Kent’s Shukri Olow to run for 47th District House seat held by Sullivan

Kent resident Shukri Olow will run for the 47th Legislative District House seat that Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, will vacate at the end of this year when he retires.

Olow, a Democrat, is the second candidate to announce for the Position 2 seat. Carmen Goers, an Auburn Republican, said in January that she is running for the seat. The 47th District includes parts of Kent, Auburn and Covington. Sullivan, the House Majority Leader in Olympia, has held the seat for 18 years.

“This is a campaign to lift up the voices of the working people of South King County,” Olow said in a March 28 media release. “Our residents need an elected official who faces the same challenges and struggles they go through. Someone who will listen and then take their concerns to Olympia. I’d be honored to be that voice.”

Olow ran unsuccessfully in November 2021 against incumbent Dave Upthegrove for the King County Council. Upthegrove retained his District 5 seat with 63.9% of the vote to 34.8% for Olow.

Olow is a mother of two and a community organizer in South King County. For the last 14 years, she has worked directly in service to the residents of South King County on a variety of issues including housing, education and human services, according to her press release.

Olow was 4 years old when her father died in a tragic car accident and a Civil War broke out in her birth country of Somalia. She fled her home with her mother and siblings, and then spent six years in a refugee camp, praying for an opportunity to find peace and security.

In 1996, at the age of 10, Olow arrived in the United States, and her family found a home in Kent. Her family accessed the food bank, and had social workers connecting them to additional resources in the community. Their family was surrounded by helpers who laid the path for a brighter future in their new home, Olow said.

As an immigrant, refugee, and product of the Kent public housing system, Olow said she has seen and lived the challenges that so many members of our community face. She has also felt the beauty of this community which supports one another, and that supported her when her family needed it most. She said it is that resilient love that inspires her to represent the people of South King County.

Olow started working with the countywide program Best Start for Kids in 2017 because of her family’s experience and as a mother of two. Her family has had their own personal struggles, and she said she works every day to ensure that every child in the county, and their families have the resources they need to grow and be successful in an area that is becoming less and less livable and affordable by the minute.

Uplifting children and families in our community is exactly the kind of work that she said she feels must be done in Olympia by increasing access to housing, education and human services.

Olow graduated from Auburn High School. She has a bachelor of arts in public affairs, a masters in public administration and a doctorate in education from Seattle University.

Olow said her endorsements include King County Councilmember Girmay Zihilay; State Rep. Debra Entenman, D-Kent; State Rep. Jamila Taylor, D-Federal Way; Kent City Councilmember Zandria Michaud; Mike Heinisch, former executive director of Kent Youth and Family Services; SeaTac Mayor Jake Simpson; SeaTac City Councilmember Iris Guzman; Burien City Councilmembers Cydney Moore, Sarah Moore and Hugo Garcia; Auburn City Councilmember Kate Baldwin; and Covington City Councilmember Jennifer Harjehausen.

Olow will challenge Goers, who is a commercial lending officer for Heritage Bank in Kent. She is co-chair of the Kent Chamber of Commerce Government Affairs Committee and a member of the city of Kent’s Public Facilities District that helps oversee operations of the accesso ShoWare Center.

The primary election is Aug. 2 and the general election Nov. 8. The King County Elections filing period is May 16-20.