Seattle Democratic Socialists Endorse Nikkita Oliver For Mayor

SEATTLE, WA - The Seattle chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) announced Friday that it will back Nikkita Oliver for mayor. The Seattle DSA picked Oliver using ranked voting, and other candidates in contention included Mike McGinn and Cary Moon. The DSA also considered not endorsing a mayoral candidate.

This is Oliver's second major endorsement from a socialist group in Seattle. In late April, Seattle Councilwoman Kshama Sawant's Socialist Alternative party endorsed Oliver, and Position 8 Council candidate Jon Grant. Seattle DSA has also endorsed Grant.

The DSA endorsement positioned Oliver as an actual Seattle resident - someone who is connected to the struggles of working people trying to live in a city growing ever more expensive by the day.

From the endorsement:

Nikkita Oliver’s experience is perhaps more emblematic of the Seattle where most of us live and work, a Seattle where homelessness has spiked, Amazon shares have hit $1,000 each, and landlords are suing to remove capped tenant move-in fees. Oliver juggles multiple jobs, teaching middle school part-time and managing cases at non-profit Creative Justice while still finding time to volunteer her services pro bono as a lawyer as well as writing and performing her own verse.

Look at Oliver’s experience; does she know what living in this city is like for residents? Does she interact with working people outside of caterers at fundraisers? Does she know the crushing feeling of landlord evictions via rent increases? Does she know what it’s like trying to live in this city on minimum wage? Does she know what it’s like to have to take public transit to get places? Does show know what it’s like to work full-time, attend school and still be homeless, except for the shelter provided by a car? Oliver does.

On the decidedly not-socialist end of the Seattle political groups, the Seattle Chamber of Commerce's PAC, CASE, endorsed candidate Jenny Durkan this week. That incited Moon to send out a statement saying that she was "excited to announce" that she was not endorsed by the Chamber - although Moon did seek the Chamber's endorsement.

Seattle's DSA group has grown considerably over the past year. Seattle DSA Andrej Markovčič has said that the group has experienced about 600 percent growth since last summer, growing from 50 to 350 members by the end of March. Both the energy leftover from the Bernie Sanders campaign and anger at Trump have driven interest in socialism and political action, Markovčič said.

Image via Nikkita Oliver