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Kshama Sawant
Kshama Sawant (independent) is running for election to the U.S. House to represent Washington's 9th Congressional District. She declared candidacy for the general election scheduled on November 3, 2026.[source]
Sawant was a member of the Seattle City Council in Washington, representing District 3. She assumed office in 2014. She left office on December 31, 2023.
In 2012, Sawant was a Socialist Alternative candidate for District 43-Position 2 of the Washington House of Representatives.
Biography
Sawant was born in Pune, India in 1973. She grew up in Mumbai, earning a B.S. in computer science from the University of Mumbai in 1994. After moving to the United States, she earned a Ph.D in economics from North Carolina State University.[1]
Prior to her city council election in 2013, Sawant was an economics teacher at Seattle Central Community College. She is a member of the American Federation of Teachers Local 1789, representing them as delegate to the Martin Luther King County Labor Council.[2]
Elections
2026
See also: Washington's 9th Congressional District election, 2026
General election
The primary will occur on August 4, 2026. The general election will occur on November 3, 2026. Additional general election candidates will be added here following the primary.
General election for U.S. House Washington District 9
Kshama Sawant is running in the general election for U.S. House Washington District 9 on November 3, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | Kshama Sawant (Independent) | |
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Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for U.S. House Washington District 9
Incumbent D. Adam Smith, Melissa Chaudhry, Janis Clark, and C. Mark Greene are running in the primary for U.S. House Washington District 9 on August 4, 2026.
Candidate | ||
 | D. Adam Smith (D) | |
 | Melissa Chaudhry (D) | |
 | Janis Clark (R) | |
 | C. Mark Greene (R) | |
| ||||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Endorsements
Ballotpedia is gathering information about candidate endorsements. To send us an endorsement, click here.
2021 recall vote
Kshama Sawant recall, 2021
Kshama Sawant won the Seattle City Council District 3 recall election on December 7, 2021.
Recall Vote |
% |
Votes |
|||
Yes |
49.6
|
20,346 | |||
| ✔ | No |
50.4
|
20,656 | ||
Total Votes |
41,002 | ||||
|
|
2019
See also: City elections in Seattle, Washington (2019)
General election
General election for Seattle City Council District 3
Incumbent Kshama Sawant defeated Egan Orion in the general election for Seattle City Council District 3 on November 5, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kshama Sawant (Nonpartisan) | 51.8 | 22,263 |
 | Egan Orion (Nonpartisan) | 47.7 | 20,488 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.5 | 205 | ||
| Total votes: 42,956 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
Nonpartisan primary election
Nonpartisan primary for Seattle City Council District 3
The following candidates ran in the primary for Seattle City Council District 3 on August 6, 2019.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Kshama Sawant (Nonpartisan) | 36.7 | 12,088 |
| ✔ | | Egan Orion (Nonpartisan) | 21.5 | 7,078 |
 | Pat Murakami (Nonpartisan) | 13.0 | 4,279 | |
 | Zachary DeWolf (Nonpartisan) | 12.6 | 4,147 | |
| Ami Nguyen (Nonpartisan) | 9.2 | 3,028 | ||
 | Logan Bowers (Nonpartisan) | 6.8 | 2,250 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.2 | 59 | ||
| Total votes: 32,929 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
| If you are a candidate and would like to tell readers and voters more about why they should vote for you, complete the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection Survey. | ||||
Do you want a spreadsheet of this type of data? Contact our sales team. | ||||
2015
The city of Seattle, Washington, held elections for city council on November 3, 2015. A primary took place on August 4, 2015. The filing deadline for candidates who wished to run in this election was May 15, 2015. All nine council seats were up for election.[3][4] In the District 3 race, incumbent Kshama Sawant and Pamela Banks advanced past Morgan Beach, Leon Carter and Rod Hearne in the primary election on August 4, 2015. Sawant defeated Banks in the general election.[5]
| Seattle City Council Position 3, General election, 2015 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
 Kshama Sawant Incumbent |
56.0% | 17,170 |
| Pamela Banks | 43.8% | 13,427 |
| Write-in votes | 0.28% | 87 |
| Total Votes | 30,684 | |
| Source: King County, Washington, "City of Seattle Council District No. 3", accessed November 3, 2015. | ||
| Seattle City Council Position 3 Primary Election, 2015 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
| Kshama Sawant Incumbent |
52% | 11,675 | |
| Pamela Banks |
34.1% | 7,651 | |
| Rod Hearne | 9.7% | 2,168 | |
| Morgan Beach | 2.1% | 463 | |
| Leon Carter | 1.9% | 436 | |
| Write-in | 0.2% | 44 | |
| Total Votes | 22,393 | ||
| Source: King County Elections, "Official primary election results," accessed August 12, 2015 | |||
2013
Sawant ran for the 2nd Position on the Seattle City Council and was narrowly victorious in an upset election against the incumbent, Richard Conlin, on November 5, 2013.
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nonpartisan | Kshama Sawant |
50.9% | 93,682 | |
| Nonpartisan | Richard Conlin Incumbent | 49.1% | 90,531 | |
| Total Votes | 184,213 | |||
2012
Sawant ran in the 2012 election for the Washington House of Representatives, District 43-Position 2. Sawant advanced past the August 7 blanket primary with an unprecedented write-in win; she also advanced in District 43-Position 1, but did not continue to run there. Sawant was defeated by incumbent Frank Chopp (D) in the general election, which took place on November 6, 2012.[6][7]
| Party | Candidate | Vote % | Votes | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Democratic | Frank Chopp Incumbent |
70.6% | 49,125 | |
| Socialist Alternative | Kshama Sawant | 29.4% | 20,425 | |
| Total Votes | 69,550 | |||
Campaign themes
2026
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
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You can ask Kshama Sawant to fill out this survey by using the buttons below or emailing campaign@kshamasawant.org.
2019
Kshama Sawant completed Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection survey in 2019. The survey questions appear in bold and are followed by Sawant's responses. Candidates are asked three required questions for this survey, but they may answer additional optional questions as well.
| Collapse all
2) Seattle should lead nationally on the Green New Deal, becoming 100% renewable by 2030. Tax the rich to expand mass transit, making it free and electric. Create thousands of good union jobs expanding wind and solar, and retrofitting buildings to the highest efficiency standards.
This year’s city elections will be a referendum on who runs Seattle - Amazon and big business or working people. That is why Seattle's biggest businesses have amassed over $1 million so far in corporate PACs ($200,000 from Amazon alone), and are disproportionately focusing that money on our election in Seattle’s District 3. Meanwhile, our campaign is “not for sale” - entirely funded by donations from working people, and as always doesn’t accept a dime in corporate cash. I only take the average wage ($40,000) of District 3 residents and donate the rest of my six-figure City Council salary to social justice movements.
The single biggest challenge for District 3, and for Seattle as a whole, is the acute affordable housing and homelessness crisis. At this point, a majority of working people are being adversely affected, and people of color and the LGBTQ community are dispropotionately impacted. Tens of thousands of renters are extremely rent-burdened (paying more than half their income on rent), and therefore, are vulnerable to being made homeless. We also have chronic underfunding of homeless services, mental health services, youth jobs, public education.
The last decade shows the for-profit housing market has failed us. Seattle has had the nation’s largest number of construction cranes four years running, yet the crisis of affordable housing remains among the worst in the country, with the average one-bedroom rent now over two thousand dollars a month.
Studies show that when the average rent in a metropolitan area increases by $100, homelessness increases by at least 15%, often higher. We need universal rent control to stop Seattle’s skyrocketing rents and hemorrhaging of affordable housing.
We also need a massive expansion of social housing - publicly-owned, high quality, permanently affordable housing. I was a proud fighter for the Amazon Tax in Seattle, and opposed its shameful repeal when Mayor Durkan and seven of the nine councilmembers capitulated to Amazon and big business, and reversed this progressive tax less than a month after it was unanimously passed.
Note: Ballotpedia reserves the right to edit Candidate Connection survey responses. Any edits made by Ballotpedia will be clearly marked with [brackets] for the public. If the candidate disagrees with an edit, he or she may request the full removal of the survey response from Ballotpedia.org. Ballotpedia does not edit or correct typographical errors unless the candidate's campaign requests it.
2015
Sawant's website highlighted the following campaign themes:[8]
Make Seattle affordable for all
- Excerpt: "Our city is becoming increasingly unequal and unaffordable. In one Seattle, glittering fortunes are being made for the super–rich and the major corporations that dominate its landscape. The other Seattle, where the rest of us live, faces skyrocketing rents and underfunded services."
Tax the rich
- Excerpt: "We need a Millionaires’ Tax to fund mass transit, education, and social services! Tax large corporations to fund public services. Under existing law, this can be done with a major increase in developer impact fees, an employer 'head tax,' an increased tax on commercial parking lot owners, and excise taxes' on banks, big box retailers, and franchise businesses. No corporate welfare and developer handouts! Reduce the unfair tax burden on working people, homeowners, and small businesses."
Public transit
- Excerpt: "While billions of dollars are being spent on the Bertha boondoggle and safety concerns grow, Seattle faces the fourth-worst traffic in the nation. We need a major expansion of mass transit to take cars off the road, address climate change, and make Seattle a more livable city."
Municipal broadband
- Excerpt: "Seattle can be a national leader in establishing affordable, ultra-high-speed municipal internet as a public alternative to the virtual monopoly of Comcast’s and CenturyLink’s overpriced and slow service. As chair of the City Council Energy Committee, municipal broadband is one of my top priorities that I am working on in 2015."
Environmental leadership
- Excerpt: "Seattle should be a leader in addressing the climate crisis. Oil and coal trains passing through downtown Seattle every day are fueling global warming while creating a serious public safety risk from of oil train derailment and explosion and health hazards from coal dust. I reject the false dichotomy of 'jobs vs. the environment.' We need a major green jobs program and new living-wage union jobs for workers who face job losses from fossil-fuel-based industries."
Workers' rights
- Excerpt: "To enforce the new minimum wage and to protect against wage theft, workers need to have a union to represent them. I am proud to be a member of the American Federation of Teachers Local 1789 and represent it as their delegate to the Martin Luther King Jr. County Labor Council."
Campaign finance summary
Note: The finance data shown here comes from the disclosures required of candidates and parties. Depending on the election or state, this may represent only a portion of all the funds spent on their behalf. Satellite spending groups may or may not have expended funds related to the candidate or politician on whose page you are reading this disclaimer. Campaign finance data from elections may be incomplete. For elections to federal offices, complete data can be found at the FEC website. Click here for more on federal campaign finance law and here for more on state campaign finance law.
See also
2026 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ Los Angeles Times, "Socialist to occupy Seattle City Council," November 20, 2013
- ↑ Official campaign website of Kshama Sawant, "About Kshama Sawant," accessed July 21, 2015
- ↑ City of Seattle, "Law, Rules and Information for Filers," accessed September 19, 2014
- ↑ City of Seattle, "Seattle City Council Districts," accessed December 31, 2014
- ↑ King County Elections, "Official primary election results," accessed August 12, 2015
- ↑ C-SPAN, "AP Election Results - Washington State House of Representatives," accessed August 7, 2012
- ↑ Washington Secretary of State, "2012 Primary Candidates," accessed July 21, 2015
- ↑ Official 2015 campaign website of Kshama Sawant, "Issues," accessed July 21, 2015
| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by - |
Seattle City Council District 3 2014-2023 |
Succeeded by Joy Hollingsworth |
