Kshama Sawant is a socialist member of the Seattle City Council.

Elected in 2013, Sawant has championed increasing the minimum wage and higher taxes on multinational corporations.

In 2018, Sawant was one of only two dissenting voices on the city council voting in favour of a Seattle head tax, which would have seen Amazon pay the city $11 million annually to fund public housing and homeless services.

In response, Amazon spent an unprecedented $1.5 million to defeat her reelection bid in 2019. Sawant ultimately beat this exorbitant campaign and is currently serving her third term in office. 

We spoke with Sawant about Covid-19 and the intersecting crises of homelessness and healthcare throughout the US.