From a Friend of McHenry County Blog:
SUE NESS & SENIOR DEMOCRATS SEETHE; ABUGHAZALEH UPSETS THE APPLE CART
There are a few Democrats whose names regularly come up as potential replacements for Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky when she inevitably retires.
One was McHenry County’s own Sue Ness who was once a county board member and now serves as state representative.
Truth be told, other Democrats were considered safer bets — there was at least one female state senator high up on the list of potential replacements.
The speculation was based on a seniority system: who has “put in their time” so to speak.
But now all of the Democrats who have been involved in politics for decades woke up and found themselves leapfrogged by a 26-year-old progressive Tik Tok influencer who apparently just moved to Illinois last year, hasn’t done a thing for the Illinois Democratic Party.
Her name is Kat Abughazaleh.
She supposedly raised over $200,000 within 24 hours of her announcement and is getting amplification from other large accounts. Numerous high-profile media outlets have written about her announcement.
A couple interesting things about her background:
-She is Palestinian.
-She comes from a Republican family but became a progressive.
Abughazaleh did not wait to see what Schakowsky was doing before announcing her bid for congress.
A lot of people believe the 80-year-old incumbent, Schakowsky, who has been in congress longer than Abughazaleh has been alive, may not run again. The fact is she has not said one way or the other.
Rank-and-file Democrats would have respectfully waited for Schakowsky to officially retire before throwing their hats in the ring and that is precisely what they were doing, but Abughazaleh has no fealty to the Democratic Party establishment with its customs and hierarchy. She is a progressive activist who says the party “sucks.” (She believes they are not sufficiently resisting President Trump.)
No doubt these entitled Democratic officials who thought there was an honored seniority system feel disrespected by this carpetbagger whose claim to fame is making videos for social media.
It remains to be seen whether they will bend the knee to her based on her star power or whether they will put up a fight.
Some Democrats don’t know how to react yet and are keeping quiet, while others haven’t even heard the news yet or at least are pretending that they haven’
Link to the video is here.
One thing is clear: this young woman has upset the Democratic Party apple cart.
