UW graduate student Matthew Mitnick announces run for Seattle City Council | News
On Nov. 15, UW graduate student Matthew Mitnick announced his candidacy for the Seattle City Council District 4 seat. Surrounded by political and community organizers, Mitnick made the announcement on the basketball courts of the University Heights Center.
The press conference began with local high school student and political organizer E. Bailey Medilo setting the scene for the upcoming local election, as they reminded the community of the importance of the younger generation in the 2022 midterm elections.
“A young peoples’ revolution is brewing,” Medilo said.
Medilo went on to criticize current leadership, saying that student demands have been ignored in the past.
“In the face of immense suffering, we saw many of our leaders choose cruelty over care, sweeps over services, harm over housing, cash over our climate, backroom deals instead of a green new deal, while we choked in the smoke — we have had enough,” Medilo said.
Medilo’s condemnation of current city leadership ended on a positive note, as they went on to describe the voting power of students within the University District. The solution to tired and corrupt leadership, they said, is to vote in new ideas and new people who will advocate for the future of Seattle.
Matthew Mitnick, a 22-year-old UW graduate student studying public administration, then officially announced his candidacy for Seattle City Council District 4. In his opening remarks he denounced the actions of current local leaders and described the calls to action UW students have been advocating for.
“We have out of touch elected officials who say all the right things — all the performative measures,” Mitnick said. “But are they actually doing that? They have sold all of us out — renters, workers, seniors, families, and students — to corporate interests.
A large portion of the event focused on a central issue to Mitnick’s campaign — the housing crisis. As a U-District renter, Mitnick demonstrated his understanding of the issues many UW students and local residents face living in District 4 and critiqued the corporate-led interests of our local leaders.
“This neighborhood we are in right now is defined by corporate landlords who prey on students,” Mitnick said.
The organizers outlined the key issues of the Mitnick campaign through a series of young selected speakers who have suffered from the lack of policy and change from current local leadership.
One of the speakers, Mario Falit-Baiamonte, vice speaker for the ASUW Student Senate, spoke from the perspective of a District 4 native in his support for Mitnick.
“As a college student here at the University of Washington, I do not know if I will ever be able to afford a home in the community that I have called my home for my entire life,” Falit-Baiamonte said. “That’s why I’m supporting Matthew.”
More information about Mitnick and his campaign can be found in the official campaign site.
Reach contributing writer Nicole McMillan at [email protected]. Twitter: @nicolexmcmillan
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