Kat Abughazaleh Kicks Off Her Campaign: “We Don’t Need To Be Less ‘Woke,’ We Don’t Need To Abandon Trans People”

By Dominic Guanzon

Saturday 2/29/25

EVANSTON — Political commentator Kat Abughazaleh (also known as Kat Abu on YouTube), kicked off her primary campaign at Evanston’s Five & Dime with over a hundred supporters and soon-to-be volunteers, conversing with both the dedicated and the curious throughout the night.

During her speech, Abughazaleh [AH-boo-ga-ZAH-lay] announced to the room her five-day-old campaign had amassed over $300k “just with grassroots donors,” averaging “about $38” per donation. This, in addition to several dozen boxes of period hygiene products, asked by the campaign in lieu of a monetary entrance fee, for The Period Collective non-profit. “We’ve also gotten 1,000 people to volunteer. It’s insane to me…I’m so thrilled.”

A sampling of the attendees, a majority of them appearing to be in their 20s and 30s, claimed a variety of progressive issues as their most important. These ranged from genocide in Palestine to trans rights being legislated away, mirroring Abughazaleh’s online audience. However, the number one talked-about issue by far was the lack of initiative and fight from the national Democratic Party.

“We don’t need to be less ‘woke,’ we don’t need to abandon trans people,” she argued during her speech. “If you want to have Steve Bannon on your podcast, just become a Republican,” she joked, to laughter from the crowd, in a swipe at California Governor Gavin Newsom and his new podcast.

“If you want to have Steve Bannon on your podcast, just become a Republican.”

-Kat Abughazaleh to campaign kickoff event attendees

The candidate is up against Jan Schakowsky of the IL-9th district, who, if re-elected to her 15th term, will be 82 years old upon taking the oath of office. Event-goers repeatedly expressed concern for Schakowsky’s age and long career, despite also admitting degrees of satisfaction with her progressive voting record. “Passing the torch” was an oft-mentioned mantra of those who talked to me.

According to one woman: “I like Jan Schakowsky, and I like the work that she’s done, particularly the work of her staff…but, I would also like her to be able to retire and have younger, more representative voices.”

Abughazaleh was born during Schakowsky’s first term, but the former has claimed the incumbent “has had a pretty great track record on her voting,” in an interview with Rolling Stone.

When asked how many dedicated staff she had recruited thus far, the first-time challenger described the campaign’s spur-of-the-moment nature.

“It’s been me and my campaign manager. I made the decision on February 3rd [2025], and contacted him through a mutual friend. We had never met, and we put together the campaign in under 50 days.”

Her campaign manager, Sam Weinberg, spoke of events similarly.

“We didn’t even have her policy platform ready [on the website] until two days before the launch. We were staying up writing late into the night.  [Her campaign website photos] were taken exactly six days before the launch.”

Weinberg continued on how grassroots, and green, his background in big-time electoral politics was.

“This is the first campaign that I’m managing. I’ve done a little bit of consulting for some other political entities. I’ve been in politics peripherally since I was a teenager. I volunteered for Bernie [Sanders], and then for Hillary [Clinton] in 2016. That was my first foray into politics for real. I’ve been in this space since 2020, but mostly in the non-profit world.”

Abughazaleh also positioned herself as a reformer and modernizer in her speech, proclaiming she would “expand constituent services. Every representative receives money for this, but you might not even know that this exists.

“When you go to my [future] House website you won’t just be able to request a tour of the Capitol or your own American flag…If your social security check doesn’t come, we will have a designated constituent services member on staff to make sure that you get your money. I also want to re-envision how you contact your rep…It is 2025, there should be a chat function.”

More information on Kat Abughazaleh’s campaign is available at:

https://www.katforillinois.com/