Big fan of @UrbanistOrg — even more so after this.

Capitol Hill - Wallingford - Fremont - Phinney - U District —> if you’re in the 43rd, this is an ESSENTIAL way to make change. https://twitter.com/sheraeforstate/status/1280935260444712962

The 43rd is the only district in the legislature that’s entirely within city limits. Representation matters — and right now EVERY representative of the district is white.

Seattle is inside a nesting doll of power, and the actions of the State affect what can and can’t be done here.

For example, I-5 isn’t under Seattle jurisdiction — which is why it’s the Washington State Patrol threatening to arrest protestors who enter the highway.

The National Guard troops that gassed us even after the City Council ordered SPD to stop? They were sent in by Governor Inslee.

Unemployment benefits under Covid-19? Decisions about whether to reopen? The existence (or not) of funds to help folks who pay in to the system whether or not they’re citizens? Happens at the state level.

And a HUGE one from recent years: Housing policy. The developers have Republicans statewide in their pockets, which means the white men of places like Okanogan can make it illegal for Seattle to implement rent control.

Know how public schools, especially in Black and brown communities, are drastically underfunded — strengthening the school-to-prison pipeline? You can thank your state legislature for that.

They blame budget shortfalls but they don’t have the courage to fight for an income tax to fund basic public services — this in a state with more than 186,000 millionaires and 13 billionaires, one who is almost a *trillionaire.*

They have zero fucking courage.

It surprises a lot of people new to politics to learn that the levers of change are not where you’d intuitively think they would be.

So, in order to get effective representation for Seattle, we *have to* send people to Olympia who aren’t just establishment shills.

Frank Chopp has held this office for 25 years. He’s an establishment Democrat and an old white dude who doesn’t disrupt anything. He’s been a gatekeeper for who does and doesn’t receive state funds in our district.

More importantly, there’s a lot of high-key racism in the legislature that just .... doesn’t get addressed. Because the white “progressives”, however well-meaning, don’t have the lived experience. Their lives aren’t on the line. They just have to justify their compromises.

I have personal experience on the other side of bullshit Dem optics. A bunch of people in power called for an “investigation” against my rapist (then a State Senator) as a way of silencing conversation about what kind of person his is.

I had to fight, and have a shit-ton of people fight for me, to get an audience with any of my reps at the time. Chopp did fucking nothing. Neither did Pedersen. Nicole Macri, to her credit, actually met with me and did the work-that-should-not-have-been-this-fucking-hard.

In the end, they dropped the investigation and sent me a weak apology. It was a wake-up call for me: All the privilege I had amassed, as a white person presenting in a very gender-conforming way, with a fucking master’s degree and a fire resume and personal connections to power —

meant absolutely nothing to institutions that are deeply committed to upholding the status quo.

Ironically, the person who replaced my rapist in that Senate seat, a woman of color, has been dragged by fellow Dems for speaking up about racism in the legislature.

Her name is Mona Das, by the way, and she’s a badass. But when she called out the Senate Dems for not listening to communities of color, they DRAGGED her and then produced an investigation that - SURPRISE! - found no wrongdoing.

So yeah, Chopp is a problem. No doubt he’s had some significant legislative victories and done good work. But he’s also had some really bizarre ideas, and bizarre behaviors that indicate he’s more interested in keeping his job than doing it.

Peep this recent cut from SeattlePI.

It’s actually VERY significant that the 43rd District Dems issued a non-endorsement for this race, explicitly inviting challengers to Chopp.

Both his challengers are progressives.

One - Sherae - is Black, and an abolitionist with *actual lives experience* in this work.

More importantly, the time for standing up white people on the argument that they’ll be “better” at advocating for marginalized communities that they’re not part of because we “know how to talk to white people” or “understand the institutions” or whatever is over.

Besides, it’s bullshit. I’ve watched Sherae work the system brilliantly because they have to know it inside and out *just to survive* and to make sure their *communities* survive.

More importantly, this is not a person who can be bought.

For example? When the City tried to push them to compromising the safety of their community in exchange for funding, they said no, and held the line until the contract was rewritten.

They don’t sell out their people for anything. Even when it means being misunderstood.

And eventually, the white people around them learn. We come around. We start to get it. And we step the f*** back and realize that they’re already ten steps ahead of us. We don’t even know what we don’t know — that’s what privilege does.

That’s exactly who we need in the state legislature.

Will they have an impact on communities well beyond the boundaries of their district and Seattle as a whole? Yes!

But if we don’t elect who we need to the legislature, Seattle *will* continue to be under white control.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of that.

I hate politics. I’ve campaigned weakly for a few folks in the past. I’ve never met anyone with Sherae’s integrity or capacity. Period.

So, as retraumatizing as it is to engage (I still have literal nightmares about Olympia on a regular basis), I’m *ALL THE WAY IN* for Sherae.

If there were EVER a time for Seattle to wake up from its Frappuccino-induced, hero-worshipping fauxgressive slumber and elect a Black femme to the legislature, it better be RIGHT NOW.

No telling Black folks to “wait their turn” while another nice white person moves in. Period.

Let’s fucking do this.

Also: Any policy wonks reading this who have more insight than me into the impacts of state legislature on our city: PLEASE JUMP IN AND EDUCATE!

There’s no such thing as too much understanding of civic life — and too few of us have it.