46 Facts About Kshama Sawant

Kshama Sawant is an Indian-American politician and economist who has served on the Seattle City Council since 2014.

Kshama Sawant is a member of Socialist Alternative, the first and only member of the party to date to be elected to public office.

Kshama Sawant ran unsuccessfully for the Washington House of Representatives in 2012 before winning her seat on the Seattle City Council in 2013.

Kshama Sawant was the first socialist to win a citywide election in Seattle since Anna Louise Strong was elected to the school board in 1916.

In January 2023, Kshama Sawant announced that she would not seek re-election, and would instead promote the Socialist Alternative campaign Workers Strike Back to unionize workers.

Kshama Sawant's mother is a retired principal and her father, a civil engineer, was killed by a drunk driver when she was 13 years old.

Kshama Sawant graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer science from the University of Mumbai in 1994.

Kshama Sawant received her PhD in economics from North Carolina State University in 2003.

Kshama Sawant's dissertation was titled Elderly Labor Supply in a Rural, Less Developed Economy.

Kshama Sawant was a visiting assistant professor at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia.

Kshama Sawant has indicated that the genesis of her becoming a socialist began in India, a country plagued by immense poverty.

In 2012, Kshama Sawant ran unsuccessfully for Position 1 in the 43rd district of the Washington House of Representatives, representing Seattle.

Kshama Sawant ran and advanced past the primaries as a write-in win for Position 2.

Kshama Sawant successfully sued the Washington secretary of state for the right to be listed as a Socialist Alternative member on the ballot.

Kshama Sawant challenged incumbent Democratic House speaker Frank Chopp in the general election on November 6,2012.

Kshama Sawant was sworn into office on January 6,2014.

Kshama Sawant declared a victory in May 2014 after Seattle Mayor Ed Murray announced an increase in the minimum wage to $15, which was the cornerstone of her campaign for City Council, but she is not pleased that large corporations will be allowed a few years to phase in the wage hike.

Kshama Sawant received no endorsements from sitting councilmembers, while Mike O'Brien expressed support of the idea of third party candidates but explicitly declining to extend an endorsement of Kshama Sawant.

Kshama Sawant called for the expansion of bus and light rail capacity with a millionaire's tax.

Kshama Sawant has called for "transit justice", which would include free user fares; an increase in free transit services to the poor, especially communities in south Seattle; and restriction of transit options to communities that "can afford other options" until the foregoing measures are implemented.

Kshama Sawant's call to condemn Israel's actions prompted a response from Israeli ambassador Ron Dermer, calling for Kshama Sawant to retract the statement.

Back during the 2013 campaign, Kshama Sawant had said rent control is "something everyone supports, except real estate developers and people like Richard Conlin" and compared the legal fight for its implementation to same-sex marriage, and the legalization of marijuana in the United States, both of which she supports.

Kshama Sawant's District 3 opponent Pamela Banks criticized Sawant's status as a national figure was a distraction from her primary duty to serve her constituents.

In 2019, Kshama Sawant ran against Egan Orion, the head of the United States Chamber of Commerce in Capitol Hill.

On November 5,2019, Kshama Sawant was elected to a third term on the Seattle City Council.

Durkan alleged that Kshama Sawant had used her council office to promote the "Tax Amazon" ballot initiative, urged protesters to occupy the East Precinct police station, and involved Socialist Alternative in her council office staffing decisions.

Kshama Sawant responded by denying the charges in the petition and claiming that the recall effort was backed by right-wing billionaires.

On January 19,2023, Kshama Sawant announced that she would retire from the city council at the end of the year, instead announcing that she would be launching Workers Strike Back, a national labor movement.

Kshama Sawant called this "economic terrorism" and said in several speeches that if the company moved jobs out of state, the workers should take over its facilities and bring them into public ownership.

Kshama Sawant has said they could be converted into multiple uses, such as production for buses.

Kshama Sawant maintains that a socialist economy cannot exist in a single country and must be a global system just as capitalism today is a global system.

Kshama Sawant opposed the construction of the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement tunnel calling it "environmentally destructive" and "something most people were against, most environmental groups were against".

Kshama Sawant opposed the Seattle Public Schools Measures of Academic Progress test in public schools, and supported the teachers' boycott of the standardized tests.

Kshama Sawant has called for a revolt against student debt saying that "the laws of the rich are unenforceable if the working class refuses to obey those laws".

Kshama Sawant believes the American Labor movement should break with the Democratic Party and run grassroots left-wing candidates.

Kshama Sawant is a member of Socialist Alternative, the United States section of the Trotskyist international organization the International Socialist Alternative, formerly the Committee for a Workers' International.

Kshama Sawant said she rejects working with either the Democratic or the Republican party and advocates abandoning the two-party system.

Kshama Sawant joined the Democratic Socialists of America in February 2021.

Kshama Sawant joined with Occupy activists working with local organizations to resist home evictions and foreclosures, and was arrested with several Occupy activists including Dorli Rainey on July 31,2012 for blocking King County Sheriff's deputies from evicting a man from his home.

Kshama Sawant advocated on LGBT, women's, and people of color issues, and opposed cuts to education and other social programs.

Kshama Sawant gave a teach-in course at an all-night course at Seattle Central Community College.

On November 19,2014, Kshama Sawant was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct at a $15 minimum wage protest in SeaTac, Washington.

In June 2020, Kshama Sawant was criticized by the Trotskyist World Socialist Web Site for supposedly working "along politically harmless channels by promoting illusions in local police reform" and for promoting "the anarchistic commune" known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.

Kshama Sawant is often reticent about her personal life and background, preferring to stick to political issues.

Kshama Sawant has said that her entire family remains in India with her mother currently residing in Bangalore.

In 2016, Kshama Sawant took time off to be out of the country for their wedding.