“People Don’t Want To Feel Helpless,” an Interview with Kat Abughazaleh

On fighting the right, effective communication, and a new kind of campaign

Kat Abughazaleh, 26, is a former video journalist who is currently running for the open House seat in IL-09. As a newcomer to electoral politics, she’s developed an innovative campaign, putting donations towards mutual aid and volunteer events, and trying to make the campaign itself a mechanism for change and for working towards progressive goals.

I’ve been a friendly acquaintance of Kat’s for some time online; I followed her work at Media Matters and independently where she reported on Tucker Carlson and Fox News and refuted far right talking points in accessible and engaging videos. She’s promising to use her experience in fighting the far right to…fight the far right—rather than preemptively folding, which often seems to be the preferred tactic of establishment Democrats.

I got to meet Kat in person after she moved to the city, and even though she’s appeared everywhere from CNN to GQ at this point, she nonetheless was kind enough to do a Q&A for my little newsletter. Our discussion (which took place yesterday) is below. It’s been edited for clarity and length.

—

Everything Is Horrible is funded entirely by your donations. If you find my writing valuable, please consider donating. There’s a 40% off sale now; $30/year.

—

Noah:

So the obvious first question is—Zohran Mamdani! What does his victory mean about the Democratic party, and does it feel like a good sign for your campaign?

Kat:

Zohraaaannnn!

First, I’d say I’m not surprised. Zohran really worked day in and day out, and got people excited about something. Because he didn't just say, “This is what I want to change.” He said, “Here's how I'll do it. “

And he really followed this line that I've been trying to in my campaign by saying, “This isn't radical progressivism. This is just common sense.” Everyone deserves to be able to afford to eat. Everyone deserves to be able to afford a house. You should be able to afford childcare. And of course, that resonated with real people, because that's what real people need.

Do you feel like it was a rebuke to the Democratic establishment?

Absolutely. I mean, so many establishment Democrats, many of whom haven't been in politics for a while, made an ass of themselves backing a predator who was an ineffective leader, who had to resign in disgrace—just because they didn't want a progressive to be in power. They made a huge bet. They put all of their eggs in this basket, and then Zoran just stepped on them, and now you have egg all over a basket, and it’s very hard to wash off.

Did you see that Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer and House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries both issued statements congratulating him?

Good. They should.

Could you talk about why you decided to run for office?

Yeah, so I never planned to run. I planned to do literally anything else this year and for the rest of my life, and I don't plan to be in politics forever.

But at this moment, we need people that know how to effectively communicate and effectively fight the right and it's going to be hard to find a candidate that is as experienced in both of those as I am.

My background is fighting authoritarians, as you know. The people that I used to cover now run the government. And we have seen time and time again that Democratic leaders, many of whom have been in office for decades, think that there's a way to compromise with fascism, and they're willing to move the window rightwards.

So at this point the “center” means that people get hurt, that we're allowed to kidnap immigrants from their home, that we're allowed to throw trans people under the bus and deny them life-saving care. And that's not the center. That is fascist. That's capitulating. Compromise isn't getting your hand cut off and being grateful that they left you your pinky. Compromise means that each person gets something and maybe each person loses something, but you're actually making a difference.

I grew up Republican. I understand how people think they're being the responsible ones. And I think there is, of course, a place for responsibility. But responsibility means taking care of others, and I feel like we've lost that in this party.

I mean, this is the party of the New Deal and the Civil Rights Act. We need to be stronger. We need a vision past Trump. It can't just be about, “Sign this petition so we can put you on our mailing list and that'll help us defeat Trump.” You have to actually stand up.

I mean, yesterday, you might have seen, the right melted down because I flipped off a woman who was harassing children at drag queen story hour. And I think most political operatives would be like, “You need to apologize.” And no, I'm not going to apologize. If you're telling kids they're going to hell, I will flip you off.

They were harassing children?

Yeah, there was someone outside the door that was saying, “God does not recognize her gender,” as children were going in. And this woman was going up and down the streets filming people and calling them predators, and sorry, that doesn't deserve respect. We need to stand by people.

I know you’ve said that the reaction to your campaign online and offline has been pretty different. There’s been skepticism online in some circles, and you don’t really see that so much when you talk to people. Is that right?

I encourage skepticism. You should be skeptical of anyone asking for political office. I think that is part of the reason we're in this mess. It shouldn’t be that you have a D by your name, so no one can ever question you and no one can ever criticize your actions.

And I encourage people to do that with me as well. But part of the reason that I care so much about what we do on the ground and why this campaign is really centered on our ground game is because meeting someone and having your life improved by that person is different than just hearing different lies or attacks or seeing ads.

When you meet someone, you know that person, and you know that they're going to fight for you. And when people ask me questions about where I'm from, what I believe about my experience, I'm happy to share it. And frankly, I haven't had a single negative interaction on that front in person.

I’ve seen online you’ve talked about getting a huge volunteer turnout. Why have your volunteer efforts been so successful?

We make our campaign events fun and we try to include everyone and all of their skills. Last night [when Mamdani won], it was so great to see so many people say they feel hope in the political system. And they felt that with our campaign too.

I think that people don't want to feel helpless, and they feel helpless right now. And the way that we have structured our campaign, where we use our resources and our events and our campaign tactics to help the community, they don't feel helpless anymore. I had a beach cleanup and 40 people showed up, and the thing that I heard from all of them is like, “Hey, I'm not at home doom scrolling. I'm picking up glass that a kid would have stepped on. I'm picking up plastic that a bird would have eaten.”

[Pointing off camera to her office] These are mutual aid shelves, and they're for people that have, just donated stuff, some local, and some had it shipped here, and the people that have come in and gotten them, their lives are improved. But also the people that have come in and donated, they feel like they're doing something.

Volunteering for campaigns, usually feels almost like an exercise in futility. For federal campaigns, especially you knock doors, and it feels like it's about money and ads, and maybe you get to see the candidate, maybe you don't. And we're really trying to make our volunteer operations something that includes everyone.

That's why we use a Discord server. I am flabbergasted that not every single campaign uses Discord to organize, because it's where a lot of people are, and it's also a really effective way to get help and to hear new ideas and to utilize all types of skills. I reached out for someone to translate captions for a video, and they did it in less than 30 minutes. At our comedy show at the Laugh Factory, the projector broke, and so we sent a message in the discord, and we were like, “Hey, does anyone have a projector?” And someone showed up in 15 minutes with the projector.

I think that's really the core of it. People want to feel like they can do something, and our political system has made them feel helpless. And with candidates like Zohran, like myself—anyone that is coming out and rejecting big money and trying to do this because they think it's the right thing to do, they make it bigger than just themselves. A lot of campaigns are vanity projects, and when they're not, they can bring a lot of power to the community.

One of the things online that people have sort of asked about, is why you're choosing to run in IL-09, since that wasn't where you were living at the beginning of your campaign. Have you moved yet?

Yeah, my apartment’s just down the street.

So why was IL-09 where you wanted to be? And is it a problem for new residents to run for public office, as you are doing?

I chose to run this race here because it's where I plan to live for the foreseeable futures. Like Ben [Collins, CEO of the Onion] and I moved here on super short notice, and we had to find a semi-furnished place within two weeks because we couldn't afford to move all of our stuff at one time, and that kind of limits your options.

And so we got a place that worked for us, that I could work from home, that accepted cats, and then looked at neighborhoods we liked, and we wanted to live in, like Andersonville, Edgewater, Rogers Park, because I mean, it’s a great place to live.

And so I wanted to run in the place that I plan to live in. And the cool thing about this district is it is a district of immigrants and transplants. I mean, there are 50,000 college students. 27% of the district was born in a foreign country. Every single day that the office is open, we have someone come in and they're like, I just moved to Illinois because it's safe for me as a woman, as a trans person, as an immigrant. And I want them to get involved in the political process too.

But the whole argument you see online that she's not from here, go back to where you came from—it’s not going to resonate as the race goes on. Because a lot of people in the district aren't from here. They weren't born here, and they're thinking, “Am I not supposed to be here either?”

But I encourage anyone to come in the race. That's why I’ve said I'll help anyone that's interested in running with their FEC paperwork. They just have to come by the office and I'll help them navigate the process,

One thing that occurred to me is that people often move when they're young. Democrats are saying we want young candidates, but then when young candidates are in a different life place, that becomes an attack line. We want young candidates…but not that one.

I think you said something about that online, and it really resonate with me. Like, if you want young candidates—young people move. Young people usually aren't in the place that they were born, or often aren't in the place that they were born. If you want young candidates, you have to be ready if they haven't spent every moment of their life in the place that they're running.

And if you want young candidates with political experience, if you run for office—state representative in a lot of places get pennies for a salary, and you essentially have to quit your job if you want to effectively campaign. And so you're taking a huge risk.

So that means that it's just something that's kind of reserved for people that can afford to do it. And it's similar with federal office. You know, I had to quit my job because it's a conflict of interest, and also campaigning takes a lot of time and a lot of effort.

This was your job for Media Matters?

No, I was freelancing for Mother Jones, and for other place and doing my own videos— but I had to demonetize my platforms because I wanted to make sure that all of my campaign videos were accessible and didn't have ads on them. And so my only streams of income are my savings, which is not income, it's just the money I have. And that was already cratered by my lease break fees moving here. So all that was left was my Patreon, where people give me $1 to look at pictures of my cat.

So I’ve been depending on Ben to pick up a lot of the slack, which is a lot to ask of someone's partner. And you can take a candidate salary if you're not incumbent and you're running for federal office, but that's calculated by half of your average income over the last five years. Five years ago, I graduated from school into COVID and was making essentially $0. So we calculated what I would get, and it'd be like $20 a day. Which wasn't even worth it with the costs of all these other hurdles we'd have to jump through.

And if you're making, like, $32,000 a year for the last five years, you’ll end up making $16,000. If you have a family of four, that’s the poverty line. It's just completely unsustainable. Which means that running for Congress is something reserved for people who can afford it.

Another issue that people have questioned is your position on Israel and Gaza. You’re in a district that has a lot of Jewish voters. What kind of discussions have you had about this with people in the district?

It’s funny; there a lot of people who aren't Jewish who ask if I'm scared about Jewish voters. But Jewish people are consistently some of the greatest allies in the fight for Palestinian rights. Our futures and our faiths are so intertwined.

And I’ve talked to a lot of Jewish voters. I've had people ask, “How do you feel about this conflict?” And my opinions really aren't that controversial. I think that war crimes are bad and anyone who's committed them should be held accountable. And I think that our weapons, especially when they're being given to others and they're being paid for by our tax dollars, should be subjected to the Leahy limit, because we need to make sure that our tax dollars aren't being used to commit actions that are not okay under US law.

And I haven't met a single voter that thinks that's controversial. And especially now, over the last few years, where public opinion has shifted so much on this topic, as people have seen a lot of what's happened in Gaza, with so many civilians dying with nowhere to go—it’s not as controversial to say, you know, we need a change here.

I've also had people ask, “What if someone won't vote for you because you're Palestinian?”And I'm like, then they won't vote for me! There's nothing I can do about that.

And I think that would be a very, very small group of people. But there's nothing I can do to change that about myself, and I have no intention of changing my values—which are that I think war is bad, and I think anyone who commits war crime should be held accountable.

You said that you talked to some young men and their families who were very concerned about a possible wartime draft. And I know online, people were very skeptical that there would be a draft. So what did you tell these young men and their families?

First of all, if you say this will never happen because it would be illegal and unpopular… Trump has shown us he does not care about that. And so many times people say, “Well, he wouldn't do that,” and then he does it.

He cut cancer research.

He cut cancer research! They were just detaining people in wheelchairs in the Capitol. Like, why are we thinking that he is above this? I hope it doesn't happen, but underestimating Trump is part of what got us Trump.

And additionally, you know, Democrats are spending $20 million trying to make a new Joe Rogan in the lab. And first off, Joe Rogan listeners are 40-year-old white dudes. They're not young men. If you really want to reach young men—part of this is that our society punishes them for vulnerability, gives them no community and makes everything so isolated for everybody. And right-wing figures online like Steve Bannon saw that and capitalized on it before anyone.

But young men just want what everyone else wants. They want a safe life where they can afford housing, groceries and health care, and their loved ones can do the same. And I think being worried about a draft, whether or not it's going to happen, but being worried about its existence, being cognizant of that, I don't think it's ridiculous to be worried about it, to be scared.

And I had some people that were like, “Blah, blah, blah, that’s so unrealistic.” If you're just immediately writing off those concerns, it's no wonder they don't trust you.

And with our campaign, with our volunteers, we have so many young men and young white men specifically, that Democrats are really trying to target. But young men of all races and sexualities, like all backgrounds that are volunteering for our campaign because they feel like it's somewhere they can belong.

Like, we needed help building furniture, building a bunch of shelves. We had eight dudes that showed up. They barely talked to me. They just wanted to build shelves. And this is part of what we need, creating community spaces where people can exist without spending money and without judgment. Places where they can come in, grab a soda, build some shelves, and tell us what they care about.

And I think worrying about being drafted is something that's there. It’s something that they care about and that we should listen to.

One of the things that I noticed, and I don't know if you were expecting this but which seems like a kind of exciting outcome, is that you’re gotten a much bigger media platform because you’re running, right? I mean, you appeared on CNN, I think a couple times.

I’ve been on MSNBC twice; CNN once in studio and a couple of other times.

So, you've really kind of become a left voice in a lot of these places that don't necessarily have a lot of young left voices. Was that something that you were hoping for?

Not necessarily hoping for…but, you know, I have a big platform, and I know how to communicate. And that's a part of this campaign is showing people how to communicate, how to translate the online to the offline and into effective messaging and effective fundraising, and even into effective mobilization.

And so, yeah, I was glad that I was able to talk about issues in Chicago, like ICE hurting elected officials and protesters after they lured in people who were legally following the immigration process, like being able to talk about health care and groceries here and using that national platform to highlight it.

But we need effective communicators, and we don't have that in politics right now.

Have other Democrats reached out to you to ask about ways to effectively communicate?

They did in 2024. They were like, so how do we make authenticity? And I was like, I think you're missing the point.

And since I ran I've had some local Democrats come to events and things and say, “Don't tell anyone I was here.”

But as far as like national figures, it's one of these things when I was setting up the campaign infrastructure, I'd call different places, and as soon as they knew there was an incumbent [Jan Schakowsky, who eventually announced she was stepping down], whether or not she was running again, no one knew, but as soon as they knew that, they hang up the phone.

And of course, that changed after we raised 200k in like 24 hours. But there's a consequence for running a primary challenge. Even though my race wasn't about primarying Schakowsky. It was about thinking that we need more competitive primaries and we need people in Congress who understand how to fight the far right.

This is about trying to help the country and help the party, and to do that, we need change. And it's up to leaders and the people behind them to figure out whether their egos or actually winning and actually making a difference are more important.

I think that’s it for my questions; was there anything else you wanted to add?

I'm just really excited for petitioning season in August, where we get petitions to get on the ballot. We’ve got a lot of really fun stuff planned.

I might not have a ton of connections to big money. Our average donation is just like $31. But we're gonna win this thing, and we're gonna do it with people.

__

If you want to learn more about Kat, her campaign website is here.