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alexandria ocasio-cortez
Progressive Saikat Chakrabarti to Challenge Nancy Pelosi in 2026
The Democratic Party, said AOC's former chief of staff, "needs a bold vision for how to raise living standards, quality of life, and security for all Americans."
Feb 05, 2025
"Twenty terms in Congress is enough."
That's according to the campaign website of Saikat Chakrabarti, the progressive political adviser who announced Wednesday that he plans to challenge 84-year-old former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) in the 2026 cycle.
Chakrabarti's website traces his journey from being born in Fort Worth, Texas, to immigrants from India, to moving to San Francisco after college to work as a software engineer, to his experiences in politics—supporting Sen. Bernie Sanders' (I-Vt.) 2016 presidential campaign, co-founding Justice Democrats, and serving as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D-N.Y.) campaign manager and chief of staff.
Watching U.S. President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk "freely unleash chaos in their illegal seizure of government, it's become clear to me that the Democratic Party needs new leadership," Chakrabarti said in a long post on Musk's social media platform, X. "I don't understand how D.C.'s Democratic leaders are so paralyzed and unprepared for this moment after living through President Trump's first term—and after Trump and Elon warned us exactly what they planned to do."
"I respect what Nancy Pelosi has accomplished in her career, but we are living in a totally different America than the one she knew when she entered politics 45 years ago," he asserted, noting Pelosi's
reported role in recently thwarting Ocasio-Cortez's rise to ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability.
"Now, the things that defined the American Dream—being able to afford healthcare, education, a home, and raise a family—are impossible for most people," said Chakrabarti. "And the Republican Party is overtly conspiratorial and anti-democracy. The Democratic Party needs to stop acting like it's competing against a normal political party that plays by the rules, and it needs a bold vision for how to raise living standards, quality of life, and security for all Americans."
After working for Ocasio-Cortez, "I returned to San Francisco where for five years I've led a policy think tank that develops comprehensive solutions to the problems that both America and San Francisco face," he said. "Now, I want to bring those solutions to Congress. I'm going to run a very different kind of campaign than most. Instead of spending hours each day doing 'call time' with big money donors—I'm going to spend every day talking with voters. I know! What a radical idea!"
"I'll be talking about the problems we need to solve for San Francisco, for America, and also about the future of the Democratic Party—and how it can provide an alternative vision of change from Trump and MAGA," Chakrabarti continued. "In addition to daily conversations with district residents, I'll also be holding weekly Zoom calls open to anyone to talk about national issues and the future of the Democratic Party."
Chakrabarti directed supporters to his campaign website, Saikat.us, where they can sign up to join a Zoom call, volunteer, or organize a house meeting in San Francisco—and he pledged to "never to share your data with anyone, or spam you with breathless pleas for money." The site highlights that he will not be accepting any corporate political action committee (PAC) money.
"I know it might seem it's a little early to start running. But the fact is, it's almost impossible to defeat incumbents in our system—even at a time when both Congress and the Democratic Party stand at record-low approval ratings," he said. "Winning this campaign will require months of organizing—online and on the street—to connect with every single voter in San Francisco."
Pelosi
filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission for the 2026 midterms in November, just over a week after Democrats' devastating losses in the latest general elections. Although Pelosi was easily elected to her 20th term last year, Republicans retained the House and took control of the Senate and the White House.
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'Stop Playing Nice,' Says AOC as Senate Dems Help Approve Yet Another Trump Nominee
"There has to be a political price to pay" for Elon Musk's takeover of federal agencies, said the congresswoman.
Feb 04, 2025
Hours after Democratic lawmakers warned that billionaire Elon Musk's takeover of federal agencies is "what the beginning of dictatorship looks like," expressed outrage at being barred from entering the U.S. Agency for International Development, and vowed to take legislative action and launch legal challenges to stop Musk's "outrageous" maneuver, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez spoke out against Democrats who are proceeding as though a constitutional crisis isn't taking place.
"No Democrat should be voting to advance [President Donald] Trump's nominees while all of this stuff is going on," said the New York Democrat in a 90-minute Instagram Live video Monday evening. "There has to be a political price to pay and we have a responsibility as a party to block everything that is happening while they're setting a literal mash to the federal government."
Ocasio-Cortez aired her live video—an overview of Musk's takeover of Treasury Department payment systems, USAID, and his push to cut billions in federal spending for social services to secure an extension of Trump's 2017 tax cuts for the rich—as the Senate was voting to confirm fracking company CEO Chris Wright to be the country's next energy secretary.
Seven Democratic senators—Sens. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)—joined Republicans in supporting Wright, as did Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), who caucuses with the Democrats.
In addition to overlooking Musk's seizure of USAID and payment systems that contain personal data of millions of people who receive Social Security checks, Medicare, and other payments and benefits from the government, the Democrats approved a nominee who has accused the party of pushing for Soviet-style communism through efforts to combat the climate emergency and has said, "There is no climate crisis."
"There is no reason for business as usual while Elon Musk is fueling a constitutional crisis."
Ocasio-Cortez said Democrats must make the Trump administration and the GOP "fight for every single step. The slower they go, the less they can break."
"We have to stop playing nice in the Senate and block every damn thing that we can," said Ocasio-Cortez, who did not speak directly about Wright's confirmation vote. "Do not give votes to the nominees."
Ocasio-Cortez urged voters to call their senators and demand that they vote against Trump's nominees who still have to be confirmed, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health and human services secretary, Pam Bondi for attorney general, and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.) for United Nations ambassador.
The Democrats, who hold 47 Senate seats compared to Republicans' 53, don't have the numbers to block the president's nominees through a vote—but they could push for nominations to be withdrawn, as former Rep. Matt Gaetz's was for attorney general amid sexual abuse allegations against him—and at least display "a gesture of resistance," as historian Keith Orejel said Tuesday.
Organizers applauded Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), who spoke at a rally outside USAID on Monday, for announcing a plan to place a blanket hold on all of Trump's nominees for State Department positions until Musk and the administration end their effort to shut down USAID.
"Until and unless this brazenly authoritarian action is reversed and USAID is functional again, I will be placing a blanket hold on all of the Trump administration's State Department nominees," said Schatz. "This is self-inflicted chaos of epic proportions that will have dangerous consequences all around the world."
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he would support Schatz's holds, telling a reporter, "We're all in this together."
A blanket hold communicates to the Senate majority leader that lawmakers would object to a nomination by unanimous consent, slowing down the confirmation process and other legislative business Republicans want to address.
Stefanik's nomination for U.N. ambassador could be directly impacted by the blanket hold.
Schatz's announcement displayed "crucial leadership," said Leah Greenberg, co-founder of the grassroots advocacy group Indivisible.
"There is no reason for business as usual," she said, "while Elon Musk is fueling a constitutional crisis."
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Ocasio-Cortez Denounces Musk-Led Attacks on Agencies as 'A Plutocratic Coup'
"It is important that we continue to signal to one another what we believe, because if we get quiet... then everyone around us is going to think that everyone has given up," said Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in a recent livestream.
Feb 03, 2025
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York took to social media on Sunday to denounce billionaire Elon Musk, who has been tasked with leading the new administration's effort to slash federal spending and bureaucracy, and is currently working to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development.
In response to reporting that U.S. President Donald Trump's administration placed two security chiefs at USAID on leave after their refusal to hand over classified materials to Musk's "government-inspection teams," perThe Associated Press, Ocasio-Cortez on Sunday wrote: "This is a five alarm fire. The people elected Donald Trump to be president—not Elon Musk."
"Having an unelected billionaire, with his own foreign debts and motives, raiding U.S. classified information is a grave threat to national security," she continued.
Her remarks were reposted by the venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya, who wrote that Ocasio-Cortez is "wrong" and that the real five alarm fire will happen after Musk's team reveals government waste and fraud.
Ocasio-Cortez hit back, casting doubt on the legitimacy of Musk's efforts and writing: "This is a plutocratic coup. If you want the power, run for office and be chosen by the people." The entire exchange took place on the Musk-owned social media platform X.
Musk, a billionaire and GOP megadonor, established himself as a major power player in Trump's orbit even before Trump was inaugurated. In December, Musk sank a bipartisan spending bill, leaving Congress to scramble to come up with a new spending agreement to avert a government shutdown.
But since Trump's return to the White House, Musk's power has only grown as he's moved swiftly to exert influence over levers of power within government. In a day one executive order, Trump established his Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, by repurposing an existing entity, the U.S. Digital Service, an agency conceived to help improve the federal government's services through better technology and design. Now called the U.S. DOGE Service, the move "will give centibillionaire Elon Musk and his allies seemingly unprecedented insight across the government, and access to troves of federal data," according to WIRED.
Musk's influence now extends to the General Services Administration as well as the Office of Personnel Management. Representatives from DOGE were also granted access to a sensitive Treasury Department payment system that contains the personal information of every American who receives tax refunds, Medicare, Social Security, and other payments from the government.
Meanwhile, Ocasio-Cortez has been one of the most vocal members of Congress speaking out about Musk and the Trump administration's actions.
In a livestream on social media shortly after Trump's inauguration, Ocasio-Cortez implored her audience not to take the Trump administration's actions quietly.
"It is important that we continue to signal to one another what we believe, because if we get quiet... then everyone around us is going to think that everyone has given up," said the New York Democrat.
"I want you all to know that you're going to be hearing more from me," she explained. "My responsibility is in trying to explain to you all what is going on as best as I can and leaning into our ability to collectively organize."
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