Meanwhile, in Seattle: Socialist City Councilwoman Faces Challenge From Sustainable Pot Farmer

Seattle’s socialist city councilmember Kshama Sawant has arguably been a disaster for the city. She was the 2020 councilmember who advocated for a 50% cut to the police budget. She was the only one to vote against the cuts, and it wasn’t because she was against them but because she felt the cuts were too small. Sawant was the one who led the board to reduce her salary after the chief of police criticized the move. Later, the chief resigned.

Sawant is also a representative of Capitol Hill, where the CHAZ/CHOP occurred a few years ago. Sawant was for letting the mob. take over permanently. She used her position to attack and bring down the mayor. group of protesters to Jenny Durkan’s home even though Durkan’s address was protected because of her former role as a prosecutor. Durkan decided to not run for another term in office.

In 2021, Sawant narrowly survived A few hundred votes were needed to recall her. Now she faces a new challenger who may or not be an improvement. Joy Hollingsworth, a pot farmer, announced today that she will challenge Sawant for the seat.

Joy Hollingsworth, a community advocate and business owner, announced Monday that she will run for Seattle City Council. She is vying to replace Kshama Sawant.

Launching her campaign before a packed auditorium in Seattle’s Central Area, Hollingsworth presented herself as someone who could serve all of the constituencies in District 3, which includes Capitol Hill, much of the Central Area and Madison Park, and Little Saigon.

“The biggest thing I want to bring is unifying all the neighborhoods, all the voices,” Hollingsworth addressed the crowd at MLK FAME Community Center during her Martin Luther King Jr. Day campaign start.

Hollingsworth’s bio might not work in every part of the country but I guess we can say that, at a minimum, she’s a capitalist who is concerned about high taxes.

Hollingsworth, who will turn 39 in March, graduated from the Seattle Prep in 2002 and is a member of the Capitol Hill private high school’s sports hall of fame for her prowess on the basketball court. She went on to play college basketball before starting a college career with Seattle University. In 2013, she decided to leave sports and join The Hollingsworth Cannabis Company. She manages operations and is often a spokesperson for the Shelton-based company. She also speaks out about equity issues in this industry. Meanwhile, the pot industry continues to mature a decade into legalization in the state with producers like the Hollingsworths facing challenges including high costs and margins eroded by the state’s high the excise tax.

This sounds like an improvement. However, it’s still Seattle. According to her campaign website, Hollingsworth’s wife is a “Senior Diversity and Equity Officer at a local community college.”

Hollingsworth is a basketball player in the area. She is also the granddaughter of well-known civil rights activist Dorothy Hollingsworth

Hollingsworth was a proponent of equal access to education and extolled the value of education as a path to a successful future.

“She was fierce,” Joy Hollingsworth, Joy Hollingsworth’s grand-daughter, spoke out. “She loved education. She loved children. She knew the heartbeat of activism, equity, social services was (being) able to bring resources to families.”

Hollingsworth was a pioneering figure who built a reputation for being an advocate for students and a person with an unbreakable moral code. Having spent years as a teacher and social worker, Hollingsworth eventually served as Seattle’s first director of Head Start, the program that helps children from low income families, and was elected to the Washington State Board of Education.

Joy Hollingsworth is my favorite candidate in this race. She’s got name recognition and she’s not someone Sawant can easily attack as insufficiently progressive. That doesn’t mean I’m ready to donate to her campaign but, in general, I think it would be a big improvement for Seattle if it got rid of its divisive, socialist city councilmember.