TRU Endorsements

TRU is a member driven democratic organization of working and poor people. We advocate for more public transit, a fairer tax system, renters rights, livable wages, and affordable housing. You can see our mission and principles here.

Our endorsements are selected by a vote of our membership. To educate and inform you we share our endorsements and recommendations with a cheat sheet and a writeup explaining what the race is and why we recommend a candidate. If you disagree with our endorsements, join us and shape the next ones.

*Some candidates were not endorsed but merely recommended, unendorsed candidates/races are marked with an asterisk while endorsed candidates are underlined. We do not endorse nor recommend in uncontested races.

Who to vote for

State Initiatives

State Legislature

  • 32nd District – Shoreline, Montlake Terrace, Lynnwood, North Seattle
    • Cindy Ryu*, Danica Noble, Imraan Siddiqi
  • 34th District – West Seattle, Vashon, White Center
    • Joe Fitzgibbon*
  • 36th District – Ballard, Magnolia, Queen Anne
    • Noel Frame*
  • 37th District – South Seattle, Central Seattle, Skyway
    • Tatiana Brown, Kelabe Tewolde, Jaelynn Scott*
  • 43rd District – Capitol Hill, Belltown, Fremont, U District
    • Hanna Sabio-Howell, Nicole Macri*
  • 46th District – Green Lake, Maple Leaf, Northgate, Pinehurst, Magnuson
    • Javier Valdez, no recommendation, Darya Farivar
  • 48th District – Parts of Bellevue, Redmond, and Kirkland
    • Osman Salahuddin, Jessica Forsythe

King County Council

  • District 2 – Central District, Capitol Hill, U District, Rainier Valley, Skyway
    • Both are good
  • District 8 – Downtown Seattle, West Seattle, White Center, Vashon
    • Teresa Mosqueda*

City of Seattle

Read on or click the links above to learn more about each race and why we recommend the way we do.

State Initiatives

There are three statewide initiatives, all brought by conservative Republican donor and hedge fund manager Brian Heywood. We recommend voting No on all three. City of Seattle Proposition 1 is described at the bottom of the page.

I-645 Repeal the Millionaires Tax

This initiative asks voters to overrule the tax reforms of our state legislature. This year the state legislature and governor managed to pass a Millionaires tax. This tax would collect 9.9% of every dollar earned over $1 million in a year. We like it when the rich pay more taxes. Vote no to keep the tax moving towards implementation.

I-001 Out school kids to parents

This Brian Heywood-backed initiative affects what information parents are allowed to request from their schools, including enabling book bans, allowing parents access to student’s counseling records, and more. This makes teaching more expensive and worse in an already underfunded school system and it also makes it unsafe for students to ask for help from professionals. Vote no, let the teachers teach and the students be safe at school. Learn more at nohateinwastate.org

I-638 Genital checks for Women

Gender check for Women’s sports. This Heywood initiative is riding on the national anti-trans culture war. Male and Female youth sports are not that different at high school and younger. Let the children play however they want to play. Vote no, prevent all women from genital exams. Learn more at nohateinwastate.org

State Legislature

State legislatures work in Olympia to define Washington State Laws. Find your district at app.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder.

32nd District – Shoreline, Montlake Terrace, Lynnwood, North Seattle

State Senator*

Cindy Ryu, current State Representative for the district is risking her seat for a promotion to the state senate challenging incumbent Jesse Solomon. Ryu is the progressive in the race while Solomon is a lawyer who voted against corner stores and gutted renters rights. Vote Cindy.

Representative Position 1

Danica Noble is the underdog here, and we believe in her. Keith Scully comes from shoreline city council as Cindy Ryu is leaving the seat to run as a Senator. Noble comes from a background regulating big tech at the federal level and is involved heavily in PTAs and helping parents advocate.

Noble asked for our endorsement telling us about her ideas for funding schools, and regulating AI, and taxing the rich. We like that Noble has a big vision and the experience to write legislation that hits the greedy corporations where it hurts. Her opponent Scully seems already defeated and resigned to the status quo, and he doesn’t even have the job yet. Vote Danica.

Representative Position 2

Imraan Siddiqi is running against incumbent Lauren Davis. Siddiqi comes from fighting for civil rights and is very aligned with our issues. Davis seems pretty happy continuing to do the minimum on the issues we care about.

We endorsed Siddiqi after they said exactly what we wanted to hear: more housing, more density near transit, and taxing the rich. He also talked about voting reforms like rank choice and banning corporate money from politics. Vote Imraan.

34th District – West Seattle, Vashon, White Center

State Senator and Representative Position 2

Running uncontested

Representative Position 2*

Incumbent Joe Fitzgibbon is being challenged by Mary Anito. With Joe receiving 75% of the vote in the primary we aren’t worried about him loosing his seat. We also don’t think Mary is aligned with our mission.

Joe fought for the Climate Commitment Act which funds some statewide transit and now as the house majority lead helped push through the millionaires tax. We’re pretty happy with his steps towards progressive funding. Vote Joe.

36th District – Ballard, Magnolia, Queen Anne

State Senator*

Incumbent Noel Frame has been doing a good job. She is challenged by Republican Jillian England who wants to remove progressive taxes. Noel has been fighting for Ballard Link. She’s been consistently fighting for progressive taxation and to remove corporate tax breaks for the last decade. Vote Noel.

Representative Positions*

Running uncontested

37th District – South Seattle, Central Seattle, Skyway

State Senator

We endorsed Tatiana Brown, who is running against Chipalo Street. Street has been a steady and reliable progressive voice using his tech experience and landlord status to push for reforms. Street is seeking a promotion from Representative to Senator as a part of the long chain triggered by County Executive Zahilay’s election. Brown is a young environmentalist organizer who focuses on being in and for the community. Vote Tatiana.

Representative Position 1

We endorsed Kelabe Tewolde. Kelabe is running to replace the incumbent Sharon Tomiko Santos, who has been serving since 1998. Santos chairs the education committee but has not been doing enough to fund schools. Her campaign materials don’t even mention school funding, despite her position as a chair of the education committee.

Tewolde was raised by a single working mother and struggled to afford to stay in Seattle. He’s since become a teacher, an advocate, and a mentor at Rainier Scholars for students struggling. He also serves on Seattle’s planning commission and has a great platform that aligns with ours including taxing the rich and the corporations to fund education, transit, and reducing medical debts. Tewolde is a sweet man who will do a great job fighting for teachers, students, and services. Vote Kelabe.

Representative Position 2*

Jaelynn Scott is running to be our first trans legislator. She’s running for an empty seat against Evon Mccorkle.

Jaelynn is the Executive Director of the Lavender Rights Project who is standing up and supporting black trans communities, fighting for housing, services, and rights. While Jaelynn doesn’t talk about transit much, we’re confident her goals of empowering the poorest will result in a more affordable and livable world. Vote Jaelynn.

43rd District – Capitol Hill, Belltown, Fremont, U District

State Senator

We endorsed Hannah Sabio-Howell, who is challenging Jamie Pedersen. Jamie is the Senate Majority Leader and takes credit for passing the Millionaires tax. He did do that, and that’s great, but while he was doing that he carved out tax breaks for the biggest corporations and wealthiest families. He’s done good work but we’re far more excited for Hannah.

Sabio-Howell previously worked in the legislature doing communications and has also worked in union organizing. Unlike Pedersen, Howell is willing to fund Sound Transit investments from the state budget, while Pedersen will only allow highway expansions to be funded by the state, claiming transit should be funded by the local region. Pedersen blocks the Well Washington Fund (statewide Jump Start) from preventing state austerity (while we wait for the millionaires tax) and Sabio-Howell would support this progressive revenue to fund schools immediately. Hannah campaigns on fixing the tax system, not taking corporate money, making Seattle affordable, and creating universal childcare. We love her main talking points and all her other ideas for making our elections fairer, our transit better, and our housing more affordable. Vote Hannah.

Representative Position 1*

Nicole Macri has been a great representative. Alby Clendennin is running against her. We can’t find a website for Alby. Vote Nicole.

Representative Position 2*

Running unopposed

46th District – Green Lake, Maple Leaf, Northgate, Pinehurst, Magnuson

State Senator*

Reelecting incumbent Javier Valdez is the obvious choice in this race. His only opponent is Sandra Stephens, running as a Republican. Additionally, Stephens doesn’t have a website. Vote Javier.

Representative Position 1*

We don’t love incumbent Gerry Pollet, and we don’t know Will Dreher. Pollet has been a blocker on building housing (until his committee position was removed) but a champion for school funding, which includes some tax reforms. Dreher dropped out of the sky as a lawyer who wants to regulate AI. We haven’t heard how he plans to regulate them and we’re worried by that. Dreher claims some urbanist messages but seems to have an austerity approach to taxation, which concerns us.

We do not have a recommendation in this race. If you’d like to wait for a more aligned opponent to challenge Pollet then vote to keep him, but for those of you frustrated with Pollet, you might want to consider Dreher. Pollet is likely up for retirement soon while Dreher is only 38 years old.

Representative Position 2*

Reelecting incumbent Darya Farivar is the obvious choice in this race. Her only opponent Rodney ‘star’ Thornley’s platform makes it look like he is opposed to progressive revenue. Vote Darya.

48th District – Parts of Bellevue, Redmond, and Kirkland

State Senator*

Running unopposed

Representative Position 1*

Incumbent Osman Salahuddin is fine. He’s being challenged by an anti-tax republican Jeff Poppe. Vote Osman.

Representative Position 2*

Redmond City Councilmember Jessica Forsythe is running against incumbent Amy Walen. Walen owns a car dealership, tried to weaken the millionaires tax, and even voted against it.

Forsythe has done great things on Redmond City Council and before that worked for and ran non-profits. She supports progressive taxation and renter protections. Vote Jessica.

King County Council

District 2 – Central District, Capitol Hill, U District, Rainier Valley, Skyway

In the primary we made a dual endorsement for Toshiko Grace Hasegawa and Rebecca Saldaña. We still think both candidates would do a good job in this currently empty seat. Hasegawa comes from being a port commissioner while Saldaña is coming home from the state senate in Olympia. For more coverage of this race check out coverage on The Urbanist.

District 8 – Downtown Seattle, West Seattle, White Center, Vashon*

Teresa Mosqueda has been a great partner to TRU in our work to increase transit funding. Nick Duda is running on a public safety and accountability platform. Vote Teresa.

City of Seattle

District 5 – North Seattle

Progressive Nilu Jenks is running for the open seat against Julie Kang. Nilu will build more housing and make Seattle more affordable while Kang appears to be the chamber of commerce anti change candidate. North Seattle needs a lot of love.

Flipping this seat will change the dynamic on Seattle’s City Council. We currently have four progressive seats on council and with Nilu taking this seat that would bring us to a majority of the city council. Instead of fighting over how big the police budget will be, we hope next year can include allowing more people to live near transit, and hopefully work towards some voter reforms which will result in a more functional city council. Vote Nilu.

Municipal court

The Seattle Municipal Court handles misdemeanors and civil cases. We don’t normally endorse in these races but have enough reason to this year.

Gabe Rothstein got our endorsement. He comes from a background as a public defender, unlike his opponent Garmon Newsom’s background as a prosecuting attorney for government and institutions. TRU decided to endorse Rothstein in this race after we recently got charges dismissed on a lawsuit brought by Newsom in his role as the Burien City Attorney. Vote for Gabe.

Seattle Transit Measure

We endorse and support the Seattle Transit Measure. This measure will fund increasing local King County Metro bus service, the Seattle Streetcar, Orca cards for low income residents, and make future Sound Transit stations thrive. This is the issue that TRU was founded on, of course we want you to vote yes for more busses. Learn more at hoponboardseattle.org.