SPOKANE, Wash.—In New York City, a high-profile election featuring democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani against former Gov. Andrew Cuomo has seen many individuals and groups—including President Donald Trump—accusing Mamdani of being a communist. But the anti-communism isn’t limited to New York.
In Spokane, the second biggest city in the state of Washington, with a population of approximately 235,000 residents, similar red-baiting has been seen in a contentious race for city council.
On Oct. 5, 2025, in coordination with multiple groups, including the Spokane Democratic Socialists of America, the Gonzaga Mutual Aid Club, Mutual Aid Survival Squad, and others, the Eastern Washington Club of the Communist Party USA hosted a “Leftist Town Hall” featuring Sarah Dixit, a progressive candidate running against the far-right incumbent Johnathan Bingle for Spokane City Council District 1. The Communist Party’s involvement in the forum has drawn the attention of local media.
Dixit, 29, has organizing experience going back to her work as a student at Whitworth University in Spokane. Her professional resume includes working for Planned Parenthood of Greater Washington and North Idaho and Pro-Choice Washington. She has endorsements from progressive groups and labor unions, such as FairVoteWA, Spokane Regional Labor Council, UFCW Local 3000, the Working Families Party, and others.
She was present at the June 11 protests in Spokane, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detained Joswar Slater Rodriguez Torres and Cesar Alexander Alvarez Perez, an incident which received national attention.
Bingle, 38, is the incumbent currently vying for a second term. He has a track record of kowtowing to the interests of the far-right in Spokane and to the business class, which has brought him scrutiny from local progressives.
Bingle’s track record includes voting against establishing a community workforce agreement, against upholding existing state laws like the Keep Washington Working Act, against “Ban the Address,” which protects job seekers from having to list their addresses on job applications, and for not voting to keep ICE out of public ticketed events.
Bingle has built his tenure as a city councilor by pushing fear-based policies rather than solutions based on community care, taking opportunity he can to criminalize homelessness. He’s championed toughening measures against homeless camping laws recently. In a Facebook post for his campaign, Bingle said, when the ordinance passed Oct. 27, 2025, “Tonight was a huge moment for Spokane. After years of pushing, we passed strong, sensible policies addressing encampments and obstruction in our city.”
Indeed, Bingle has spent his political career blaming people experiencing homelessness for their own issues, and not addressing the root causes as to why people find themselves without homes, such as the lack of affordable housing. Bingle’s endorsements include former Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers, former Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward, the Association of Builders and Contractors, and the Spokane Association of REALTORS.
The two candidates thus greatly contrast one another.
In an article from covering the June 11 protest, and in Seeing how law enforcement engaged with protesters at the June 11 protest, for instance, Dixit told the Spokesman-Review, “I was disappointed by the response. When I think of de-escalation, I don’t picture hundreds of officers in riot gear and SWAT trucks.” She continued, saying, “It didn’t get violent until law enforcement started pushing people, throwing them to the ground.”
Bingle, however, had a different response. “The city responded too slowly,” he said. “You have every right to protest; you do not have a right to obstruct justice. And that’s what was happening there in the moment.”
Feeling the pressure of the Dixit campaign, Bingle has started resorting to red-baiting in public statements and at meetings of the city council. He has latched onto Dixit’s attendance at the Leftist Town Hall voter event. “Communism is, by far, the most destructive ideology the world has ever known, and for us to be associating ourselves with that ideology is not representative of our district or the United States,” Bingle claimed, “and it is a problem for me that a potential representative that has a good relationship with the Communist Party.
“I don’t think it is good. I don’t think it is representative of the district, and I don’t believe that people should be doing that.”
The full recording of the debate where Bingle made his remarks is available from KSPS.
Dixit, however, has not wilted, saying she was glad to attend the Leftist Town Hall in an interview with KHQ. “It felt like a good opportunity to speak to people who I might not know already and to speak with voters in the district,” she said. Dixit’s decision to attend the town hall, she said, was more about accessibility than ideology. “If I am going to be their next elected official,” Dixit said she wants voters to be be able to say, “’She listened to me, she was present, and she took the time.’”
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