58 Comments » - Keyrock - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:01 pm: Jan has lost a few mph off her fastball. It’s time for her to retire. But we don’t need this carpetbagger. We have excellent candidates here who know the district and will do a superb job of representing it. - Abe - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:05 pm: Any of those non-carpetbaggers are welcome to step up and win the race themselves! This process of just standing in line and waiting for your turn has totally destroyed the party. Kat did nothing any of those other folks couldn’t do, I’m so annoyed by all the whining. Sorry you have to actually earn a *checks notes* congressional seat! - Alton Sinkhole - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:08 pm: Her launch event was at a pretty bougie (and delicious) wine bar - Ares - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:10 pm: Perhaps Kat could be persuaded to run in the deep-red Downstate / Eastern Bloc districts - Politistage - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:11 pm: Yeah, thanks but no thanks. All for younger generations running for Congress. But the fact that she has no ties to Illinois or the district is why I’m a no. Also, aside from age, what is the difference between her and Schakowsky? Jan is very progressive. - Tom - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:15 pm: Strikes me as a fraud…and a woman looking for a job. Just because you know how to use a megaphone doesn’t mean you have anything to say. - City Zen - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:16 pm: ==when I got laid off== Mother Jones just hired her in July 2024. - John Lopez - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:23 pm: The difference between Kat Abughazaleh & Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky pretty obvious. One’s Jewish & the other is not. If Abughazaleh makes it to the ballot this fall, will we see Congresswomen AOC, Ilhan Omar & Rashida Tlaib campaigning or fundraising for her. Will Congresswoman Delia Ramirez openly back Abughazaleh. Abughazaleh against Schakowsky will fare worse then Qasim Rashid last year against Congressman Bill Foster in the 11th Congressional District Democratic primary. - Frida's Boss - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:24 pm: Great move by this woman. She has raised $200k for her campaign, but the number of followers she added and can monetize is probably more significant and will pay income to her for decades. She can also now farm out and monetize her commentary for talk shows as a former congressional candidate trying to fix the Democratic Party, once she loses. Maybe get a Bill Maher spot on the panel after she loses. She may have gotten laid off, but she’s clearly not hurting for cash living in Streeterville. It kind of takes away the poor working class running for office. - SammyG - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:25 pm: If Abughazaleh doesn’t live in the district and wants to knock out a conservative Dem, why doesn’t she run against Brad Schneider or Raja Krishnamoorthy? - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:28 pm: ===why doesn’t she run against Brad Schneider or Raja Krishnamoorthy?=== Quigley - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:29 pm: ===why doesn’t she run against Brad Schneider or Raja Krishnamoorthy?=== Also, it’s widely expected that Jan will retire, so this would be an open seat. The Kabooki theater of announcing against what is in reality a lame duck fits the move. - sewer thoughts - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:31 pm: does this crowd out any homegrown lefty candidates and leave only the establishment types competitive? - Ucci - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:34 pm: Everyone thinks they’re the next AOC. Her biggest strength, and this is not a knock, is the perception that AOC just woke up one day and got tired of waiting tables and decided she wanted to run for congress. Completely ignoring her time in the political field and the campaign operatives that created her persona and built up her campaign into one of the largest in the country. Maybe this is the year when all the whacky Gen Zrs with virtually not professional experience are going to (virtually) run for office. We shall see what happens - Remember the Alamo II - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:34 pm: It is kinda funny. It seems like everyone else is more upset about this candidacy than Rep. Schakowsky. - Friendly Bob Adams - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:40 pm: Schakowsky is the Durbin of the House. Time’s up. Time to go. - ArchPundit - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:41 pm: There is plenty to make fun of in this announcement, but Kat is very good at online commentary and has a strong audience already. It skews younger and I was hoping she would create a younger skewing liberal messaging outfit. I hope she does after this. This entire campaign is half baked without any real connection to activists or the community on the ground. There’s a huge difference in being good at online messaging and running a full blown Congressional campaign especially one in a district where Jan has been organizing for years and likely has a replacement or two in mind. - Rich Miller - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:42 pm: === especially one in a district where Jan has been organizing for years and likely has a replacement or two in mind.=== The other thing about that district is that some viable local Democratic organizations still exist there. - Responsa - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:43 pm: ==why doesn’t she run against Brad Schneider or Raja Krishnamoorthy?== They’re young. The emerging progressive firebrands and other opportunists are logically focusing on the aged and long serving legislators. - 47th Ward - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:45 pm: I thought Congress outlawed TikTok? I must have made that up in my head. This person reminds me a bit of Joe Walsh, except that she doesn’t know anything about the district. - VK - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:47 pm: As a friend of mine said to me yesterday, “it’s giving “we have Qasim Rashid at home” energy”. - Craginite - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:49 pm: ==I thought Congress outlawed TikTok?== Campaigns are not banned…the ban only applies to House issued phones. - Frida's Boss - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:49 pm: She’s not a real candidate. She’s grifting for the future—it’s a good hustle move. She’s not about winning Jan’s seat, it’s about getting money and a job for the future. Remember these words: Former congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh will join us tonight on CNN, MSNBC, Rachel Maddow, etc., to discuss what’s happening to the Democratic Party. - Leslie K - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:54 pm: She is forum shopping and knows nothing about the district. Hopefully Jan has enough of a succession plan in mind (maybe not actually in place?) to shut this down. - Observer From Afar - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:54 pm: I’m all for it. The use of “influencer” to describe her discounts her work as a journalist, plus her life experience of being raised conservative who was able to adapt and change with age and the surrounding world. If we all take a deep breath and stop discounting people just because they are young, or a woman, or you think they’re just looking for money, or whatever, you may notice that she is what people her age want in Congress. - TKMH - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 1:54 pm: ==It is kinda funny. It seems like everyone else is more upset about this candidacy than Rep. Schakowsky.== I can’t speak for others, but I am annoyed that someone with no ties to Chicago picked out this district as a low-hanging “flyover country” fruit to run in and make an ideological point. It signals a casual Gen Z progressive disdain for actual left-wing communities. She apparently has ties to AZ, why couldn’t she run for Grijalva’s seat? - Roman - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:00 pm: We Dems have had our behinds handed to us on social media, so I don’t want to discourage someone who’s apparently garnered some success in reaching young people, but this seat does not seem a good fit. The keffiyeh seen hanging in the background of her launch video will not go unnoticed in one of the most Jewish districts in the nation. And even beyond that, Chicagoans are a parochial lot when it comes to politics. I mean, the 9th District might not be “we don’t want nobody nobody sent” territory, but I think the folks there would prefer a representative who’s been stuck in traffic on the Edens a few times. But I’m all for retiring gerontocracy members like Jan. I suspect a candidate but I’d prefer - Remember the Alamo II - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:00 pm: === She apparently has ties to AZ, why couldn’t she run for Grijalva’s seat? === No clue why she decided to pick this district. But I appreciate the fact that Jan is not having a knee jerk reaction and is putting a positive lens on this candidacy. It is why she will be overwhelmingly reelected should she decide to run for reelection. - Walter - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:05 pm: It’s still a free country (for now), glad she’s running. - Candy Dogood - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:05 pm: ===“We deserve Representatives who face the same challenges we do (or at least have some time in the last decade),”=== Who is we? She does not live in the 9th congressional district. She has never lived in the 9th congressional district. Who exactly is she speaking for here? Who is she speaking to? It isn’t the voters or residents of the 9th congressional district. ===“I’m a renter. I don’t have health insurance,” she adds. “My net worth is pretty much just the laptop I bought with my entire severance when I got laid off… and my adorable cat Heater.” === This campaign is a grift. She already has bios talking about growing up in a wealthy privileged household. As Pulp would sing, “You’ll never live like common people, you’ll never do what ever common people do, never fail like common people, you’ll never watch your life slide out of view.” She is a tourist. A rich kid pretending to be poor because she thinks poor is cool while living the high life in Streeterville. While it is exciting that she has raised $200,000 — it isn’t coming from people within the district and TikTok isn’t going to reach voters. ===Schakowsky, for her part, embraced the news.=== The congresswoman illustrates why she is so incredibly popular and well liked in her district. - Michelle Flaherty - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:12 pm: No one is a candidate until petitions are filed. Call me when the shuttle lands. - Candy Dogood - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:14 pm: ===No one is a candidate until petitions are filed.=== The FEC disagrees. However, I will not be surprised when her biggest campaign expenses are to LLCs registered in states with the most relaxed laws on reporting officers. - NomChompsky - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:35 pm: A growing problem in Congress is social media influencers holding seats who are more interested in being, you guessed it, influencers rather than engaging meaningfully in governance. Both parties have this problem, but the high profile instances of it in the GOP (MGT, Gaetz, etc) are particularly disgraceful and depressing. The Democratic Party needs to change, but this is not the kind of change it needs. Running independently wealthy social media influencers in communities that they have no historical ties to is about as anti-democratic a move as I can imagine for the party that is trying to stand in defense of the idea. She’s raised a bunch of money in a small amount of time, but she very obviously sidestepped the question of how she intends to win. She used language to suggest a “ground” game but then suggested it’s about hosting charity events. Admirable, but that’s not the same thing as having an effective field campaign which is something that her opponent, whoever it turns out to be, will have. Along with all the other landmines she will have laid before her by the DCCC. - 9th district voter - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:38 pm: New 9th district voter here. She’s got my vote. And once my spouse starts caring about politics again in a year, she’ll have both of our votes. And that will still be true if some patient Democrat with the blessing of the “local organization” runs if/when the 80yo announces her retirement. Kat is willing to speak up against the undue influence of the “pro-apartheid lobby” (as she put it in an announcement text), which also presents a very stark policy difference with Rep. Schakowsky and many other establishment Dems … and I know way more people under age 50 who are open to that type of message than not. You’d think after the past several election cycles, “political types” wouldn’t be so dismissive of unconventional or long-shot candidates, particularly candidates who can raise $200k in 24 hours and get a ton of media attention. - Amalia - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:41 pm: LOL A carpetbagger, someone who could make me stan for Jan if she runs again. Congratulations, newbie. You’ve won that. - 48th Ward Heel - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:48 pm: Is she Assyrian? A surprising number of the challengers to Schakowsky across various parties have been from that community, carpetbagger or no. They’ve all been jobbers, but there’s still a built-in constituency apart from extremely online progressives. - Candy Dogood - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:52 pm: ===“political types” wouldn’t be so dismissive of unconventional or long-shot candidates, particularly candidates who can raise $200k in 24 hours and get a ton of media attention=== Candidate promises transparency. Isn’t transparent about not living in and having never lived in the District they’ve announced they’re running in. It isn’t that I am dismissive of an “unconventional” or “long-shot” candidate. It is that I have what I consider to be a reasonable standard for people who are running for congress, especially US House, that they not be completely full of [redacted]. Her announcement was buzz words, tag lines, hashtags, and lacked meaningful substance. She says that she is “focused on meeting constituent needs” in her announcement while having no record of advocacy or supporting any organization within the 9th congressional district. She is welcome to put her newly raised money where her mouth is, but right now she is all online puffery and astroturf. - Telly - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:53 pm: @Ucci makes some good points about AOC and the hard work required to successfully pull off an insurgent, upset win. I would add that AOC’s surprise victory occurred during an extremely low turnout primary (only about 30k total votes) which meant the electorate was dominated by highly engaged progressives voters, helping her defeat an establishment liberal. Next March is likely to be a relatively high turnout primary, which might have a moderating effect on the makeup of the electorate, particularly given the large number of Jewish voters who will turnout. - Candy Dogood - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 2:55 pm: ===Is she Assyrian? A surprising number of the challengers to Schakowsky across various parties have been from that community, carpetbagger or no=== In an earlier online bio she talks about being a 7th generation Texan on her mother’s side and her father being an immigrant. I suspect that she doesn’t think it is in her best political interests to be transparent about what her parents do. - 9th district voter - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 3:12 pm: “Isn’t transparent about not living in and having never lived in the District they’ve announced they’re running in.” … It’s in the third sentence of the Rolling Stone article. (Doesn’t bother me at all by the way.) You are correct, her 100-second-long announcement video “lacked meaningful substance.” Lol - ALIGNI - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 3:16 pm: ===The Democratic Party needs to change, but this is not the kind of change it needs. Running independently wealthy social media influencers in communities that they have no historical ties to is about as anti-democratic a move as I can imagine for the party that is trying to stand in defense of the idea.=== I generally agree with the sentiment, but the reality is that the Democratic Party needs our own Tea Party moment where comfortable dems are made to work for their seats. To other commentors’ points, the democratic party tries to exercise too much control of the slate during a populist moment. We need popular, grassroots candidates to invigorate the portion of the party that has too few models in the party. Not to mention that seasoned electeds have been in their seats for far too long. - Colin O'Scopy - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 3:19 pm: =Everyone thinks they’re the next AOC.= AOC is an invention of Fox News more than anything. An attractive former bartender who espouses progressive ideals under what was once normal circumstances would have taken 8 terms before he or she reached a level of seniority in the U.S. House. Fox News propped her up and made her more powerful than she ever would have or could have been otherwise. This new, shiny object does have a knack for getting noticed, I’ll front her that. Although I find the $200k in new contributions raised in 24 hours to be a bit suss. - Rahm's Parking Meter - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 3:30 pm: I live in the district and am part of the Jewish Community. Jan has gone out of her way to anger a lot of us - and is time for her to go. - Rahm's Parking Meter - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 3:35 pm: By the way, does Kat know the difference between Arlington Heights and Edgewater? And how would someone who boasts about wanting to use Leahy laws against nations on her website appeal to the voters who would believe the opposite when it comes to the one nation she is talking about? - former evanstonian - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 3:37 pm: I just don’t see it working for her - as Rich said, the 9th district has some of the most vibrant Dem organization in the state. If Jan is going to step aside, somebody else with ties to the community will step up. Otherwise, they’ll close ranks. But that’s just about the election. I don’t think the point here for Kat is to win. I think it’s to get name recognition and build “influence” off the trendy headline of “26 year old challenges 80 year old for Congress”. She can cash that in any number of more lucrative ways than actually having to go do the job in DC. - Candy Dogood - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 3:38 pm: ===Jan has gone out of her way to anger a lot of us - and is time for her to go. === Probably should do a little voter research on Kat first. - Rahm’s Parking Meter - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 3:44 pm: I did. Trust me, Candy. But Jan isn’t running. We all know that - JoeMaddon - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 4:02 pm: “won’t “waste your money on old, ineffective tactics” like spam texts or cable ads.” Which is funny, because a bunch of folks got spam fundraising texts from her yesterday. - Roman - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 4:45 pm: The amount of publicity Kat has received should be instructive to anyone (particularly any progressive “outsider”) thinking about running for Durbin’s seat. Jumping in now rather than waiting for a Durbin retirement announcement would probably be a wise move. - Shytown - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 4:46 pm: Hasn’t even filed petitions yet and she’s already breaking her campaign promises - thanks for the spam text Kat! She doesn’t have a shot in hell in this district but she’ll raise national money off it to promote herself and her far left agenda. Re Jan, while she’s done plenty to alienate the Jewish community, just wait til you take a look at Kat’s social media. Wow. Anti-Semite much? - Dirty Red - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 5:43 pm: Good luck to her. That was quite an announcement and first day rollout. She needs to have an answer ready for the “Free Palestine” post on her Instagram. She will be asked about that more than “growing up conservative” to win that district. I also wonder what kind of outreach she made to the local organizations before her announcement. Those on the ground in IL-9 are more active than other long-time incumbents, and they are Jan Fans. She can clearly attract media from the top-down. Can she reverse that to recruit GOTV and field teams from the ground-up? - Candy Dogood - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 5:52 pm: ===Jumping in now rather than waiting for a Durbin retirement announcement would probably be a wise move.=== I agree, but whether or not it is wise really depends on the relationship you want to have with Senator Durbin and a lot of the establishment of the Democratic Party that may not agree with us about forcing him to get off the pot while he is still moving and consuming nutrients. - Heatwave - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 6:15 pm: Not all that worked up about this, but one campaign promise was broken already as my household received two “spam texts” and we don’t live in CD 9. - Yellow Dog Democrat - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 6:16 pm: Howard Dean Beto Rourke Krysten Sinema John Fetterman Amara Enyia We keep coming up with these “Made for Social Media” meme candidates, and it seems like they all wildly underperform in the actual election process or, in the cases of Sinema and Fetterman, wildly disappoint once elected. We have a fundamental problem in our democracy with virtual constituencies. Real people are multi-dimensional, complex, just like the challenges we face as communities. Virtual constituencies are one-dimensional monoliths. When whatever brought them together exceeds their small attention spans, they either dissolve and leave us to our fates, or they find something else to overly obsess about for 15 minutes. I don’t know what Jan’s plans are. I do know that Kat is no threat to her. I would imagine that if Jan decides not to run, whomever she decides to endorse will run away with the race. For some perspective: Kat has 200k followers spread out across the US, that’s likely fewer than 500 in Jan’s district, and if they are over the age of 24 they have probably voted for Jan multiple times. If they are under the age of 24, they have probably never voted in a Democratic Primary. I liked it better when bored political reporters wasted time speculating about Rahm Emanuel. Who, btw, has a better shot of winning Jan’s seat than Kat. - Lindy - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 6:18 pm: Looks like 2026 will be a race to the bottom to tap into the high strung emotionally charged Democratic base that is demanding immediate, loud and symbolic actions and antics rather than providing a substantive policy based solution that actually changes the minds of Trump/Repub voters or those choosing not to vote. - Frida's Boss - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 6:54 pm: 46 comments, fairly impressive for someone never named on this blog before today. This is exactly what influencers do. Credible journalists don’t run for office to get people to read more of their articles and get a raise, they take a hiatus from being journalists to become politicians. She’s not abandoning her influencer hustle to run for office; she’s going to use her run and capitalize on it. I respect the hustle of her taking advantage of the confused masses being lost in the forest due to the Dem party dysfunction. These folks are willing to send their money and pin their hopes on anyone with a video feed and a pulse. They’re weak and tired and don’t know what to do. It sounds like what Dems accuse the GOP of doing with Trump. She’s just like a Tent Revival Evangelical Preacher coming to a farm town during a drought. The Dem messaging allows this type of Logan Paul style to translate to credibilie canidacy, due to ineeffective leadership and a 29% approval rate. Keep going Kat, you may not win the election but you will get that bag. - thunderspirit - Tuesday, Mar 25, 25 @ 10:25 pm: I’m with Heatwave, spam texts from someone who’s promised not to spam us isn’t the best look. In any case, I’m pleased to see more young people who are angry about the Neville Chamberlain approach to the nation’s democracy step forward. - Candy Dogood - Wednesday, Mar 26, 25 @ 12:39 am: A bit late, but what the heck ===Howard Dean=== Vermont House Representative Lt. Governor of Vermont Governor if Vermont ===Beto Rourke=== El Paso City Council US House Rep *check notes* in the district he lived in and had served as an elected official already. ===Krysten Sinema=== Arizona House Arizona Senate US Senator for Arizona ===John Fetterman=== Mayor of Braddock Lt Governor US Senator for PA Look, I get that we’re worried about “meme” candidates but most of the people you listed had spent years holding public office on a state or local level before seeking federal office. It’s not like they just accidentally got elected to a statewide or federal office. Howard Dean is literally the only one on that list that had his political career advanced by an unexpected tragedy. TrackBack URI Anonymous commenters, uncivil comments, rumor-mongering and profanity of any kind will be deleted. Name/Nickname - Required E-mail - Not required URL - Not required