Saikat Chakrabarti, an Indian-origin progressive left-wing activist, has announced his ambition to run against 84-year-old House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi to represent San Francisco in the US Congress.
The progressive activist has set his sights on unseating Pelosi, who is seeking her 21st term in the Congress.
Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, made the announcement on social media platform X.
“I’ve decided to run against Nancy Pelosi to represent San Francisco in Congress. I know some of you might be surprised that Speaker Emeritus Pelosi is running again, but she is — for her 21st term,” 39-year-old Chakrabarti said.
“Watching Trump and Elon freely unleash chaos in their illegal seizure of government, it’s become clear to me that the Democratic Party needs new leadership. I don’t understand how DC’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,” he added.
Chakrabarti also criticised Pelosi for her recent remarks during a media interview, where she asserted that the Democratic Party does not need to change.
“In an interview with Ezra Klein after Trump’s victory, Pelosi said the Democrats don’t need to change. I disagree. When Democrats were about to appoint their star communicator — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — to chair the powerful Oversight committee to hold Trump and his cronies accountable, Pelosi personally intervened to block it,” he said.
For his congressional campaign, Chakrabarti said he will adopt a different approach that will be voter-driven rather than donation-driven.
“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,” he added.
About Saikat Chakrabarti
Saikat Chakrabarti hails from Texas. He is a political advisor, left-wing activist and a Harvard-qualified software engineer.
His political career started in 2016 when he became part of Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaign.
Later, he helped launch Ocasio-Cortez’s successful 2018 congressional campaign.
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