In the wake of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s historic victory to unseat the number four House Democrat, New York Representative Joe Crowley, the stage may be set for more stunning upsets of incumbent Democrats across the country.
In Washington state, Sarah Smith is taking on Democratic Representative Adam Smith (no relation), who has held the seat for Washington’s 9th Congressional District since 1997. In eleven terms in office, he’s rarely faced a competitive race in this second most progressive congressional district in the state, next to the 7th district represented by Pramila Jayapal.
Sarah Smith, an activist who also works as a service drive assistant at a mechanic garage in Renton, Washington, is challenging Representative Smith from the left, with a platform that includes abolishing ICE, a federal jobs guarantee, an anti-war platform, medicare for all, student debt cancellation, and free public college tuition.
Her platform includes abolishing ICE, a federal jobs guarantee, an anti-war platform, medicare for all, student debt cancellation, and free public college tuition.
She’s backed by Brand New Congress and Justice Democrats and has received endorsements from the Olympia chapter of Democratic Socialists of America, and local chapters of Our Revolution, an organization founded by Bernie Sanders.
“Representative Adam Smith takes the backseat to major issues. He does the bare minimum to say that he did something,” Sarah Smith told me in an interview. “It feels like we have no leadership. He isn’t a leader on any issue. When I walk door to door people ask if I’m running against Pramila Jayapal, and I have to tell them, ‘no, your representative is Adam Smith’ and they say the same thing every time, ‘who’s that?’”
The 9th Congressional District encompasses parts of King and Pierce County, where Bernie Sanders easily won this district with more than two-thirds of the vote in the 2016 Democratic Primary. But in 2012, the Seattle Times referred to Smith as “arguably the state’s least liberal Democrat in congress.”
Despite representing a Democratic stronghold in one of the most progressive states in the country, Smith is a member of the moderate New Democratic Coalition, many of whom were elected toward the end of President Bill Clinton’s second term in office as part of his efforts to move the Democratic Party to the center on several economic issues.
A neoliberal attitude toward foreign policy and national security is evident in Smith’s campaign finance records. Smith’s most prolific campaign donor is defense contractor Northrop Grumman. This election cycle, the contractor has donated $19,000 to Smith’s re-election campaign. In 2016, they gave Smith more than $45,000—the second highest donation the company gave to a politician that year, behind Hillary Clinton. The military defense industry is Smith’s second highest donor, with more than $500,000 in donations through his congressional career.
In 2012, Smith co-sponsored the Smith-Mundt Modernization Act with Texas Republican Congressman Mac Thornberry to legalize government funded propaganda toward United States citizens, which then passed in 2013 as part of the National Defense Authorization Act. He joined eighty fellow Democrats in the house to authorize the Iraq War in 2002, joined ninety-two House Democrats in 2013 to vote for the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, which would have granted broad powers to government and military agencies to collect and share data on individuals without a warrant, and voted against an amendment to limit the NSA from collecting private phone records without a warrant.
In 2017, Representative Smith, the Democratic ranking member of the Armed Services Committee, ignored a letter written by colleague Representative Ro Khanna calling for an investigation into defense contractor TransDigm’s monopoly and price gouging of military aircraft parts. Smith most recently joined 116 Democrats in the House to vote with Republicans in approval of another military budget increase.
“Representative Smith has weaponized people’s complacency and cynicism.”
“Representative Smith has weaponized people’s complacency and cynicism,” added Sarah Smith. “When he’s receiving donations he waits until the last minute to do the bare minimum on it. On net neutrality he was silent about the issue until the night before he sent a strongly worded letter. On Amazon, he said nothing about the head tax. He talks a lot about the $15 minimum wage, but said nothing to come out in favor of people over Amazon.” Amazon has donated $10,000 to Rep, Smith in each the 2016 and 2018 election cycles.
Representative Smith pushes back on drawing any parallels to the recent success of Alexandria Ocasio Cortez in New York’s 14th Congressional District and the primary challenge he faces on August 7th. “That race bears no resemblance to what’s going on in my district,” Representative Smith said in an interview. “I lived my entire life in this district and there is no election I don’t take seriously.”
He also pushed back on criticisms on not being progressive enough. “I think I have a very solid record of being a very aggressive progressive,” he added. “I was the first elected official to endorse the $15 minimum wage in Seattle. I’ve been a leader of progressive issues in our community.”
Though Ocasio Cortez’s election victory in New York helped redefine what is politically possible amid a growing progressive movement, Sarah Smith faces an uphill battle in unseating an entrenched incumbent. Elected and served as precinct committee officer in her neighborhood, which provides voters support within precincts and helps elect Democratic Party leaders, Sarah Smith has also volunteered for Planned Parenthood and been involved with supporting immigrant families. She hopes to serve in congress as a leader on progressive issues rather than waiting for political opportunism, and doing so without accepting corporate or PAC donations.
The Washington Democratic Party has denied the Sarah Smith campaign access to the party’s voter file database. Voter data provides candidates with phone numbers, addresses, and other contact information campaigns need to strategically engage voters.
“They still haven’t let us into the voter files. At this point we’re not going to bother, we’ve found cheaper alternatives,” said Sarah Smith. “I’ve been invited to a few legislative district Democratic Party events in the area, but more than once I’ve shown up earnestly ready to talk about my platform and what I stand for, but party leaders spend an hour asking me why I’m running against Adam Smith.”
The Washington Democratic Party did not respond to multiple requests for comment on why they shut out Sarah Smith’s campaign from accessing the party’s voter files.