What if we didn't suck?': the leftist influencer who wants to campaign for Congress differently

[KPN]

Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old progressive TikTok star, wants to do campaigns differently. So the very online candidate for a solid blue congressional seat in Illinois is channeling her energy into in-person events.

The entry fee for her campaign’s kick-off event was a box of tampons or pads to be donated to The Period Collective, a Chicago-based non-profit that distributes free menstrual products to low-income communities in the area. The debut was such a success, she said, they filled her campaign manager’s SUV with donations. (“I want him to get pulled over so bad,” Abughazaleh quipped in a video for her YouTube series How to Run for Congress.) It’s part of her pledge to disrupt politics as usual and run a campaign centered on mutual aid and community organizing instead of a candidate-centered “vanity project” that relies on expensive TV ads and “grifty” fundraising texts.
...
In the week after Abughazaleh launched her campaign, she said it had raised more than $300,000 and received more than 1,000 volunteer sign-ups.

“I am sick of waiting around for someone to do something,” she said, speaking via videoconference from her apartment in Chicago, where she has a set-up for recordings and interviews. “There is no mythical, perfect candidate that’s coming out of the woodwork to save us.”
...
Illinois’s ninth district, anchored in Chicago’s North Side and stretching west, is one of the most reliably blue congressional districts in the state and has been represented by Jan Schakowsky since 1999 – the year Abughazaleh was born. In the interview, Abughazaleh said her candidacy was not intended as a “referendum” on the 80-year-old Democrat who has not said yet whether she intends to seek re-election. Nor is it a leftwing challenge, she said, acknowledging Schakowsky’s progressive rec
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/apr/08/influencer-congress-race-illinois
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Good to see. Much more in the article. I find this quite exciting and hope others will as well.

[ananda]

1. Finally. Someone without a savior complex.

It's up to the people to force good change.

[gab13by13]

2. Exactly

The DNC arguing over to run a moderate or a progressive doesn’t always work. How about running the best candidate?

[W_HAMILTON]

3. Jan Schakowsky is the best candidate. A strong Democrat with a lifetime progressive voting record higher than AOC.

It sure would be nice if some of these """progressive""" upstart challengers actually challenged terrible Republicans in red districts rather than good Democrats in blue ones. From what I hear, some (many?) seem to think that those on the right are just clamoring for all sorts of progressive policies, but it's the dastardly DNC preventing them from being passed and signed into law, so they just vote for Republicans instead ( ). Yeah, that's the ticket...

[betsuni]

6. Yes, ideological belief that the majority of Americans are progressive populists voting Republican

because Democrats are the greater roadblock to progress. Nutty.

That always happens, like when Kamala Harris was referred to as a centrist or moderate when her lifetime progressive voting record was better than Bernie Sanders.

[JI7]

10. And if that was true about people that vote Republican

doing so becsuse democrats aren't left enough or whatever other bs why don't they run in a red district where Republicans regularly win by double digits.

It shows how full of shit they are.

[betsuni]

26. The proof is in the pudding. Just explain to R voters that they're voting against their own economic interests.

Simple! The true progressive will overcome the supernatural rigging powers of the mean old Democrats and the glorious revolution begin. Some yelling-rallies about oligarchs and it's done!

[lapucelle]

5. Jan Schakowsky...

Jan Schakowsky is a Hard-Core Liberal

https://www.ontheissues.org/il/jan_schakowsky.htm

[Torchlight]

4. I'd think we'd want to elect *more* like Schakowsky rather than replace her.

Schakowsky is ranked 8th most politically left compared to all Representatives (govtrack), given a 100% rating by NARAL and Planned Parenthood (AFL-CIO) was arrested (as congressperson) while attending a protest calling for comprehensive immigration (ballotpedia).

I don't see any measurable improvement by replacing her.

[lapucelle]

7. It's not that *we* suck. It's that Kat Abughazaleh sucks.

“The main criticism I have of [Jan Schakowsky] is that she is in Democratic leadership, and I think that if your party is not aligning with your values, which, based on her voting record, it isn’t, you need to be more outspoken,” she said.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kat-abughazaleh-interview-congress-campaign/


If Jan Schawlowsky’s voting record doesn't align with former Republican Kat Abughazale's values, then it's Kat Abughazale who sucks, not Democrats.


Jan Schakowsky is a Hard-Core Liberal

[Wiz Imp]

8. This person is an asshole.

[mopinko]

9. good luck w that, kiddo. this is my dist.

i admit that, much as i love jan, and trust me, i love jan, it’s time to pass the torch. she’s still working her butt off, but c’mon woman.
that said, i cant see this young lady getting anywhere. if jan is on the ticket, she might get 10-15%. if jan isnt, competition will b stiff. lotta ppl w deep roots here.

i have no doubt there is someone in jan’s org ready to take the torch. she has a pretty stable staff, and has helped get a lot of good women to the il house.

please ja spare us this mess. maybe she’ll go up in smoke b4 she even gets on the ballot.

[JI7]

12. What's the problem with Jan Schakowsky ?

[maxsolomon]

14. She's 80?

That's probably it.

I live in Pramila Jayapal's district, formerly that of 18-term Congressman Jim McDermott. He served from 1989 to 2017, when he was 80. He simply got less energetic, and was no longer a firebrand like AOC that a massively Progressive district like the WA 7th would support. Fresh blood and all that.

But what do I know? I've been called an Ageist on DU for 10 years now.

[JI7]

19. Only men like Sanders are allowed to be in office in their 80s

So their record doesn't even matter.

[maxsolomon]

23. Not sure this is a sexism argument.

Pelosi is 85. DiFi served till her death. 83-year-old Bernie is done after this term, but that's not till Jan 2029!

This callow young whippersnapper won't dislodge Jan Shakowsky (who I've previously never heard of). She'll serve as long as she wants, just like Jim McDermott did.

[JI7]

24. She was a Republican that comes from a Republ8can family

she should tell us why her family sucks.

[surrealAmerican]

25. I also live in this district ...

... and have for a long time.

Nobody wants to see her turn into her predecessor. He was a good representative, but in his last two terms he was too old and sick to even show up for many votes. If he had only retired earlier, we could have had a more energetic presence in the House for those years.

[JI7]

11. So she doesn't even live in the district and just moved to Chicago a few months ago

Why not run in a red district ?

[maxsolomon]

15. LIberals tend to live in liberal districts.

We huddle together for warmth and protection. And culture.

[mr715]

22. And sushi

Better coffee.

[betsuni]

13. "Period poverty" has been politics as usual for Democrats. Obamas, Clintons, Tim "Tampon Tim" Walz, etc.

Hillary Clinton: "Women's health is an economic issue: Every woman deserves access to affordable menstrual products." She always acknowledges and thanks everyone. People who lie about Democrats being only motivated by money and vanity and corruption are not progressive, see Democrats as the enemy.

[mcar]

16. Jan Schakowsky is a great Democrat

If she chooses to retire, then, sure, let's have a primary.

I do not agree, in general, with primarying good Democrats regardless of age. Plus, I'd have a hard time supporting someone who says we suck and is an "influencer."

[Boomerproud]

17. Typical of the shallow, unserious crap from social media.

Spare me.

[JI7]

20. She is a former Republican from a Republican family

She should tell us why her family sucks.

[Passages]

21. Interview she did with The Nation:

snip
After a move to Tucson during her late teens, where Abughazaleh says she saw poverty for the first time, she began to shift politically. By the time she graduated from George Washington University in May 2020 with degrees in international security and journalism (with a focus on “atrocity, genocide, extremism, all that fun stuff”), she was solidly on the left.

https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/kat-abughazaleh-interview-congress-campaign/