2025 Endorsements
34th LD
Sen. Emily Alvarado
On Our Issues:
- Safe Staffing
- Cleaning Workers
- Worker Protection Act
- Affordable Housing & Behavioral Health Funding
Bio
We endorsed Sen. Alvarado for her successful campaign to the State House, and we are proud to do so again in her race to retain her State Senate seat. She was appointed to fill Sen. Joe Nugyen’s vacancy after he left to be the State’s Director of the Dept. of Commerce.
Emily is an affordable housing leader and Seattle Public Schools mom of two.
For more than a decade, Emily has worked collaboratively to create affordable housing throughout our region, championing policies and investments that foster inclusive, healthy communities and reduce homelessness.
As Director of the City of Seattle Office of Housing, Emily oversaw citywide housing resources, including the Seattle Housing Levy, and worked to address displacement, support climate resilience, build supportive housing for homeless neighbors, protect renters, and expand homeownership.
As an executive with a national affordable housing nonprofit, Emily supports local community organizations and connects regional efforts to national movement building and policy change. An attorney, coalition-builder, and former community organizer, Emily has fought for reproductive justice, equitable community development, and economic opportunity.
Emily is the daughter of two public school educators. She grew up in a community of teachers, activists and artists, where she learned the value of public service, the importance of empathy, and the need to stand up for social and racial justice.
She lives in West Seattle with her husband, two children, and rescue dog Frazer.
Rep. Brianna Thomas
Bio
Rep. Brianna Thomas was appointed to fill the vacancy left by now Sen. Alvarado, and beyond being a champion for working people and healthcare workers, she sponsored and passed our Safe Staffing Breaks Fix in her first session. We vote to retain!
As your newly appointed 34th District State Legislator, Brianna has hit the ground running with common-sense, progressive commitment to public service.
Brianna’s career has been defined by public service and progressive advocacy. A University of Washington graduate, Thomas first engaged with state government as a teenage legislative page in 1998 and later as an intern and legislative aide in Olympia.
By the early 2010s, she had already made a mark as a community organizer – she managed the successful SeaTac “Yes for $15” minimum wage campaign, the first $15/hour wage initiative in the nation, and led Seattle’s Honest Elections initiative that created the city’s democracy voucher public-financing system. She also worked as a field director for the Washington Low Income Housing Alliance Action Fund, advocating for affordable housing.
Brianna transitioned to influencing policy from inside government. Seattle Councilmember M. Lorena González – who won that 2015 citywide race – brought Thomas onto her staff, where Brianna eventually became González’s Chief of Staff. In that role, Thomas helped craft legislation and navigate city politics behind the scenes, earning a reputation as a knowledgeable City Hall insider who could “deliver progressive policy…without having to shout from the rooftop that she was there”. – The Urbanist.
Brianna later served as a senior policy advisor in the Seattle Mayor’s Office, focusing on labor and public safety issues. Brianna currently serves in the Human Services Division of the Mayor’s office. She lives at the junction in West Seattle.