WASHINGTON — Anger towards Donald Trump’s aggressive second-term strikes — and the comparatively subdued opposition mounted by many Democrats — has impressed dozens of recent candidates to run for Congress. That features a handful who know the place nicely: former Hill staffers.
With 2026 midterm elections nonetheless 18 months away, not less than 4 ex-aides have already launched congressional campaigns. In California, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of employees, Saikat Chakrabarti, seems to tackle former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, whereas additional south Rep. Brad Sherman faces a main problem from his onetime deputy communications director, Jake Rakov. In Illinois, Jason Friedman, as soon as an intern beneath Sen. Richard J. Durbin, is working for the seat at the moment held by Rep. Danny Ok. Davis, who has but to announce whether or not he’ll run for a sixteenth time period. And in Maine, Jordan Wooden, who was Katie Porter’s chief of employees earlier than she left the Home, hopes to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
The ex-staffers share a number of features in frequent. They’re all Democrats and, apart from Wooden, difficult an incumbent Democrat in a solidly blue district. They’re all younger, not less than by congressional requirements. Wooden, Rakov and Chakrabarti are beneath 40, whereas Friedman is the oldest at 51, nonetheless beneath the Home median age of 57 and far youthful than Davis, who’s 83. They usually all say that, after seeing how Washington operates up shut, they need to come again to alter the place.
“The main thing my time in Washington taught me is that the current Democratic Party and its leaders are not at all prepared for what is going on right now,” mentioned Chakrabarti. “We had chief of staff meetings every Friday. I remember going to the first one thinking, ‘We’re going to come up with a strategy to take on Trump.’ And instead it was, ‘Hey did you fill out your TPS reports?’ and ‘We’re hearing complaints from the members about there being too many staff in the elevators,’ and I was like, ‘WTF.’”
