Through the Static

By Gray Trammel

The top campaign issues of Nilu Jenks, who is running in the Seattle City Council District 5 race, started a long time before she entered the political realm. Jenks, who works as a voting rights advocate, was born in Oklahoma to Iranian parents who came to the U.S. as university students. The family planned to return to Iran after finishing up their studies, but the 1979 Iranian Revolution and the Iran-Iraq War forced them to remain.

“My parents had intended going back,” Jenks told TtS. “I was supposed to grow up there.”

Jenks expressed how her parents struggled to maintain legal immigration status after the revolution, before eventually becoming permanent residents through federal immigration reforms. Meanwhile, her relatives who remained in Iran were affected by the new government, including her aunt, who was murdered during the government’s mass executions in 1988.

With her Middle Eastern roots, Jenks said she is “pro-Palestinian,” and concerned about AI’s growing role in warfare and surveillance. Jenks also brought up concerns about Seattle’s expanded use of surveillance technology, citing CCTV surveillance cameras and automatic license plate readers (ALPRs). The City should carefully consider what information these technologies collect and store, particularly as undocumented communities face uncertainty, Jenks said.

“I have a lot of concern around setting up a surveillance state,” she said, flagging how ICE has the ability to obtain surveillance data.

Jenks believes that Seattle should establish industry standards for AI companies and require them to financially cover the environmental impacts associated with operating data centers, including impacts on water resources and surrounding neighborhoods, rather than shifting those costs onto residents.

“If you are going to build data centers, you cover the damage to water or the noise damage,” she stated.

Growing up, Jenks’s family worked blue-collar jobs to make ends meet. Her father was a cable man and later became a cable contractor, while her mother cleaned houses.Looking at Seattle’s high cost of living and growing wealth inequality, Jenks explained how Seattle needs more “missing middle” housing, including stacked flats and cottage housing, to create more affordable options for families, and to expand housing near public transit.

“We need housing that pencils out and is affordable for people,” she said.

Becoming politically active

Jenks became politically active after Trump’s first election into the White House in 2016. She also worked to prevent a gun store from opening near a swim school, and helped organize what she described as the nation’s largest gun buyback after the 2018 Parkland school shooting. Jenks said the gun buyback has since become a countywide annual event, and that those experiences continue to shape how she approaches local government as she campaigns for the District 5 seat.

Regarding public safety, Jenks said Seattle should expand its CARE crisis response teams so behavioral health professionals can respond to nonviolent emergencies, allowing police officers to focus on crime. Jenks said affordability extends beyond housing which remains a strong focus of her campaign.

With affordability at the forefront of her campaign, Jenks explained how grocery stores and pharmacies have closed in Lake City, forcing residents to travel further for basic necessities. She supports the expansion of food assistance programs, strengthened partnerships with schools, and improved access to neighborhood grocery stores.

When asked what she hopes voters remember about her campaign, Jenks said she wants to be known for approaching difficult issues honestly rather than offering simple political solutions.

“I want a world where people get to be honest about policies and how things are complicated and nuanced,” she said. “Disagreement is the definition of democracy.”

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