Voters will have no shortage of choices in Seattle City Council District 3 this year. Ten candidates are running for the seat now held by Kshama Sawant, who is leaving the council to build a new organization, Workers Strike Back.
District 3 includes Capitol Hill, the Central District, and parts of First Hill — all neighborhoods that voted solidly for Sawant in the past — as well as wealthier areas in Montlake and along Lake Washington.
Five of the ten candidates openly identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community on their campaign websites.
Shobhit Agarwal
Shobhit Agarwal, the latest entry in the race, lives on Capitol Hill with his husband, movie reviewer Matthew McQuilkin. According to his website, Agarwal's platform focuses on expanding green infrastructure, especially electrical vehicles and public transit; making housing affordable; expanding small businesses; engaging minorities in policing; and supporting minority and women's rights.
Andrew Ashiofu
Andrew Ashiofu is co-chair of Seattle's LGBTQ+ Commission, and made a run for a state legislative seat representing the 37th District last year. If elected, he would be the council's only Black member, the only out Queer member, the only openly HIV-positive member, and the only member to reveal that they were previously homeless.
According to Ashiofu, his family kicked him out of the house in 2010, after he told them he was Gay. Consequently, he says, helping Seattle's growing homeless population find permanent shelter is one of his top priority issues. His strategy is what's known as the "housing-first" option — in other words, find permanent housing for the unhoused, then deal with any social or medical problems they may have.
Ry Armstrong
Ry Armstrong is an actor and musician known for their appearances in Uncut Gems, The Curious Incident of Everett Wilder, The Plot Against America, and The Gilded Age. According to their website, they hope to be "the first gender-nonconforming, queer candidate to represent all of Seattle District 3."
Armstrong says their campaign will focus on three goals: the "right to shelter," giving unhoused individuals the resources they need to get back on their feet; making Seattle the first large carbon-neutral city; and reforming Seattle police with "independent accountability and robust resources for both people of color and the SPD."
Joy Hollingsworth
Joy Hollingsworth is the only candidate born and raised in District 3. A third-generation resident of Seattle's Central District, and granddaughter of civil rights leader Dorothy Hollingsworth, Hollingsworth says she is running to bring a missing Black and LGBTQ+ perspective to the City Council.
Like other candidates, Hollingsworth is also interested in housing policy, but she insists city policy must be adapted to the city's communities. She says she wants to help the City Council think more critically about how legislation affects communities by involving stakeholders from those communities in the process.
Asukaa Jaxx
Asukaa Jaxx has run for a number of city offices. Jaxx typically runs an unfunded campaign and is not expected to advance through the primaries in August.
These are the candidates who don't publicly identify as LGBTQ+:
Alex Cooley
Alex Cooley says he was raised in an environment of physical, emotional, and substance abuse. His father succumbed to alcoholism when Alex was 14 years old. Thereafter, he was raised by his mother, who, he says, "worked her ass off as a UFCW member at Macy's to put both of her sons through college."
Although he got a degree in education, a hiring freeze at Seattle Public Schools led Cooley to turn his pot-growing hobby into a business. Remembering his mother's struggles as a UFCW union member, Cooley then invited the union to organize workers at his retail store, Solstice.
If elected, Cooley says he'll work to legalize drugs and build one million square feet of housing for unhoused individuals.
Robert Goodwin
Robert Goodwin describes himself as "the only candidate for District 3 that is committed to prioritizing cleaning up this City!" — a promise to eliminate graffiti in District 3. "If I am elected," he says, "I promise you will see a dramatic reduction in graffiti in our district — because I don't need a consensus, just time and paint!" Goodwin is also campaigning against short-term rentals and ticket scalping.
Efrain Hudnell
Efrain Hudnell is a former US Army intelligence officer and current deputy prosecutor in King County's Mental Health Court. He says he wanted to become a prosecutor because he "wanted to use the law as a tool to fix systemic problems, rather than to maintain outcomes of unjust systems." Hudnell stresses the need for noncriminal intervention and for greatly expanding behavioral health services and supply of affordable housing.
Alex Hudson
Alex Hudson is currently the executive director of Transportation Choices Coalition, and former blogger for Seattlish, who describes herself as an "urbanist at heart." She is running on a program of developing public transportation, including reviving the downtown streetcar project shelved by Mayor Jenny Durkan, and expediting West Seattle and Ballard light rail linkups.
Hudson also believes the city needs to find alternatives for uniformed police. The city should not rely on cops to be mental health professionals, drug counselors, or housing connectors, she says. She hasn't committed to channeling any of the current police budget to possible alternatives, however, and also won't commit to raising taxes to fund alternatives.
Theo Mostert
Theo Mostert is a medical technician who says his medical experience has shown him the "effects of crime and homelessness firsthand." "Seattle is in trouble, and our current leadership is digging us even deeper in the hole," he warns on his website.
Mostert is campaigning on a program of "improving public safety and...improving first responder training and working conditions."