Hannah Sabio-Howell

Hannah Sabio-Howell graduated from Wheaton Warrenville South High School. Sabio-Howell earned a bachelor's degree from Whitworth University in 2018. Sabio-Howell's career experience includes working as a communications director.[1]

Who are you? Tell us about yourself.

My name is Hannah Sabio-Howell and I'm running for the 43rd District State Senate seat because I believe our district and our state could be the best places in the nation to build a good life, if we could afford to do that. We have the tools to make housing abundant, childcare universal, and our tax code more fair, but politics as usual won't get us there.

For the last three years I served as Communications Director at Working Washington, a statewide workers' rights organization, where I organized alongside workers to raise wages, improve labor standards, and secure the right to enforce them. We stood up to multi-billion dollar corporations to defend gig workers' minimum wage rights, secured landmark protections for domestic workers, and fought for fair workplaces in the agricultural and restaurant industries.

Before that, I spent several years as a Communications Specialist in the Washington State Senate and as a Legislative Aide in the state House. I worked alongside prime sponsors of the capital gains tax, postpartum Medicaid expansion, and climate justice legislation.

I come from a family of farmers, educators, and immigrants, and that has always shaped who I fight for. As a renter, transit rider, cyclist, photographer, and queer multiracial woman, I found my home in the 43rd because of the kind of inclusive community we are, and I'm running to make sure our district and our state are places where everyone can afford to thrive.

Please list below 3 key messages of your campaign. What are the main points you want voters to remember about your goals for your time in office?

Reducing rent and putting homeownership within reach. Washington is in a housing crisis that demands urgency, and renters like me feel the squeeze. I'll fight to build more housing everywhere in the state by incentivizing upzoning, streamlining permitting, and removing the red tape and bureaucratic hurdles that make it outrageously expensive to build new homes, especially near transit centers. I'll also invest in social housing at the local level, a proven model for publicly funded affordable housing that doesn't disappear from the market after a few years.Fully funding our schools and winning universal childcare. Childcare is the second highest cost for Washington families after housing and that is not acceptable. I believe in a Washington where no parent has to choose between work and caring for their child. I'll fight to build toward universal childcare by extending Paid Parental Leave through a more inclusive minimum benefit, and creating a home-care benefit for 2- and 3-year-olds. Combined with universal pre-K, this would bridge the care gap for parents from newborns to kindergarteners. I'll also fight to stop school closures, restore education funding gutted by tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy, and raise pay and workplace standards for the paraeducators and teachers our kids depend on.Taxing ultra-wealthy corporations. Washington has the second most regressive tax code in the country and corporations have been taking advantage of this for far too long. I spent several years in the labor movement watching workers scrape by while corporations and the ultra wealthy kept billions at the top and paid next to nothing back into our state. I'll fight to close corporate tax loopholes, establish a wealth tax, and pass a high-earners payroll tax like the Well Washington Fund to invest in healthcare and higher education.

What areas of public policy are you personally passionate about?

One of the areas of public policy I’m most passionate about is housing affordability. Part of why rent in the 43rd district is so steep and homeownership feels so out of reach is due to insufficient housing supply. Part of how we can address that gap in supply is by incentivizing upzoning and ending apartment bans. We can also support municipal social housing developers like Seattle’s and set Washington on a path to expand a similar model statewide. Further, I’d like to reform our permitting process to make it easier for construction of new housing to break ground. Together, these policy changes would make it easier for new projects to get off the ground, bring new housing online, and bring down the cost of housing on the market.

What organizations or individuals have endorsed your campaign?

Katie Wilson, Seattle Mayor

Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Seattle City Councilmember Shaun Scott, WA State House Representative LD 43 Rebecca Saldaña, WA State Senator LD 37

43rd District Democrats

King Country Democrats

Working Families Party

AFT Washington