On a Green Future
My platform has emphasized a lot on stable housing, education and mental health. These will always be my core priorities. But what good are all those things if you inherit a burning world, or if people from increasingly uninhabitable areas are flooding into your community, or if your home is underwater both figuratively and literally? What good are they if we can’t be organized into communities to confront them.
Climate change is the biggest existential threat we’ve ever faced. We must do whatever we can to prevent it turning into climate collapse. This means ending fossil fuel use today and finally ending the oil lobby’s grip on politics at all levels of government. My primary opponent, incumbent Jake Fey, is already close to maxing out in donations for this race from Puget Sound Energy, Chevron and other polluters. I’m proud to refuse any and all corporate money, and specifically fossil fuel lobby money.
It also means future proofing our infrastructure and utilities, which are crumbling under the weight of decades of neglect and already require rebuilding. Why not build them green? Why not train up a generation of youth into a job corps that channels yount people into apprenticeships and good, green union jobs? Why not create a public bank to pump in the massive funding needed?
A “just transition” to a green economy is a core component of my campaign. We must create good, union jobs for people in existing sectors facing transition, including and especially those most dependent on our current fossil fuel system, such as plumbers and pipefitters working in natural gas. This must be in coordination with rank-and-file workers, centering the needs of our diverse working class over “green” corporations.
I’m excited by recent wins by the “Build Public Renewables” act in New York State and the Green New Deal referendum in Portland, Maine. Both demonstrate that when workers and environmentalists have the political will, they can create visionary change. I’m proud to note both these victories were initiated by DSA chapters. Let’s get DSA members elected in Washington so we can do it here, too!
On Union Power
We need worker power at all levels of the economy, particularly in light of recent Supreme Court cases undermining almost a century of labor law and the threat of a second Trump NLRB. Part of this power must be elected officials that come out of the labor movement, are accountable to their base, and are willing to take bold pro-worker stances in legislation and use the bully pulpit. I’m proud to be pro union and proud to reject all corporate money. Worker rights are human rights!
My first organizing campaign was successfully winning minimum wages for migrant farmworkers in Idaho. In college, I organized with the University of Washington Student Labor Action Project (SLAP). In graduate school, I served as lead Teaching Assistant for UW’s famous Introduction to Labor Studies course for four years, and was a proud member of the graduate student union, United Auto Workers (UAW) 4121. Later, I served as a researcher and faculty organizer with Service Employees International Union (SEIU) 925, where I led on strategy in new organizing and bargaining, represented the union in coalitions, and got to a majority of faculty on union cards at UW Tacoma. I’m proud to have the endorsement of UAW 4121, who know this is the kind of energy we need in the legislature.
I resolutely support using the bully pulpit as a candidate and as an elected to support organizing drives, contract fights, and strikes. I believe we need bold legislation supporting sectoral bargaining, unemployment for strikers, union card checks, and more. This should include broad packages such as a workers’ bill of rights. I also support efforts to radically expand workplace safety and accountability, whether through further funding of Washington State Labor and Industries, expanding municipal enforcement mechanisms such as Seattle’s Office of Labor Standards, or giving workers and their organizations more power to sue employers in violation. I believe we must confront the rampant epidemic of wage theft and treat employer criminals like all other criminals, whether they’re petty or powerful.
Finally, I fully oppose Right-To-Work and similar anti-worker attacks emanating out of right-wing astroturf organizations and legitimized by the Supreme Court. I witnessed how terrible Right-To-Work was for everyday people during my youth in Idaho. I was at SEIU 925 for the disastrous, anti-public sector worker Friedrichs and Janus Supreme Court cases, and saw how much it hobbled the public sector worker movement. I was proud to keep SEIU 925 members on card, and I will do everything in my power to both push back against future legislation and express opposition to court decisions further undermining worker power. This can and must include legislation shoring up labor power in our working class Washington, regardless of what happens in the other one.
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