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When Kat Abughazaleh got set off from her job as an extremism researcher and video producer at Media Matters last year , Elon Musk personally chime in on X to celebrate her tough luck .
“ Karma is real , ” Musksaid .
But as Abughazaleh said in a video on Monday announcing hercampaignfor Congress , she ’s not afraid of stand up to Musk , especially as hisinfluence on the federal governmentescalates .
Instead , the 26 - year - one-time has her center on Illinois ’ Ninth District . The current representative , the 80 - year - old Democrat Jan Schakowsky , was first elected to Congress before Abughazaleh was even bear .
“ I have mind that I require to push , and I have a big [ social medium ] platform , ” Abughazaleh told TechCrunch on Monday . “ I feel I did n’t desire to wait around for someone to do something when I could do something right now . ”
Now an independent social media creator , she has collect over half a million follower across platform for her reformist political cognitive content , withher biggest audience(222,000 following ) on TikTok .
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“ There is absolutely no reason you should n’t be capable to afford housing , groceries , and health care with some money remnant , ” she say in her cause announcement . “ Families should have free childcare , Social Security should be thrive , and our inalienable rights should n’t be dependent on who ’s in power . ”
Abughazaleh did n’t have a bun in the oven her ladder - ins with Musk to be relatable to the broader public . But over 10 month after Musk lionize her layoff , more than30,000 Union employeesnow know the feeling of turn a loss their business due to the billionaire ’s intrigue .
“ A lot of people in journalism , specially on this disinformation beat , have been go through sort of a trial period of time , or a exercise run , a dry rivulet of what Trump and Musk have been doing to the rest of the country , ” she told TechCrunch .
“ We knew what was go bad to happen … We are overturned that we ’re ripe , but that also means that we have tools to fight back and know what ’s befall and sleep with how to manage it . ”
A TikToker turned political candidate
While immature people have historically angle liberal , Gen Z votersshiftedmore conservative in last year ’s election . Abughazaleh thinks this a mathematical product of piteous outreach from Democrats .
“ I think the adult trouble Democrats have is their digital strategy , and hoi polloi like me and multitude that are young have a honorable understanding [ of the net ] , ” she said . “ It ’s something that we grew up with . ”
Some critics may think her years is a double - edged sword since she ’s unseasoned enough to have a lengthy online footprint . But Abughazaleh is n’t worried . As shewroteto one skeptic on X , “ I hope you enjoy my in-between schoolhouse One Direction fan web log and moving picture of my computed tomography . ”
In the geological era of Trump — the president literally owns a social medium political program where he post always — it ’s not so tabu any longer to show personality online .
“ We have a president that posts whatever comes to his psyche at any time , ” she suppose . “ I believe that we ’re o.k. with just like , have a mien from historic period 13 . ”
give her history with Musk , she is n’t planning to center X in her digital strategy . Above all other social media platform , Abughazaleh is prioritizing Bluesky , where she has around154,000 follower .
On Monday , for example , she post her campaign announcement alone on Bluesky for an time of day and a half before go to other program .
“ I really wish Bluesky ’s policies on a lot of of things , ” she said . “ They ’re rent more moderator , and a lot of other billet are n’t mince , or are firing moderators . ”
Meta , for instance , overhauled its content moderation policiesin January , terminate its third - party fact - checking program .
Bluesky has grown to over 33 million user , and even former president Barack Obamajoined the platformover the weekend . But its population is still relatively small compared to longstanding social giants like Instagram or X.
disregarding , Abughazaleh ’s scheme has proven successful thus far . In the first seven time of day of her safari , she raised $ 100,000 , with an average donation of $ 45 .
“ We ’ve gotten the most donation on social medium from Bluesky so far out of any other platform , ” Abughazaleh evidence TechCrunch .
Abughazaleh is also enthusiastic about the open origin nature of Bluesky . She ’s trying to echo that transparence on her YouTube channel , where she plans to share videos document her campaign experience .
“ I ’m trying to be really vapourous about how to run for office , because I sense like it ’s kind of this black hollow that seems a lot more hard than it should be , ” she say .
Even if she does n’t win a backside in Congress , she hopes that her receptiveness about this outgrowth will barrack other Gen Z campaigner to run .
“ If this movement goes as planned , I would be the youngest woman elected to Congress , ” she said . “ But I think it would be coolheaded if we had another prospect that come in and was even younger than me . ”
