Longtime Democratic Representatives Face Youthful Opposition

Photo: Kat Abughazaleh, a Democratic candidate in Illinois’ 9th congressional district (Eliana Melmed)

The Democratic Party has hit record lows in approval since Donald Trump assumed the presidency in January, as Democratic voters voice concerns about party leadership. An early March CNN poll found the Democratic party with a mere 29% national approval rating, driven in part by declining approval among Democratic-aligned voters. The poll finds that only 63% of Democratic voters view their party favorably, as 52% of Democratic voters believe in general that party leadership is “taking the party in the wrong direction.” This comes as progressives openly question the leadership of senior Democrats, most notably in the case of Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s decision to side with Republicans on a government funding bill to avoid a shutdown.

As Democratic dissatisfaction festers in polling numbers, three young Democratic candidates have announced primary challenges to longtime members of Congress. The common criticism against the experienced incumbents relates to messaging, and these challengers argue that they are better equipped to reach constituents with their progressive visions.

California’s 11th District

California’s 11th district is in San Francisco, represented by 85-year-old Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi in her twentieth term. If Pelosi decides to seek a twenty-first term, she will have to face 39-year-old Saikat Chakrabarti, a software engineer who worked as chief of staff to progressive Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in 2019.

Chakrabarti’s campaign against Pelosi has much to do with setting a tone in Washington against the Trump administration. In his campaign announcement on X, Chakrabarti declared that his party “needs to stop acting like it’s competing against a normal political party that plays by the rules,” accusing current Democratic leadership of being “paralyzed and unprepared” to face the new president. Chakrabarti specifically criticized Pelosi’s troubled relationship with Ocasio-Cortez, noting that Pelosi “personally intervened” to block his old boss from chairing the House Oversight Committee.

The relationship between Chakrabarti and Ocasio-Cortez runs back to the congresswoman’s first victory in 2018. Chakrabarti was Ocasio-Cortez’s campaign manager in her 2018 primary victory over then-Democratic Representative Joe Crowley. Chakrabarti was also the co-founder of Justice Democrats, the organization that provided grassroots support to Ocasio-Cortez and other successful progressive House candidates in the 2018 cycle.

As an alumnus of the 2016 presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders, Chakrabarti is no stranger to the progressive side of the Democratic Party. Chakrabarti has been a longtime advocate for progressive climate change and criminal justice policies, and his experience with Ocasio-Cortez’s 2018 campaign poses a threat to Pelosi’s storied tenure in Congress. 

For her part, Pelosi has not commented on Chakrabarti’s campaign or her own plans for her political future beyond calling questions about the topic “dumb.” 

Since California uses an all-party primary election system, both Pelosi and Chakrabarti could advance to the general election, meaning that this race might not be settled until November 2026.

California’s 32nd District

70-year-old Democratic Representative Brad Sherman, currently in his fifteenth term representing the Los Angeles area in Congress, will face his former communications director, 37-year-old Jake Rakov, in the 2026 election. 

California’s 32nd district includes the Palisades, the neighborhood in Los Angeles that was ravaged by wildfires earlier this year. In his campaign announcement video, Rakov used imagery from the fire damage to reinforce his promise to “fight fire with fire” in response to the Trump administration “burning everything to the ground.” 

While Rakov acknowledges that he and Sherman are “both progressive Democrats,” he has argued that Sherman lacks prowess in the messaging realm, citing the congressman’s home in Washington, D.C., and lack of town halls held in the district. Sherman has pushed back against these criticisms, pointing to his office’s collaboration with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to assist wildfire victims. 

The top progressive priority listed on Rakov’s campaign website is to “stop letting corporations buy influence with campaign donations.” Rakov has promised to reject corporate PAC donations, a practice that he asserts has influenced Sherman’s votes in Congress. Rakov’s husband, Abe Rakov, is the executive director of End Citizens United, an organization focused specifically on promoting campaign finance reform. 

Like California’s 11th, this race could feature two Democrats in the November 2026 general election due to California’s all-party primary system. An early test for Rakov will be to raise enough funds for a credible operation in the Los Angeles media market, given that Sherman had $3.9 million in his campaign account at the end of 2024.

Illinois’ 9th District

With fourteen terms of experience representing Chicago’s North Side in Congress, 80-year-old Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky is set to face a new Illinois resident in her 2026 primary election. 26-year-old Kat Abughazaleh, who became a registered Illinois voter in February 2025, announced a challenge to Schakowsky in March with a call for the Democratic Party to “drop the excuses and grow a fucking spine.”

Abughazaleh’s progressive record is grounded in her work as a social media influencer and  content creator for Mother Jones and Media Matters for America. At Media Matters, Abughazaleh’s work centered around debunking then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson, which she did by producing videos to upload to TikTok. Abughazaleh’s stint at Media Matters ended in 2024 when she was laid off as a result of a lawsuit from now-Trump administration advisor Elon Musk. 

In an interview with Vanity Fair, the narcoleptic Gen Z challenger lauded Schakowsky as “one of the most progressive members of Congress,” but criticized the congresswoman’s lack of connection to the “lived experiences” of her younger constituents. Abughazaleh also argued that the Democratic Party needs to address a “belief that we shouldn’t ever challenge things or try something new until the right moment,” claiming that she is better fitted than Schakowsky to usher in necessary changes.

Abughazaleh’s willingness to condemn the Trump administration in the harshest of terms is highlighted on her campaign website, where she denounces the president as “fascist” and “authoritarian.” This rhetoric is paired with progressive priorities like a $25 per hour national minimum wage and national abortion protections with no term restrictions. 

Abughazaleh’s campaign announced that it raised $203,157.50 in the first 24 hours after launching, an indication that this Democratic primary could become expensive and competitive.