Kshama Sawant was re-elected to Seattle’s city council this week.

Socialist Kshama Sawant was re-elected to Seattle’s city council this week.

Kshama Sawant, a socialist member of Seattle’s city council, said Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-Vt.) presidential campaign has helped build “enormous momentum” for progressive change in the Pacific Northwest city.

Sawant, who first won her city council seat in 2013, was re-elected to the position this week. In an interview with the Guardian Friday, she praised Sanders for highlighting issues that other Democrats have failed to emphasize, such as income inequality.

“When was the last time you heard a presidential candidate say we need a political revolution against the billionaire class?” Sawant said. “It’s absolutely true that Bernie Sanders putting these questions on the national agenda has really created, and will continue to create, enormous momentum.”

Sawant said Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, helped draw attention to her re-election fight.

“There were so many people who said, ‘I wasn’t paying that much attention to Seattle politics but I’ve been listening to Bernie Sanders’ politics. I’ve been so excited by his call for a political revolution against the millionaire class and I’m looking around me and thinking I need to get involved at a local level,'” she said.

Sawant garnered national attention for her successful push to raise Seattle’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, an issue she campaigned on in 2013. The city council passed the hike in 2014, and the law went into effect earlier this year, making Seattle the first major American city to adopt a $15 wage floor.

Read more at The Huffington Post

Categories: Economic rights, Economics, Labor policy, Politics, Workers' rights

Tags: Bernie Sanders, income inequality, Kshama Sawant, minimum wage, progressive policies, Seattle-Washington, socialism