Sage Leaders' Quarterly: Summer 2023

Sage Leaders Announces First Round of 2023 Endorsements

Sage Leaders centers our endorsement process on the recommendation of community leaders, as represented by the Political Leadership Council (PLC). The PLC is a volunteer group of eight BIPOC alumni of Sage’s Community Leadership Institute fellowship program who work collectively to make endorsements decisions on behalf of Sage Leaders. We intentionally model a community-led endorsements process as an alternative to politics-as-usual endorsement models that too often undermine BIPOC communities.

Together with program staff, the PLC developed a candidate questionnaire rooted in Sage Leaders’ values and policy priorities: community accountability, Black Liberation, Indigenous solidarity, community stewardship of land, climate justice, progressive revenue, and worker justice. PLC members evaluated endorsement applications, facilitated candidate interviews, and ultimately voted to endorse a slate of 20 candidates running for local office in Washington.

As national tensions have continued to simmer between the political parties we are seeing that impact at the local level. Conservative activists across the state have been recruiting candidates to run for positions like school board and city council. While these races don’t get the same attention as congressional, or even state legislative races – they set the tone for their community and have huge impacts on areas like school policy, how a city treats its houseless neighbors and acknowledgements of Pride. It’s more important than ever that we uplift and support our progressive candidates in the face of organized Christian nationalism.