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"The people in charge are so out of touch": Pelosi challenger pitches a "new" Democratic Party - Salon [View all]
aikat Chakrabarti, who previously served as chief of staff for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., last month announced a primary challenge against former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., citing frustrations with Democratic leadership stifling the voices of some of the party's most compelling young talent.
The co-founder of Brand New Congress — which helped launch "The Squad” of progressive lawmakers in Congress — and a longtime progressive activist, Chakrabarti spoke to Salon about the divide he sees among Democrats, not along ideological lines but between those willing to fight for change and those looking to preserve the status quo.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Salon: I was hoping to speak with you because of your primary challenge to Nancy Pelosi. But, more broadly, you're the founder of Brand New Congress, which lives on through the Justice Democrats. You were the chief of staff to one of the most high-profile insurgent House Democrats in recent years, and now you're a primary challenger to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I was hoping you could explain your philosophy when it comes to primary challenges and what you see as their role and purpose from a voter’s perspective, in terms of getting politicians to take action on issues that people care about.
Chakrabarti: My view is, I think there's these huge problems that most Americans have been facing for decades now. You look at most Americans' wages, they've been stagnating or barely climbing up for three or four decades, and at the same time the kind of big things people used to plan their lives around—buying a house, raising a family, having childcare, getting a good education, going to the doctor—those essentials have just been skyrocketing in price. And so this is culminating in creating this huge squeeze on a big part of the American population, and people are still really stuck. And they also feel like the country is completely stuck.
The co-founder of Brand New Congress — which helped launch "The Squad” of progressive lawmakers in Congress — and a longtime progressive activist, Chakrabarti spoke to Salon about the divide he sees among Democrats, not along ideological lines but between those willing to fight for change and those looking to preserve the status quo.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Salon: I was hoping to speak with you because of your primary challenge to Nancy Pelosi. But, more broadly, you're the founder of Brand New Congress, which lives on through the Justice Democrats. You were the chief of staff to one of the most high-profile insurgent House Democrats in recent years, and now you're a primary challenger to former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. I was hoping you could explain your philosophy when it comes to primary challenges and what you see as their role and purpose from a voter’s perspective, in terms of getting politicians to take action on issues that people care about.
Chakrabarti: My view is, I think there's these huge problems that most Americans have been facing for decades now. You look at most Americans' wages, they've been stagnating or barely climbing up for three or four decades, and at the same time the kind of big things people used to plan their lives around—buying a house, raising a family, having childcare, getting a good education, going to the doctor—those essentials have just been skyrocketing in price. And so this is culminating in creating this huge squeeze on a big part of the American population, and people are still really stuck. And they also feel like the country is completely stuck.
https://www.salon.com/2025/03/04/the-people-in-charge-are-so-out-of-touch-pelosi-challenger-pitches-a-new-democratic-party/
