Journalist and influencer Kat Abughazaleh announced she’s running for Congress in a YouTube video. In a video that looked more like a livestream than an announcement of a bid for office, Abughazaleh promised to run a transparent campaign, fight for affordable groceries, and stand up to authoritarians.
Abughazaleh is running in Illinois’ 9th district, which covers the north side of Chicago and some of its suburbs. She’ll attempt to unseat Democratic incumbent and party stalwart Jan Schakowsky, who is 81 and has held her seat since 1999.
“I say it’s time to drop the excuses and grow a fucking spine,” Abughazaleh said in her announcement video. “We need a vision that’s bigger than what we’ve been told is possible. There is absolutely no reason you shouldn’t be able to afford housing, groceries, and healthcare with some money leftover. Families should have free childcare. Social security should be expanded, and our inalienable rights shouldn’t be dependent on who’s in power. That means standing up to authoritarians, not shrinking away when the fight gets tough.”
It’s obvious the video was made for a young audience by a person who grew up using social media. It’s got the aesthetic of a streamer: complete with floating mic arm, clear and focused high quality camera, baked in subtitles, and competent editing that helped Abughazaleh emphasize her points.
Abughazaleh has been making videos online for years. She worked for Media Matters where she critiqued and dissected right wing media and talking points. She’s also produced videos for Mother Jones.
In 2023, Media Matters published an investigation revealing how advertisers on X often had content appear next to Nazi propaganda. Advertisers fled the platform. Musk sued the company for defamation in Texas and the case is still ongoing. The company then laid off staff, including Abughazaleh, saying it couldn’t pay its legal bills and its workers at the same time.
In her Congressional announcement, Abughazaleh said she knew how to fight people like Musk. “Just a few months ago, Elon Musk’s lawyers deposed me here in Chicago to ask about my mean tweets,” she said. In the months after leaving Media Matters, she’s produced videos independently on YouTube and TikTok where she has 217 thousand followers.
I summarized Elon Musk’s takeover of our government in 70 seconds: pic.twitter.com/XMpCmZ7smD
— Kat Abughazaleh (@abughazalehkat) February 17, 2025
When Chuck Schumer bowed to Congressional Republicans in the budget fight, he called it strategy. Constituents read it as weakness. As Musk and Trump rampage through the federal government and attack social security, voters are looking for anyone willing to fight. The Democrats, especially the old line, seem to be laying down. Even amidst a backlash against Trump, the party has seen shrinking poll numbers and increased unfavorability ratings.
“What if we didn’t suck?” Abughazaleh said in the video announcing her run. “We all deserve better. We deserve human rights and financial freedom and a party that stands up to authoritarians.”
Schakowsky has her own YouTube channel where she posts clips of her speaking on the floor of Congress, media hits, and direct-to-camera addresses to constituents. A March 13 video about her plans for the future is a striking contrast to Abughazaleh’s announcement. The color balance is off and the lighting is bad, the Capitol looms in the background, and the editing appears to cover mistakes instead helping Schakowsky emphasize her talking points. She also bragged that Rachel Maddow had mentioned her on TV.
“I was at Daley Plaza to protect science,” Schakowsky said in the video. “Rachel Maddow also mentioned that I had been there. I’m going to continue to just to show up and I would welcome you to join me. We have to be visible. We have to be loud. We have to be ready to fight.”
This isn’t the first time someone has attempted to use social media stardom to launch a political career. After years of battling toxic gamers online, game developer Brianna Wu ran for Congress in 2018 and 2020. She lost both times. In 2022, accredited physician and podcast host Sydnee McElroy successfully won the Democratic primary for a Congressional seat in West Virginia but lost the race against a Republican incumbent.
The difference here is that Wu and McElroy had other careers and used social media followings in an attempt to attain political power. Abughazaleh is a digital native who has spent years posting and fighting the ring wing online, and often winning. She’s known primarily for her political content. Time will tell if that can translate into electoral victory.
On March 6, The New York Times reported that lawmakers are scared of Trump and the online army he commands. “Every disinfo reporter/ researcher I know (including myself) has been the target of mean tweets or even legal action by Elon Musk,” Abughazaleh said in a post on BlueSky responding to the story.
“Frankly, this is a skill issue.”
