In a campaign announcement that used the F-word for the first time in U.S. history, progressive social media sensation Kat Abughazaleh released a video Monday that kicked off her bid for Illinois’ outdated Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are tearing down our country one by one, and many Democrats seem content to sit down and get them.” “So I said it’s time to give up the excuse and grow into a spine.”
After graduating from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., with an international security degree, Abughazaleh, 26, works on media affairs in the group of left-leaning observers hired by Jones' mother in 2024. On Tiktok, she has over 217,000 followers, nearly 200,000 followers on X, and some of her videos have received over 1 million views.
“I have spent my entire career reporting and have been attacked by them for this,” Abughazaleh said in her campaign video. In that propaganda, Kaffiyeh, a traditional headdress worn by men in Middle Eastern, has become a symbol of Palestinian identity and is hung on the wall.
background
Abughazaleh, the daughter of Palestinian immigrant father and the seventh generation Texas mother, grew up in an upper class in Dallas, according to the Hofton Post. Her parents were both politically conservative audiences of Fox News.
However, when she moved to Tucson, Arizona as a teenager, her perception of the world began to change.
“At least half of my high school is low-income or undocumented,” she told HuffPost. “The bootstrapping myth broke before my eyes.”
“Denotes a Problem”
On her newly cast website, Abughazaleh declared that the Democrats “have a question of representation. About half of the Congress in Congress are people born before the moon lands.”
“I'm a renter. I don't have health insurance,” she added. “My net worth is almost just the laptop I bought with all my severance when I was fired…and my cute cat heater.”
Rep. Jan Schakowsky held a press conference in front of the U.S. Capitol on February 19, demanding a ceasefire and ending Israeli attacks on Gaza. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Shakowski, 80, was born before the moon landing and as of 2018, she was not qualified to become a millionaire, according to publicly secret reports. Her net worth was then estimated at $749,017.
Shakowski has been a outspoken critic of Trump. She boycotted his speech to Congress earlier this month, and then slammed his remarks for being “insulted and disrespectful”.
Last week, Shakowski joined New York's Rep. Jerry Nadler, a Rep. Shakowski, for denounced Trump's firing of two Democratic commissioners in the FTC, calling it “another direct attack on our democracy.”
A firm platform for freedom
Abughazaleh attempted to capitalize on democratic anger from old politicians such as New York Senator minority leader Chuck Schumer, whose progressives accused of failing to effectively fight back Trump’s moves to tear down government agencies and fire federal workers.
On her website, Abughazaleh also shot less subtle footage on California Governor Gavin Newsom, whose new podcast has been obtained among guests such as Arch-Companservatives Steve Bannon and Charlie Kirk.
“Some Democrats may be happy to throw trans people under the bus and be interviewed by Steve Bannon, but I’m not,” she said.
Her policy recommendations include more protections for LGBTQ+ Americans, addressing climate change through a green new protocol, increasing salaries for public school teachers, providing universal Pre-K, expanding social security and abolishing restrictions on abortion.
Although Illinois' Ninth District is considered democratic, the first question Abu Hazard must answer is whether she can debate and defeat Shakowsky, who was first elected to Congress in 1999.
After all, Shakowsky could rely on his own liberal record. According to Progressive Punch, a database ranks the way members vote, and she was named the 27th most progressive Democrat in Congress. She was a primary school teacher and also won the A-grade of the National Education Association.
Abughazaleh will have to convince voters in Illinois, Shakowski is part of the bigger problem the Democrats see. In her teeing video, the woman, known on social media as Kat Abu, said this: “We focus on meeting the composition needs with a simple rule: What if we don’t suck?”
