Austin City Council District 9 in Austin, Texas (View map: z4a.us/Map)

My run is centered around service and empathy. In the wake of the man-made climate crisis we saw last winter, the ongoing public health crisis and an affordable housing shortage, I have seen so much need for newly elected officials and the importance of local government to serve. I strive to serve as an empathic leader toward all Austinites and help Austin live out the progressive values our slate of elected officials support but we don’t see in the policies they pass. My election would break barriers as the first Muslim & first South Asian on Austin City Council, and a voice for renters. I will work to increase civic participation through engaging all parts of the district & employing young and community organizers and reimagining how campaigns are run by also paying staff a living wage.
For the first time in a long time, Austin City Council's District 9 seat is open. With all of the pertinent issues our city is facing, my generation needs a seat at the table. After having spent a decade organizing to elect progressives at all levels of government, I feel uniquely qualified to uplift and speak to a diverse constituency and represent their concerns at City Hall.

Abundant Affordable Housing: We are grappling with an immense lack of affordable housing in our city. The folks who built Austin are being driven out because they can no longer afford to live here, and those who choose to move to our beautiful city to start a family, like my wife and I did when we met at The University of Texas, can’t afford to stay. We need to bring our land-use rules in alignment with Imagine Austin, the Austin Strategic Housing Blueprint, and the Austin Climate Equity Plan by reforming the rules that currently keep housing unaffordable, improving “green” housing options, and investing in accessible and sustainable multimodal infrastructure.

Reimagining Public Safety: An Austin that works for everyone must accomplish the goals of reimagining public safety as public health, combating domestic and identity-based violence, and confronting and changing our municipality’s role in mass incarceration and the devastating effects it has, especially on over-policed communities.
We must invest in the health of our communities and tackle mass incarceration, and address how these intersect with our fight for transit justice, housing affordability, and economic mobility. It means focusing on the root causes of an individual’s interaction with the criminal legal system. It requires that we decriminalize drug offenses, invest in mental health, diversion, and treatment services, and pilot a best-in-class mental health first responder program.
Representation: Austin has been lauded as a progressive beacon in conservative Texas, but from our policies to the voices at our dais–we have a long way to go. As a city, we have never had a South Asian or Muslim on Council. Elected city officials have been silent when there's been a hate crime against Asian Americans or Muslims; whether it's our cultural center in West Austin being vandalized, a local mosque being burned, or a kid being bullied because of what they wear on their head or the color of their skin. As the AAPI is the fastest growing in Austin, and as a renter experiencing the effects of our current council forgoing climate-resilient housing first plans - we need voices at the table to bring empathy and experience and I hope to not only bring that to the dais, but also rectify the disparity of women, LGBTQIA+ people, and people of color who are extremely underrepresented on our appointed city commissions.

Proximity and representation are so important to ensuring public servants lead with values of empathy. The further removed you are from the understanding of racial, religious, or any type of violence - the harder it is to lead with the solutions that speak to those issues. Not only is it critical to have the child of immigrants on the council representing a district with many mixed-status families alongside DREAMERs attending the University of Texas at Austin that sits in the heart of District 9 - but also to elect the first Muslim and first South Asian to the Austin City Council and be the missing voice amid the silence in the wake of numerous anti-Asian and anti-Muslim hate crimes in Austin just in the last few years.
But I’m not running just to be the first of any constituency. Our city is at a crossroads, with recent local elections on issues such as criminalizing our unhoused neighbors and adding police staff only increasing the strife and polarization. We need an organizer to not just mobilize voices in the centralized District 9 to vote but to bring people together in our city and lead with values of service and empathy instead of alienation and fear. As the only candidate who has spent a decade organizing around elections and the existential issues facing our state, as well as the only candidate with policy-making experience having worked in city governments as small as Kyle, Texas and as big as Houston, Texas - my candidacy is unique with being able to bring people together across the city and also craft solutions to their concerns.

Austin, Texas City Council races are nonpartisan and do not involve a primary election. Early Voting for the General Election starts Oct 24 and ends Nov 4, 2022. General Election Day is Nov 8, 2022. Our next fundraising deadline is coming up on June 31, 2021. If a single candidate doesn’t meet/exceed 50% of the General Election vote, Runoff Election Day will be Dec 20, 2022.

While Austin City Council races are non-partisan, candidates often disclose their political affiliation. I’m a Progressive Democrat.

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Regarding my run for Austin City Council, we face an uphill challenge not just of representation and progressive messaging, but to reimagine how campaigns are run in this city - opting to not use the established consulting firms and instead support the unionization of our team made up of organizers, students, and all-local talent being paid a living wage. We also are facing a lot of xenophobia and nativist rhetoric by other candidates sharing messaging about the disqualification of candidates who aren’t a “native Austinite”, and an unwillingness by white “progressive activists” in the city who are hesitant to support our campaign despite overwhelming support by our elected and organizational endorsers. There is also an element of ageism as I’m the youngest candidate in the race, at 32 years old, and have routinely heard that I am not qualified or experienced enough for the position despite holding two master's degrees and having more experience in local government offices and political organizing than any other candidate.

I believe that we will win because we started early with the goal of being intentional, not transactional, with how we’re running this campaign and engaging every voter and resident in the district. We announced almost 1 year from the Election to the day with the goal of running a field-first and issue-driven campaign that brings in often left out voices of students and low-propensity voters, while giving us time to build relationships and invest in public education for our solutions-driven platform. We’ve received every endorsement in the race thus far, raised the second most money in the first financial quarter while having the most individual donors, and have started field organizing before any other campaign. We’re reimaging how local campaigns in Austin are run, and we believe that the genuine enthusiasm for community organizing coupled with the skill and experience of our staff will help us cross the finish line in November.

Sidney Hollingsworth (512) 944-5207 sidney@zoforaustin.com

My campaign staff is comprised of prolific and experienced local organizers. The average age is 22 years old.

Sidney Hollingsworth, Campaign Manager–former Data Analyst who left big tech for the 2020 election. Demographically she identifies as a white Latina. We met during my three-day vacation from Warren for President South Carolina when I went home to Austin, Texas to volunteer on local races. Back then Sidney was Data and Finance Director for notable former congressional candidate Julie Oliver. Sidney and the 2020 Julie Oliver for Congress campaign is the prominent common connector between the rest of the staff and myself.
Katya Ehresman, Deputy Campaign Manager–organizer and voting rights activist, Katya has multiple cycles of experience working on campaigns of all sizes with specific focuses on communications and digital organizing, political strategy, and field. Katya also has experience working in voting rights at organizations including the Texas Civil Rights Project, The Civics Center, Campus Vote Project Common Cause Texas, and more. Katya and I met when we both were helping Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign; Katya was a campus fellow while I was a Regional Director for Senator Warren’s campaign in South Carolina and we connected over organizing in Austin for the campaign. Katya primarily oversees the communications, political, policy, and field departments on the campaign and works closely with data and fundraising teams on strategy.
Hamza Sait, Data Director–Hamza
Zach Krakauer Ganz, Finance Manager–Zach staffs me during call time and helps pull list of strategic fundraising prospects, while also leading our data volunteer operations for helping track local grassroots donors. Zach is also a current student at the University of Texas at Austin and helps recruit student supporters and organize young voters on and around campus. Having also worked on Julie Oliver’s past congressional campaigns alongside other local races, Zach is also skilled at political operations and relationships with surrogates or endorsers. Zach and I met through the Julie Oliver campaign and also organized to stop some of the local propositions put up by conservatives in recent years, including one criminalizing homelessness.

I am so proud to have already earned the support of residents from all parts of the district, whether that be young families in our residential neighborhoods or new students at the University of Texas. With the resounding endorsements of more than half of the state representatives in the county, and multiple school board and community college board trustees, I look forward to working collaboratively with those at all levels of government to make progressive change.

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I’m proud to be endorsed by Run For Something, Texas College Democrats, Our Revolution Texas, Future Generations, Grassroots Law Project, and more.
View a complete list of my public support here: www.zoforaustin.com/endorsements.

Ben Leffler (self-identified Democrat)
Joah Spearman (self-identified Democrat)
Tom Wald (self-identified Democrat)
Potentially the current incumbent Kathie Tovo, though she has hinted at running for Mayor (self-identified Democrat)

Agreed on 04-07-2022