Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old running for Congress in Illinois, is spending her campaign dollars in a whole new way.
"Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old running for Congress in Illinois’ 9th congressional district, isn’t shy about her belief that politicians need to do things differently.
“We have a representation problem,” the first line of the “About” page on her website reads.
“As in, about half of Congress are millionaires and people born before the Moon landing. And that's part of the reason we're in this mess: Our leaders are out of touch.”
A journalist, social media influencer, and political commentator that GQ called “a lefty,” with a mission to revitalize the Democratic party, Abughazaleh built a following online before she launched her campaign in March of 2025.
But now, she’s leveraging her platform — and campaign dollars — to help people in her community before ballots are even filled in.
“My congressional campaign is feeding people right now,” she starts in a recent TikTok video.
“Part of the reason I decided to run was because I saw how much money gets wasted in politics, and I thought, ‘What if we spent it differently?’”
She adds that the campaign is focused on “direct action and mutual aid,” emphasizing that she wanted her run for office to be “dual-purpose,” in which she can get her message out and help people in the process.
It’s a stark pivot from the traditional way of campaigning in the United States, which often includes pricey fundraising galas, attack ads, big billboards, and perhaps the most criticized and unpopular feature: massive donations from private businesses and interest groups.
Abughazaleh has publicly congratulated the former incumbent of this seat — 80-year-old Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who has held the title since 1999, the year Abughazaleh was born — for her “decades of service.”
Rep. Schakowsky will not seek reelection, but Abughazaleh called for others to run, hoping to participate in the “first competitive Democratic primary in the District since 1998.”
Abughazaleh has also shared that the average donation her campaign receives is $31. And according to GQ, 1,000 people signed up to volunteer for her campaign within a week of her initial announcement.
And while that volunteering does include marketing, canvassing, and getting the word out, it mostly adds up to actual on-the-ground volunteer work to help people in the local community.
“Our kick-off event, for instance, didn’t charge $500 a plate,” Abughazaleh shared in her TikTok. “People just had to bring a box of pads or tampons, which were donated to Chicago’s period collective. By the end of the night, we had gathered over 5,600 period products, which went to people who can’t afford them.”
Most recently, the campaign hosted a food drive for a local community fridge program.
“We asked folks to come out and donate food in exchange for a campaign yard or window sign,” Abughazaleh said. “And by the end of the day, we were able to fully stock the empty pantry and fill the fridge with frozen meals, produce, and eggs. That’s feeding people right now.”
“Don’t worry, we checked to make sure this is legal," she added. "And it is."
The campaign has also launched a High School Public Serve Grant program that encourages local youth to submit ideas for how to make the community better, and Abughazaleh’s campaign will support it with money, materials, volunteers, and her online platform...
“Something you’ll rarely see is concrete help in their communities during the campaign,” she said. “And frankly, to me, that just seems stupid. Not only do you get to help people — supposedly what you’re running to do — but it also shows what you’re about, instead of just providing lip service.” ...
“If every campaign adopted this model, then we wouldn’t be wasting money every single cycle. Every city, town, and village across America would be improved by their election process, and I think it would also get people more involved,” she said.
“We have local folks who have never voted in an election, but they joined our volunteer Discord server because they want to help, they feel like they have something to vote for.”
For those who might be inspired enough to run for office with this model, she says: Full steam ahead.
“Frankly, I would love it if other campaigns took our model. Use it, pretend it’s yours, I don’t care!” she wrapped up her TikTok.
“Pair with organizations in your community that have been doing the work, talk with local experts, and try to spearhead any initiatives you can to show your values and help your constituents. It’s really that easy.”
Dutch talk-show host Lubach put together an absolutely savage takedown of Disney after they bowed down to the Trump administration to take Jimmy Kimmel off the air
So in addition to KOSA making a return (CALL YOUR CONGRESS PERSON AND TELL THEM TO VOTE AGAINST IT BTW!!!) the Senate has just introduced TWO internet censorship bills!
The Block Bad Electronic Art and Recording Distributors Act (Block BEARD Act)
And the equally ridiculous and ineffective Foreign Anti-Digital Piracy Act
Both of these acts seek to force Internet Service Providers to block access to foreign piracy websites. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has said this is ridiculous and ineffective, that site-blocking bills only serve to censor the internet and make it more unsafe for everyone. AND THE'YRE RIGHT!!!
Piracy has existed until the dawn of time. And pirates will find ways around bills like these with no issue. But these bills are still dangerous and essentially pave the way for your ISP to block whatever our government thinks is "Objectionable". These DINOSAURS who dont understand the internet have no BUSINESS creating legislation around it. This is a bald faced attempt to block the internet for users for corporate gain. Wanna know how I know that?
The people that have endorsed the bill
Are all
People
Who
Would benefit from a bill like this. CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES!! TELL THEM YOU DO NOT SUPPORT EITHER OF THESE BILLS! OR KOSA WHILE YOURE AT IT! TELL THEM YOU OPPOSE INTERNET CENSORSHIP IN ALL FORMS!
We will not sit idly by while these GHOULS try and block and censor a free Internet!
CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES! - Here's a link to find and call your representatives!
I've been seeing this PBS ad on TikTok recently, and since I know a lot of people on here don't use TikTok, I thought I'd share it! PBS is asking people to go to https://protectmypublicmedia.org/rsc-emails/ and fill out the information to send an email to your congresspeople. It's super easy too, since they already have the email written out and will send it for you.
Also, PBS kids and sesame street is super important to me so even though the federal funding only makes up about 10% of NPR and PBS's funding, i wanted to share some ways to donate to them (although these are specifically PBS)
https://www.pbs.org/donate/ is the website to donate specifically to PBS; there are 2 ways to donate. You can do a one-time donation of 60 dollars or higher or monthly donations of 5 dollars or more. I just signed up for a 5 dollar monthly donation recently, and it was super easy and probably the more affordable option.
If you have kids who want any PBS Kids shows, there's also a store that sells merch based on the shows. The link for that is https://www.shop.pbskids.org/. They have a lot more variety for newer shows, but they have something for pretty much all of the shows they still play!
Don't let Trump try and take away this incredible source of children's educational media, especially when children's education is already suffering right now. PBS Kids is made possible by viewers like you!
