Seattle’s socialist city councilmember Kshama Sawant has arguably been a disaster for the city. In 2020 she was the councilmember who pushed for a 50% cut to the police budget. She wound up being the only person who voted against the cuts that did pass, not because she was against cuts but because she thought the cuts were too small. When the police chief criticized that move, Sawant led the board in cutting her salary. The chief later quit.

Sawant also represents Capitol Hill where the CHAZ/CHOP took place a couple years ago. Sawant was in favor of letting the mob take over permanently. She has also used her position to attack the mayor and brought a 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 not to run for office for another term.

In 2021, Sawant narrowly survived an attempt to recall her by a few hundred votes. But now she is facing a new adversary who may or may not be an improvement. Today, pot farmer Joy Hollingsworth announced that she would challenge Sawant for the seat.

Business owner and community advocate Joy Hollingsworth announced Monday that she is running for Seattle City Council, vying for a seat now held by 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 told the crowd at MLK FAME Community Center during her Martin Luther King Jr. Day campaign launch.

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 would go on to play collegiately before launching a college career at Seattle University. She left sports behind in 2013 to be part of The Hollingsworth Cannabis Company and the booming marijuana farming industry. She oversees operations and frequently acts as spokesperson for the Shelton-based company, speaking out on equity issues in the 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.

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

In addition to being a local basketball star, Hollingsworth is the granddaughter of well-known civil rights activist Dorothy Hollingsworth.

Hollingsworth extolled the importance of education as a pathway to a prosperous future, and was a champion for equal access in the classroom.

“She was fierce,” said her granddaughter, Joy Hollingsworth. “She loved education. She loved children. She knew the heartbeat of activism, equity, social services was (being) able to bring resources to families.”

A trailblazing figure, Hollingsworth built a reputation as an empathetic advocate for students and as a person with an unbreakable moral compass. 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.

All that to say, I think Joy Hollingsworth has a real shot 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.