{"id":161779,"date":"2025-08-24T03:08:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-24T03:08:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/a-new-political-era-fresh-democratic-faces-seek-office-to-prevent-their-party-from-sleepwalking-into-dystopia-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2025-08-24T03:08:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-24T03:08:09","slug":"a-new-political-era-fresh-democratic-faces-seek-office-to-prevent-their-party-from-sleepwalking-into-dystopia-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/a-new-political-era-fresh-democratic-faces-seek-office-to-prevent-their-party-from-sleepwalking-into-dystopia-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018A new political era\u2019: fresh Democratic faces seek office to prevent their party from \u2018sleepwalking into dystopia\u2019 – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new generation of Democrats is deeply unhappy with the entrenched political establishment. So they\u2019re going to try to take it over
E<\/span>arlier this year, Liam Elkind seized an opportunity to ask his longtime congressman, Jerry Nadler, what everyday New Yorkers like himself could do to help Democrats<\/a> stand up to Donald Trump<\/a>. Nadler\u2019s response, according to Elkind, was to \u201cdonate to the DCCC\u201d \u2013 the group that helps House Democrats keep their seats. Deeply unsatisfied, the 26-year-old decided to run for office against the 17-term incumbent.
In Georgia<\/a>, Everton Blair also sought answers from his long-serving congressman, David Scott, at a panel event earlier this year. When Blair asked him about Democrats\u2019 legislative strategy, the 80-year-old lawmaker was dismissive. \u201cI don\u2019t know who sent y\u2019all,\u201d he said. Blair, 34, is now making a bid for Scott\u2019s seat.
Jake Rakov began to worry when he noticed his former boss, 70-year-old California<\/a> congressman Brad Sherman, repeating the same anti-Trump talking points he\u2019d deployed eight years prior. To Rakov, 37, it was a sign that the Democratic party\u2019s ageing establishment \u201cwasn\u2019t going to learn\u201d. He is now one of two millennial-aged Jakes challenging Sherman.
A year after Joe Biden\u2019s age and fitness for office emerged as a major liability in the 2024 presidential election, followed by Trump\u2019s return to power , demand for generational change has reached a fever pitch. A wave of younger, social-media savvy candidates, frustrated by what they see as an ossifying, out-of-touch Democratic establishment, is launching primary challenges against some of their party\u2019s most senior incumbents.
The insurgents charge that party elders have failed to act with urgency as Trump targets Democratic cities, voters and values, and they say they\u2019re no longer willing to wait their turn.
\u201cIf what happened last year was not a wake up call for the Democratic party that we need to do things differently and that we need to let some new voices in, then we should all be deeply worried about the future of the Democratic party,\u201d said Luke Bronin, a 46-year-old who is running against Connecticut<\/a> congressman John Larson, 77.
The 119th Congress is the third oldest in US history,<\/a> and three members \u2013 all Democrats \u2013 have died in office this year. More than a dozen House Democrats who will be 70 or older by election day 2026 are facing challengers, according to an analysis by Axios<\/a>, though not all have said whether they plan to seek re-election.
But the push to replace longtime incumbents isn\u2019t just about age, says Saikat Chakrabarti, 39, a former chief of staff to New York representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a> who is running for the San Francisco congressional seat long held by the former House speaker Nancy Pelosi.
They say it\u2019s about energy, vision and, crucially, how hard they\u2019re willing to fight \u2013 which could explain why octogenarian brawlers like Maxine Waters haven\u2019t faced calls to step aside while some relatively younger members<\/a>, such as 50-year-old Andr\u00e9 Carson, have drawn challengers.
\u201cIt\u2019s being a part of a system for so long you just don\u2019t actually think it\u2019s your job to renew it,\u201d Chakrabarti said.
Pelosi, 85, who stepped down from her leadership position <\/a>to make room for a new generation in 2022, has not yet said whether she plans to seek re-election. \u200bA spokesperson for Pelosi declined to comment.
While their campaigns are \u200b\u200btextured by local\u200b issues and cultural references \u2013 Elkind touts his go-to bagel order (un-toasted everything with whitefish salad) and Chakrabarti pitches a publicly owned utility for San Francisco\u200b \u2013 their broader \u200bmessages chime: Democratic elders have grown complacent, clinging to a broken status quo\u200b \u2013 with devastating consequences.
Democrats\u2019 popularity has cratered<\/a> to record lows and the party has bled voters \u2013 especially young people, first-timers, and Black and Latino Americans.
But the incumbents are pushing back. They argue their years of experience have delivered tangible results. \u201cThese guys would start off with zero seniority, just when the district needs the most help,\u201d Sherman, the California<\/a> congressman, said in an interview. He dismissed claims he\u2019s been timid on Trump, noting he introduced articles of impeachment against him in 2017 and, earlier this year, confronted the president at an in-person briefing on the Palisades fire that devastated parts of his district.
\u201cThe key to fighting Donald Trump<\/a> is beating him in the 2026 election,\u201d Sherman said. \u201cIf we don\u2019t take the House back in 2026 we may not have elections in 2028.\u201d
M<\/span>any challengers align politically with the incumbents they\u2019re trying to unseat \u2013 several have voted for their opponent in the past. They argue the intraparty divide is not left-versus-center but a clash between \u201cthe fighters and the folders\u201d \u2013 those who see the Trump era as a troubling but passing chapter and those who see it as a constitutional emergency that will determine the survival of American democracy.
The younger candidates say the party needs to \u201cmeet voters where they are\u201d \u2013 on social media, on podcasts, at red county diners and rambunctious town halls. They want leaders who can speak plainly about the ways the Trump administration is hurting working-class Americans \u2013 and how Democrats<\/a> would help.
But they also say it can\u2019t only be about Trump. The party needs a full-scale reimagining of what Democrats stand for and how they communicate that to voters \u2013 a type of messaging they\u2019ve struggled to articulate in the Trump era.
Democrats haven\u2019t always embraced primaries. They can be costly and time-consuming<\/a>, and create headaches for general election races. But in the midst of deep party introspection and generational friction, more are embracing the contests as a way forward.
Groups such as Leaders We Deserve, led by former Democratic national committee vice-chair David Hogg, are actively backing young candidates<\/a> challenging \u201casleep-at-the-wheel\u201d incumbents. The effort sparked an internal firestorm and ultimately led Hogg to step down<\/a> from his role at the DNC.
Republicans are watching the primary battles unfold with glee. \u201cDemocrats are engaged in a battle between the socialists and the party dinosaurs \u2013 and it\u2019s only getting uglier,\u201d Mike Marinella, spokesperson for the national Republican congressional committee, said.
Next year\u2019s elections will test Democrats\u2019 desire for generational change but it may not resolve their identity crisis. Some districts will elevate centrist candidates, while others might embrace a democratic socialist. Some crave an anti-establishment streak, ideology aside.
And some veteran lawmakers have already chosen to relinquish power. In May, Democratic congresswoman Jan Schakowsky announced that her 14th term representing Illinois\u2019s ninth district would be her last, saying in a statement: \u201cIt is now time for me to pass the baton.\u201d Before she made the decision public, Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old progressive political influencer, had already launched a campaign for the seat<\/a>, asking Democrats: \u201cWhat if we didn\u2019t suck?\u201d
Among the contenders in Democratic primaries are local and state political leaders for whom Congress makes sense as a next logical step. In years past, they might have opted to wait for a retirement and then seek an endorsement from the outgoing congressman. Not any more.
At 46, Luke Bronin has a lengthy r\u00e9sum\u00e9 of service: a lawyer, former Obama administration official, navy reserve intelligence officer and, most recently, mayor of Hartford, Connecticut. But he stresses that he\u2019d also bring \u201can outsider\u2019s commitment to making some bigger changes\u201d.
Bronin has spoken with Larson, the longtime incumbent in Connecticut\u2019s first district, including an hourlong conversation in recent months. What was missing, he said, was any recognition that the job has fundamentally changed since Larson arrived in Washington in 1999.
\u201cI didn\u2019t hear a sense of urgency that we need to hear from every single member of Congress,\u201d Bronin said.
Bronin thinks Democrats need to be \u201crelentless and clear\u201d about the ways Trump is making life worse for Americans, and \u201cequally relentless and clear\u201d about the Democratic party\u2019s vision for improving their daily lives. He wants to see \u201can intense focus on issues like housing and healthcare and childcare\u201d, and for Democrats to spread these messages in friendly and unfriendly forums.
In a statement, the Larson campaign said the district needs a \u201cproven fighter\u201d to protect against Trump\u2019s attacks on social security and Medicare.
\u201cThat\u2019s Congressman Larson. That\u2019s why he\u2019s backed by progressive groups, labor, and working people alike,\u201d the campaign said. \u201cWhat they don\u2019t need is someone pretending to be a new voice who\u2019s actually been in politics [for] <\/strong>decades that\u2019s always been more focused on running for higher office than delivering results.\u201d
Chakrabarti, who has spend much of his political career working to elect progressives to Congress, said he began to seriously consider a run himself after listening to a New York Times podcast<\/a> interview with Pelosi just days after the November election. He had expected Democrats\u2019 crushing defeat to trigger a reckoning \u2013 but instead heard a defense of the status quo.
It confirmed for Chakrabarti what he had long feared: the Democratic party was \u201csort of sleepwalking into this dystopia\u201d.
But progressives like Chakrabarti take hope <\/strong>from the success of state assemblyman Zohran Mamdani<\/a> in the New York City Democratic mayoral primary this summer.
\u201cWhen I look at the moment today, the appetite for change, it completely dwarfs what I saw in 2018,\u201d Chakrabarti said, referring to the election year in which Ocasio-Cortez toppled one of the most senior House Democrats as a political unknown.
\u201cWe\u2019re at the point of a dawn of a new political era.\u201d
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Several candidates have filed to run in Georgia\u2019s 13th district, a solidly blue area in the Atlanta suburbs, a sign of the vulnerabilities among older members and the enthusiasm to replace them. Scott, who has served in Congress since 2003, has not yet announced whether he will run again. Questions over his health and fitness for office have become public fodder \u2013 he lambasted<\/a> a photographer for taking a photo of him in a wheelchair last year.
Some are younger than the average age in Congress (58.9<\/a>); all are younger than Scott, 80. One contender, state senator Emanuel Jones, is 66. In 2024, Scott fended off a crowded field of primary challengers to keep his seat.
Jasmine Clark, 42, was first elected to the state house in Georgia<\/a> in 2018. She has a PhD in microbiology, an expertise that has served her well in analyzing bills and communicating during the pandemic. If elected, would be the first woman with a science PhD in Congress.
She wants the district to have a fighter who can call out the rampant misinformation and disinformation coming out of the Trump administration. The Atlanta<\/a> area is feeling the consequences of this information environment, she said, pointing to a shooting earlier this month at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention by a man alleged to be fixated on the Covid-19 vaccine.
\u201cWhen you have the same people in the same place for a really long time, that stagnation leads to stagnation of ideas as well,\u201d she said. \u201cThere should be a healthy turnover, where you still have institutional knowledge while ushering in new ideas. But for whatever reason, we don\u2019t really see that in Congress.\u201d
Everton Blair, who served on the Gwinnett county board of education, is touting his deep ties to the district where he was born and raised. He sees a lot of opportunities left on the table because of inactive representation.
\u201cThere\u2019s a general sense of despondency and just apathy right now that we address and we combat by bringing those very voices and people back into the conversation and making sure that they feel represented well,\u201d Blair said.
\u201cThe leaders who got us into this mess are not the leaders who can get us out of it,\u201d he added.
Scott did not respond to a request for comment.
In California, Jake Rakov, who served as a deputy communications director for Brad Sherman, the 15-term incumbent he\u2019s challenging, is making a similar case. He hasn\u2019t spoken to his old boss in years, but he has been talking to the congressman\u2019s constituents. Many, he said, are shocked that any member \u2013 let alone their own \u2013 has been in Congress for nearly 30 years.
\u201cWe\u2019ve got people in office who\u2019ve been there since the 1990s and are still legislating like it\u2019s the 1990s,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cIt is so antithetical to our idea of a representative democracy that it just is immediately offensive to people when they hear about it.\u201d
Sherman has also drawn a challenge from Jake Levine, a veteran of the Biden and Obama administrations whose mother lost her home in the January fires. \u201cIt\u2019s time for something new,\u201d Levine says in his campaign<\/a> launch video.
Sherman argued that calls for generational change aren\u2019t new. Estimating that he\u2019s taken about 5,000 votes in Congress over the past decade, the overwhelming majority of which his challengers would agree with, Sherman asked: \u201cIf you did something right 5,000 times in a row \u2013 100% of the time \u2013 is there any chance that you should get fired?\u201d
Upstart candidates traditionally face steeper challenges against incumbents, but, with the help of slick online content, they\u2019re finding new ways to gain traction. In an Arizona<\/a> special election earlier this year, Deja Foxx, a 25-year-old influencer and activist, came in a distant second behind a longtime Democratic official whose father held the seat until his death \u2013 but she still managed to win more than 22% of votes.
Katie Bansil, a 34-year-old political newcomer who works in finance, is challenging congressman Frank Pallone, 73, in New Jersey\u2019s sixth congressional district over his support for Israel\u2019s war in Gaza. Since launching her campaign, Bansil, who immigrated to the US from the Philippines and grew up in New Jersey<\/a>, says she\u2019s seen a growing desire for new leadership.
\u201cI started calling him \u2018the asterisk\u2019, because a lot of people have told me, \u2018Oh, I just vote for the guy that is labeled as the incumbent,\u2019\u201d she said. \u201cBut I think people are actually waking up to the truth about what\u2019s going on.\u201d
A spokesperson for Pallone said the congressman has \u201cproven himself to be an effective champion of progressive causes\u201d.
\u201cWith daily assaults from the Trump administration on our democracy and institutions, Pallone will continue to use every tool to stop the Republican authoritarian agenda of stealing from the poor to give to the rich,\u201d the spokesperson said.
Liam Elkind, the challenger to Jerry Nadler, announced his campaign with a splashy video<\/a> that opened with dirt being shoveled into a grave and his voiceover: \u201cThe Democratic party is dying.\u201d
\u201cOur system often tells people to wait their turn,\u201d Elkind said. \u201cAnd look where we are.\u201d
A Rhodes scholar, Elkind founded the non-profit food delivery service Invisible Hands during the pandemic. He says that work \u2013 along with own experiences as a young person living in one of the most expensive cities in the world \u2013 would shape his approach to the job.
Like many his age, Elkind doesn\u2019t have health insurance. When he recently went to get a vaccine and was told it would cost $500, \u201cI turned my ass around,\u201d he quipped. \u201cBut look, that\u2019s the day-to-day lived reality of a whole lot of people in this country.\u201d
A spokesperson for Nadler emphasized the congressman\u2019s political strength, noting that he won his most recent election with 80% of the vote.
\u201cBut this is the great thing about America, it\u2019s a democracy \u2013 hopefully still \u2013 and anybody can run,\u201d Robert Gottheim, the spokesperson, said, adding that Nadler would \u201cput his over-30-year record of accomplishments against anyone including someone who appears to have no record of accomplishment to speak of\u201d.
Elkind said he voted for Nadler and respected his long record as a progressive voice for New York<\/a>. But, he argued, the moment demands new energy and a break from the past.
\u201cThe house is on fire, and we need leaders who can meet this moment,\u201d he said. \u201cWe deserve to know that the next time a child is kidnapped off of our streets, that our congressman will be on that street in the next hour with a megaphone demanding that child\u2019s release and then will travel to whatever foreign gulag the president has decided to stash that kid in.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A new generation of Democrats is deeply unhappy with the entrenched political establishment. So they\u2019re going to try to take it overEarlier this year, Liam Elkind seized an opportunity to ask his longtime congressman, Jerry Nadler, what everyday New Yorkers like himself could do to help Democrats stand up to Donald Trump. Nadler\u2019s response, according […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":161780,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-161779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/161780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}