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.
Will be interesting to see how influencers running for political positions works out given Trump has meta and tiktok by the balls.
Realistically I think any influencer wont be able to garner enough of the vote, at least until there is a further demographic shift, because having influencer/tik-toker as a label attached to you is not gonna get confidence from old people. Maybe some millennials and gen xers. But not the core demographic of consistent voters
I mean hell I’m only a few years older than her, but I have a hard time taking that background seriously, although I agree with the points Ive seen her make and like how she is literally feeding people. Shes definitely making a positive difference regardless of if she has that much electability, which is awesome.
Maybe it will change “influencing” more than it will change politics