Abolitionist Candidates Are Running for Office Across the Country – Teen Vogue

Like Jordan, Thomas-Kennedy ran a grassroots campaign, recently triumphing over Pete Holmes, the incumbent Seattle City attorney, who served for three terms. She will face a Republican opponent in November. If elected, the former public defender says she will stop prosecuting most misdemeanors. I don't believe that there's any social advantage to prosecuting someone who's unsheltered for stealing a coat from Goodwill, says Thomas-Kennedy, whose city has historically prosecuted more theft cases from Goodwill than any other retailer; many of those charged are homeless. It's a waste of resources, and it makes the problem significantly worse.

Instead, Thomas-Kennedy envisions using the resources of the office to build out victim advocacy services and to provide resources for community groups that are already doing this work. She insists that our current system of policing and jailing is not achieving its supposed goal of public safety. The U.S. incarcerates more people than anywhere else in the world," she notes. "Mass incarceration is a social experiment, and we've gone all the way with it, and it's shown that it doesn't work.

Thomas-Kennedy also believes her years as a public defender give her unique insights into the root causes of crime, as public defenders are in close contact with the accused and function as their advocates. She also has unique insights into the impacts of the system because she had an intimate view of how it destabilized the lives of her clients, and sometimes their families, often for minor offenses.

The community has already told the mayor, told the city council a million times: We need education, we need after-school programs, we need resources for intervention and prevention," Thomas-Kennedy says. "So, instead of wasting resources on retribution, we should be putting those resources toward prevention.

In Minneapolis, the city where George Floyds murder ignited months of worldwide protests, mayoral candidate Nezhad, an abolitionist organizer, is a top challenger to the incumbent Jacob Frey.

Nezhad says she is still scarred from rubber bullets police shot at her while she worked as a street medic at the protests. She was a lead organizer in a coalition that brought about Minneapolis first mobile mental health response team, she tells Teen Vogue, noting that one in four people shot by police had a mental health condition. As mayor, Nezhad says shell prioritize funding for alternatives like the mobile response team at scale, giving people the option to use a non-law enforcement service that cant be co-opted by police.

Like Jordan and Thomas-Kennedy, Nezhad is focused on giving communities the resources they need to survive and flourish as a way to prevent crime. To build safety, I will push for community programs for stable housing, environmental justice, places for young people to play, living wage jobs, and comprehensive sex ed that teaches healthy relationship skills, Nezhad says via email. I will put more resources into the hands of the community through a historic $10M for participatory budgeting.

What sets her apart from the other mayoral candidates, Nezhad says, is that her goals are directly informed by her experience building in movements led by Black, Indigenous, POC, queer, trans and working-class people. Unprecedented times call for creative solutions, Nezhad says, adding that her campaign is currently on track to knock on the doors of 60,000 Minneapolis voters by the end of summer. Im running for mayor because I believe in the reality of a more just world and following the lead of those who have been bold in the name of Black liberation, Indigenous sovereignty, and freedom for over 150 years.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Party establishment appears to be vocally opposed more than ever to abolition and defunding the police. So much of what people have been trying to do for decades has been co-opted into toothless reforms that don't help. Abolition is the response to that, says Thomas-Kennedy, stating that abolitionist efforts counter what she believes are performative actions, such as painting sidewalks with BLM slogans or rainbow signs for Pride, while the system continues to disproportionately target Black and LGBTQ people.

Jordan challenges the critique that abolition is too extreme, saying, Our current situation is extreme. We have criminalized our youth. We have allowed officers who murder to roam free in order to protect this white supremacist system which financially exploits our tax dollars while wreaking havoc and trauma on our communities. We have failed to fund the schools, fund jobs, fund housing, fund environmentalist ventures and social services which would actually keep us safe.

Want more from Teen Vogue? Check this out: What the Prison-Abolition Movement Wants

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Abolitionist Candidates Are Running for Office Across the Country - Teen Vogue