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Ex-Media Matters influencer Kat Abughazaleh announced a run for the US Congress today, telling Democrats, “It’s time to drop the excuses and grow a fucking spine.”
Abughazaleh is fed up with the Democrats “cowering to Trump,” and says the party should be “standing up to authoritarians, not shrinking away when the fight gets tough.” So she decided to run herself.
I’m Kat Abughazaleh and I’m running for Congress. pic.twitter.com/tEtaNcc5xL
— Kat Abughazaleh (@abughazalehkat) March 24, 2025
The young graduate of George Washington University is bidding for the House seat of the 9th district of Illinois, where she will be facing off against 80-year-old incumbent Jan Schakowsky, who has now served the Prairie State for more years than Abughazaleh has been alive.
Abughazaleh says that the Democratic Party is due for a makeover, but doesn’t articulate how she can transfer her tweeting skills to effectively resist the tide of the Trump administration better than what Schakowsky is already doing.
For her part, Schakowsky has attended protests, boycotted Trump’s joint address to Congress, condemned and voted against the Republicans’ continuing resolution and has written a joint statement condemning President Trump’s attempt to remove two Democratic commissioners from the Federal Trade Commission.
Abughazaleh, who is Palestinian American, reminded potential voters that she has spent the full three years of her “entire career reporting on the far right,” including “far-right” media companies like Fox News.
Her campaign website includes “anti-endorsements” from Tucker Carlson, LibsofTikTok and the “CEO of X and Shadow President” Elon Musk. It also lists the top three issues of her campaign as “anti-authoritarianism, basic existence and climate change.”
Abughazaleh was let go from Media Matters in May 2024 after X filed a defamation lawsuit against the company for its reporting that X was placing advertisements next to neo-Nazi content.
Although she is asking for donations, Abughazaleh has assured supporters that she will not be using the “old ineffective tactics” for campaigning that have worked for decades. Instead, she plans to spend their donations on “book drives, clothing exchanges and public events.”
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