Seattle mayoral candidate surprises with strong contributions early on

Andrew Grant Houston is running for mayor of Seattle, and he took a lot of folks by surprise raising so much money so early on. He has raised close to $49,000 in individual contributions, and roughly $125,000 coming in from democracy vouchers.

This immediately puts him as a top tier candidate for Seattle mayor, taking on some folks who have really high name recognition but don’t seem to be pulling in the level of excitement that Andrew Grant Houston is able to do as of now. He’s an architect and a small business owner, and joined the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH to discuss his vision for Seattle.

“I have been organizing the community since I moved here at the end of 2016. I have been solely focused on creating more housing and allowing for more housing across the entire city of Seattle,” he said. “And I believe that my numbers in terms of what I’ve raised so far just really show how entrenched I am in that community, and how they truly believe that I am able to accomplish what I say I’m going to do.”

Houston says his goal for Seattle mayor is to honor many of the progressive promises that have been bandied about but not delivered on for Seattle.

“I would say that it is honoring a lot of the promises that have been made by lawyers and career politicians in the past, and being the progressive place that we always say that we are, but we actually aren’t. I would argue, especially coming from Texas, that we’re a little more conservative than people think in terms of actually living our values, that we’re probably a little more libertarian,” he said.

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“And so let’s actually support Seattleites of every single class, background, and especially income, so that they are able to not just live here and get by, but actually thrive in our city, be a truly sustainable city both environmentally, economically, and also culturally.”

Regarding homelessness, an often discussed issue among mayoral candidates, Houston hopes to create 2,500 tiny homes throughout Seattle.

“We are providing them a permanent space so that they know every single day that they have a home to come back to. And in that way, anyone who is currently unhoused is able to really focus on getting the treatment that they may need, allowing themselves to actually work towards either their job — because most of the people who are currently unhoused actually are working — or are able to better themselves and getting even better paying jobs. So that they can then exit out of homelessness,” he said.

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“When it comes to those who are in tiny house villages right now, their exit out of homelessness are close to 41%. So you’re saying almost one in two of every individual who enters into a tiny home is able to exit out of homelessness. And so if that strategy is working that well compared to some of their strategies — which are looking at anywhere between 8% to maybe 20% success — let’s invest in that strategy.”

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.