethiopian Cuisine.

When Sawant ran to keep her seat in 2015, she handily beat challenger Pamela Banks 56 percent to 44 percent.

Caption: Sawant listens to a speaker at a protest on July 26, 2018, in downtown Seattle over the separation of families at the U.S.-Mexico border.

Patch file photo