With the 2022 midterms now in the his­to­ry books, can­di­dates are start­ing to declare for offices that will be con­test­ed in this year’s local elec­tion cycle, like Seat­tle’s sev­en dis­trict-based city coun­cil seats.

Today, food secu­ri­ty activist Joy Hollingsworth became one of the first to offi­cial­ly launch a cam­paign at an event in Madi­son Val­ley. Hollingsworth, thir­ty-eight, is run­ning for the seat cur­rent­ly held by Kshama Sawant, who defeat­ed Richard Con­lin ten years ago for an at-large seat on the coun­cil and has since been reelect­ed sev­er­al times. (Sawant also nar­row­ly sur­vived a recall attempt.)

Sawant has not said if she’s run­ning for reelec­tion again.

Three of her col­leagues — Deb­o­ra Juarez, Lisa Her­bold, and Alex Ped­er­sen — have already said they will depart the Coun­cil at the end of this year.

Regard­less of what Sawant decides, Hollingsworth is in to win.

Speak­ing to a large crowd of ener­getic sup­port­ers at the MLK FAME Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­ter, Hollingsworth explained that she’s a prac­ti­cal, prag­mat­ic pro­gres­sive who believes in the pow­er of pub­lic pol­i­cy to improve lives.

She began her remarks by giv­ing thanks to the vol­un­teers and com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who help set up the event.

She then recount­ed her grand­moth­er march­ing with Mar­tin Luther King near­ly six decades ago, stress­ing the impor­tant lega­cy that that MLK left behind.

“MLK led a move­ment across the coun­try that con­nect­ed com­mu­ni­ties, uni­fied voic­es, and real­ly pushed progress,” she noted.

She added that she believes it is her time to start her own jour­ney of help­ing local fam­i­lies and com­mu­ni­ties by run­ning for Seat­tle City Council.

The room burst with laugh­ter after Hollingsworth men­tioned that she didn’t think any­one would clap after her announcement.

“This is the Seat­tle I love,” she said, after acknowl­edg­ing many of the friends present in the room for her announcement.

Hav­ing grown up in the neigh­bor­hood, Hollingsworth knows the 3rd Dis­trict well. She recalled par­tak­ing in school sports and play­ing bas­ket­ball at the “old Garfield”.

Present­ly, Hollingsworth works on “food acces­si­bil­i­ty at the non­prof­it North­west Har­vest,” accord­ing to her cam­paign announce­ment. She “con­tin­ues to be engaged in the oper­a­tions of her fam­i­ly farm – one of the few Black-owned busi­ness­es in Washington’s legal cannabis mar­ket. She has also worked in youth sports and as Assis­tant Women’s Bas­ket­ball Coach at Seat­tle University.” 

In her remarks, she men­tioned that her fam­i­ly has nev­er shied away from work­ing to increase diver­si­ty and widen inclu­sion in the com­mu­ni­ty. Hollingsworth’s Aunt Jack­ie, a retired exec­u­tive, spent her career diver­si­fy­ing the tal­ent at Boe­ing. Jack­ie “shat­tered the ceil­ings and brought diver­si­ty to Boeing”.

“I am guid­ed by my old school val­ues of trust, work­ing hard, com­mit­ment to the process, tan­gi­ble goals, team­work, ded­i­ca­tion but with a new school voice,” Hollingsworth told the crowd, radi­at­ing opti­mism as she spoke.

Hollingsworth then dived into her pol­i­cy per­spec­tive on social ser­vice. She stat­ed that her pri­or­i­ties as a coun­cilmem­ber will be guid­ed by her own per­son­al his­to­ry, help­ing small­er com­mu­ni­ties, help­ing small busi­ness, advo­cat­ing for youth and using the plat­form for the com­mu­ni­ty rein­vest­ment programs.

Prac­ti­cal­i­ty and lived expe­ri­ence is what Hollingsworth strives to bring to the office. “I want to pro­mote pro­gres­sive and prac­ti­cal strate­gies to address root caus­es of seem­ing­ly intractable issues includ­ing all voic­es and per­spec­tives,” she said. “Mea­sur­ing progress and cul­ti­vat­ing trust and trans rela­tion­al relationships.”

Seat­tle must find ways to increase attain­able, afford­able hous­ing and home­own­er­ship oppor­tu­ni­ties as well as improv­ing access to healthy food while empow­er­ing small busi­ness­es to thrive, she said. She also men­tioned engag­ing and men­tor­ing youth along with pro­tect­ing the LGBTQ+ community.

Bring­ing the com­mu­ni­ty to City Hall sounds like it will be a core theme of Hollingsworth’s cam­paign. By declar­ing ear­ly, she’s ensur­ing that her cam­paign is posi­tioned to make the most of oppor­tu­ni­ties to build a sol­id foun­da­tion with donors, vol­un­teers, and vot­ers, giv­ing a bet­ter chance of suc­ceed­ing where oth­er Sawant chal­lengers have failed — assum­ing Sawant runs again.

Fil­ing Week for this year’s local offices will be in about four months. In between now and then, it’s like­ly we’ll see addi­tion­al can­di­dates enter the con­test for Seat­tle City Coun­cil in the new­ly redrawn 3rd District.

If you’re inter­est­ed in learn­ing more about Hollingsworth’s cam­paign, you’ll find her web­site here, replete with more pho­tos from the kick­off.