Rustin Knudtson

Our campaign is proud to be endorsed by many rank-and-file public sector workers in their personal capacity, like Jozi Uebelhoer, a social worker and member of the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE)! Join us! Sign up to volunteer and donate today. KshamaSawant.org "Kshama Sawant has shown time and again that her approach of building mass movements of working people to put intense pressure on the corporate politicians really works. "Last year during the WA legislative session Democratic governor Bob Furgeson put forward a budget that would have cut $7 billion dollars from the state budget including furloughing state workers one day a month for the next 2 years. This budget would have slashed social services and public benefits and programs across the state. This was a terrifying prospect for many us with state workers under threat of forced furloughs, meaning losing 1 month of our pay and essential programs like long-term residential care programs under threat of closing. "With the leadership of Kshama and Workers Strike Back, I and other WFSE members brought forward resolutions in our union locals calling for a mass rally in Olympia. On April 9th of this year hundreds of WFSE members and community supporters marched on the state capitol chanting “No Cuts, Not Furloughs, Tax Tax the Rich!” We brought the House and Senate chambers to a halt as we marched inside the capitol building and from this rally were able to scare the crap out of the Democrats and reduce the cuts in the budget from $7 billion to $2.7 billion. Kshama’s strategy was decisive in our union’s victory against billions in cuts from Gov. Ferguson. "This shows that when we fight we can win. It points to what is needed to stop these attacks on working people. "I endorse Kshama for Congress because working people are sick of losing, and Kshama knows how to take on the bosses and win."

The Republican Party’s Doug Basler has just entered the race for Washington state’s ninth Congressional District, recently publicly declaring: “With the entrance of the socialist candidate from Seattle, many of our local folks have approached me with the request that I run again for US Congress." Sometimes politicians in both parties of the billionaires say the quiet part out loud. Basler has since quickly moved to delete this statement from his website. But the motivation of the establishment is still clear: to try to block our independent socialist campaign by any means necessary. Basler and the Republican Party are clearly not running to try to defeat Democratic incumbent Adam Smith. Why would they, when Adam Smith has been such a dogged representative of the war profiteers, Zionist lobby, and the billionaire class? As one right-wing commenter remarked, “Smith sounds more like a Republican than a lot of Republicans.” For the Republican Party, this is not about defeating neoliberal warmonger Smith. No Republican has broken 30 percent of the vote against Smith in 15 years, including Basler himself, who has previously run against Smith many times. But my revolutionary socialist campaign is enough of a threat to both the Republican and Democratic parties that they need strategies to try to stop us. My campaign is fighting to win free healthcare for all funded by taxing the rich, for an end to all military aid to Israel and end all weapons and tech for imperialist war, to shut down ICE and the detention centers, and for national rent control. We have won tremendous support from working people, and have seven times as many donors as Adam Smith, with over $525,000 raised already. It’s in this context that Basler has been recruited to the Republican ticket, and the two weaker Republican candidates who had previously entered the race have dropped out. This strategy conveniently leaves Basler, a high-profile Republican, in the race as the sole recipient of the GOP vote. Both parties regularly collude to block working-class candidates by electoral maneuvers. In 2020, the Democratic leadership, led by Obama, worked to push several corporate Democrats out of the race in the run up to Super Tuesday while leaving Elizabeth Warren in to divide the vote with Bernie Sanders — a successful coup that put Joe Biden on top despite the total lack of enthusiasm for his candidacy. This move to retain Basler as the lone Republican candidate is yet another reminder that both parties are determinedly united in keeping any working-class challenge out of Congress. The billionaires are nervous because our campaign comes from the long track record of winning unheard-of working-class victories, from the nation’s highest minimum wage to the Amazon Tax to unprecedented renters’ rights. Both parties represent American imperialism and are united in their opposition to serious antiwar candidates. This is why we need working people to get involved and strongly support our campaign. Let’s not fall for the political theater of Democratic and Republican parties posing as mortal enemies. They each want to win elections against each other. But they BOTH represent the ruling class and they are BOTH enemies of the working class. And they are in complete agreement on the priority of trying to block an independent socialist from getting into Congress. We need to go all out to win this election. DONATE and VOLUNTEER for my campaign today at kshamasawant.org. Winning this election would be a historic step towards building a new party for the working class, and would deal a gigantic blow to Wall Street and both parties of war and genocide.

Join my campaign on Saturday, May 9th, to build the fight to tax the rich to fund free healthcare for all, not endless wars! Join in person at Casa Latina or join over livestream. RSVP right now! kshamasawant.org/events/358/ Our campaign has launched a fundraising drive for the month of May with a goal of $75,000 to build our momentum to defeat warmongering Democrat Adam Smith. It will take thousands of working people getting involved and getting organized to send the first-ever revolutionary socialist to Congress. My opponent, Democrat Adam Smith, voted to give Trump $900 billion last December to carry out his brutal assault on Iran and for Imperialist war around the world. We must reject both parties of the billionaires and their representatives and build independent and fighting campaigns to win free healthcare for all, to shut down ICE and the detention centers, to win national rent control, and to end all imperialist wars. Our town hall on Saturday will discuss upcoming priorities for the next phase of our campaign and how working people can join us in the fight to defeat Adam Smith. See everyone on Saturday!

I am excited to announce that our campaign IS ON THE BALLOT for the U.S. Congress! kshamasawant.org/kshama-is-o… I am  running as an independent antiwar socialist against warmongering Democrat Adam Smith! For the month of May, my campaign is launching a fundraising drive for $75,000 to build on our momentum and go all-out to defeat warmonger Adam Smith. Raising $75,000 in May would bring our campaign to $600,000 overall. Please donate now, and help us spread the word!