Abughazaleh is running against Democratic Representative Jan Schakowsky, who represents Illinois' 9th Congressional District, which consists of parts of Chicago and its northern suburbs. It's a safely Democratic district, with Schakowsky winning 68 percent of the vote in 2024.
Newsweek reached out to the Schakowsky campaign via email for comment.
Abughazaleh told Newsweek in an interview in April that Democrats cannot "just pretend like everything is business as usual" and have not been "bold enough."
"We can't work from a playbook that hasn't been relevant since the 20th century, which is a lot of what Democratic leadership is doing with their hands-off approach until 2026. For as many Americans to get hurt until the midterms roll around, that's abhorrent on a moral but also electoral level," she said.
this is how ya do it. take the dnc back from the ground up. progressives need to win locally until their numbers can no longer be ignored.
unfortunately theres no quick path to getting rid of the geriatric, conservative majority in the dnc.