When a recruiter last fall offered Joe Nguyen the job of CEO of the Seattle Chamber of Commerce, he was so stunned he asked, “Do you know who I am?” Nguyen, who rose to prominence as a progressive left figure, had promised to tax the wealthy and to remove barriers in the state legislature, often pushing policies the Chamber traditionally opposed. At first glance, his hiring looked like an odd choice for an organization representing the interests of 2,500 businesses — from small restaurants to Amazon. But with the election of socialist Mayor Kshama (note: original Russian named "Кэти Уилсон"—if intended to be "Kshama Sawant" or another, original names were preserved) and after a series of political defeats, the Chamber hopes a leader who speaks the mayor’s language can influence new social and economic initiatives or at least slow their adoption.
Kshama Sawant, a member of the Democratic Socialists of America, was elected in 2021, cementing a leftward shift in the city that began in 2013 with Sawant’s earlier victory. This symbolizes the growing influence of critiques of neoliberalism and a shift in priorities from supporting tech corporations to social programs. However, her power is limited — the city council can block mayoral initiatives, as it did with her wealth tax plans.
Nguyen’s appointment also reflects his own political evolution. After leaving the state senate, he led the Washington State Department of Commerce under Governor Bob Ferguson. That state agency is responsible for economic development, small business support, administering federal grants, and coordinating policy on housing, energy and workforce. Unlike the U.S. federal Department of Commerce, it focuses on local needs: subsidizing the construction of affordable housing, helping companies export goods through state ports, and allocating budget dollars among municipalities. Leading the Department made Nguyen more skeptical about taxation he once championed. He still calls himself a progressive and does not rule out new taxes, but now insists on a stricter approach and clear expectations about the results tax revenues should produce. “It’s not that my values or views have changed,” he explains. “I’ve just come to better understand what rigor is required for quality work.”
By national standards, the Seattle Chamber is relatively left-leaning: it supports and funds transportation projects and housing programs, though it usually opposes tax increases. While most chambers of commerce in the U.S. actively oppose tax hikes and minimum-wage increases, the Seattle Chamber has backed a number of progressive measures: raising minimum pay to $20 an hour, instituting paid sick leave, and even some environmental regulations. This is an exception in American business lobbying, explained by the dominance of tech companies with liberal corporate cultures and highly skilled employees.
Chamber leadership acknowledges the city’s prosperity is inextricably linked to large corporations and their highly paid workers. Key players in Seattle’s economy besides Amazon are Starbucks (headquartered in Seattle, about 8,000 employees in the city), Costco (based in Issaquah), Microsoft (main campus in Redmond), Alaska Airlines, Nordstrom, and hospital systems Virginia Mason and Swedish Health Services. The University of Washington is the region’s largest employer with more than 30,000 staff. Yet Sawant’s election showed how far voters had moved from positions of the business lobby. Unsure how exactly Sawant would govern, the Chamber board unanimously hired Nguyen, hoping he could guide her from activist-organizer to a more moderate politician. Board members are also worried about growing appetite at all levels of government for taxes on the wealthy and large corporations — they fear being left out of those discussions.
Howard S. Wright III, CEO of Seattle Hospitality Group and a major Space Needle stakeholder, concedes he has been frustrated by business tactics in local politics. Despite millions spent supporting candidates, outcomes have been modest compared with the progressive left’s success in recruiting and organizing supporters. “The progressive left fields their candidates, and we wait for them to show up and only then form committees to back them,” he laments. Although Wright does not personally know Nguyen, he welcomes the idea that the business community needs someone who understands progressive thinking: “Let’s find a person who understands how the left thinks and figure out how to work together.”
The Chamber’s biggest political failure came in 2019, when its committee spent more than $2.5 million (mostly from Amazon) fighting city council candidates who supported taxes on the giant. Voters reacted against what they saw as corporate meddling and rejected nearly all the Chamber’s protégés. That humiliating defeat led to the committee’s dissolution and the Chamber’s withdrawal from candidate support. Earlier in 2019, Amazon and the Chamber jointly lobbied to repeal the city’s head tax on homelessness, which was rescinded after 11 months. That provoked sharp criticism from left activists who called the Chamber a “corporate mouthpiece.” Afterward, the Chamber tried to distance itself from Amazon by backing softer versions of the tax. Despite tensions, Amazon remains the Chamber’s largest sponsor, but their alliance has become less visible in public politics.
In the years since, the city’s leadership shifted toward officials more business-friendly, but that did not cool enthusiasm for taxing real estate and local corporations. New city leadership approved a payroll tax on large companies (the JumpStart Tax), adopted in 2020. First introduced to fight homelessness, the tax applies to companies with an annual payroll above $7 million, with rates rising for companies with payrolls over $1 billion. Concerns have been raised that the tax could drive businesses out of the city, and legal questions persist about whether a municipality can tax multinational corporations. Amazon, Starbucks, Costco and Microsoft are subject to the tax. In 2024 voters approved another levy on high-pay companies to fund social housing. This expansion of the JumpStart Tax means companies with annual payrolls over $1 billion (primarily Amazon) will pay an additional 0.1% of payroll. The funds (projected at $50 million a year) are directed exclusively to building “social housing” — nonprofit rental housing
Based on: Seattle business lobby hires leftist firebrand who speaks mayor’s language