In Seattle, Socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has been re-elected in a race that pitted her against Amazon — Seattle’s largest private employer and one of the most powerful companies in the world.

Overall, Amazon poured $1.5 million into Seattle’s City Council election and backed Kshama Sawant’s opponent, Egan Orion, with nearly half a million dollars.

Kshama Sawant is Seattle’s first Socialist politician elected in nearly a century. She has successfully pushed a number of progressive policies, including making Seattle the first major American city to adopt a $15-an-hour minimum wage. Kshama Sawant joins Democracy Now! from Seattle.

The re-election victory “has been a major repudiation, not only of Amazon and of Jeff Bezos himself, as the richest man in the world, but also it has been a referendum on the vision for Seattle,” Sawant says.

“The voters in Seattle have spoken, that Seattle is not up for sale.”

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