Former left-wing social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh has been defeated by Evanston Mayor and former Illinois state legislator Daniel Biss in a crowded Democratic primary for a deep-blue U.S. House seat in the Chicago area.
According to WND, the 26-year-old Abughazaleh, a former operative for the progressive attack group Media Matters for America, captured 25.6% of the vote, trailing Biss, who secured 29.6% with 90% of ballots counted, according to the Associated Press. Because Illinois Ninth Congressional District is overwhelmingly Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris carried it by 37 percentage points in 2024 Biss is now overwhelmingly favored to win the November general election and take the seat in Washington.
Biss is set to replace Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, 81, who is retiring at the end of this term after holding the seat since January 1999. Schakowsky entered Congress just over two months before Abughazaleh was born, underscoring the generational contrast between the outgoing incumbent and the would-be progressive insurgent.
Abughazaleh ran an aggressively left-wing campaign, highlighting her uncompromising opposition to the Trump administration, her call for the abolition of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and her assertion that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza. Her platform placed her firmly on the far-left flank of the Democratic Party, even within a district already dominated by liberal voters.
Despite being widely viewed as the underdog, Abughazaleh gained late momentum, climbing in internal and public polling as Election Day approached. That surge was aided by last-minute endorsements from far-left Democratic Reps. Ilhan Omar of Minnesota and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan in the final 48 hours before the primary, with Tlaib sharing Abughazalehs Palestinian heritage.
A survey from Democratic firm Public Policy Polling (PPP), released one week before the primary, showed Abughazaleh trailing Biss by only four points, an improvement of three points from the previous month. The PPP poll also revealed a gender gap in her support: while the 26-year-old led among male voters by eight points, she lagged badly among women, running third behind Biss and fellow Democrat Jeremy Fine.
Abughazalehs candidacy was shadowed by legal and ethical questions stemming from her activism. A grand jury indicted Abughazaleh along with five others in October 2025 after they allegedly blocked law enforcement vehicles outside an ICE facility the previous month, and that same month she abruptly ended an interview with journalist Tara Palmeri when Palmeri confronted her with video footage of the incident.
Biss, though more established and institutionally backed, also embraced left-wing positions, particularly on immigration enforcement and sanctuary policies. Like Abughazaleh, he campaigned as a staunch critic of ICE and aligned himself with the broader Democratic push to shield illegal immigrants from federal authorities.
Weve been doing everything we can to protect our residents from before Donald Trump took office, passing strong sanctuary laws to make sure our police are not cooperating with federal civil immigration enforcement, the Evanston mayor told CNN in September 2025. That record, while popular with progressive activists, underscores how far the Democratic mainstream in the district has moved away from traditional law-and-order priorities.
Biss benefited from the backing of key Democratic power centers and national figures, reflecting the party establishments preference for a seasoned officeholder over a radical online activist. He also drew support from prominent liberal organizations that have long shaped the ideological direction of Illinois Democratic politics.
A former mathematics professor, Biss has served as mayor of Evanston, a relatively affluent suburb of Chicago with a population just under 80,000, since 2021. Before that, he spent eight years in the Illinois General Assembly, serving in both the state House and Senate, and in 2018 he ran unsuccessfully for governor, finishing a distant second in the Democratic primary to now-Gov. J.B. Pritzker.
Biss, who is Jewish and has family members living in Israel, has criticized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus government for its handling of the war in Gaza. The Ninth District is widely regarded as the most heavily Jewish congressional district in Illinois and has been represented by a Jewish Democrat either Schakowsky or her predecessor Sidney Yates for more than six decades.
Had she prevailed, Abughazaleh, who turns 27 on March 24, would have become the youngest woman ever elected to Congress. Her victory would have eclipsed the previous record held by Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez by roughly two years, further cementing the partys generational and ideological shift to the left.
During her tenure at Media Matters, Abughazaleh claimed she monitored Tucker Carlson, then a primetime host on Fox News, as part of her job. She gained notoriety for producing clips of Tucker Carlson Tonight from a self-described left-wing perspective and, at the height of her online prominence, she declared in her social media biographies, I watch Tucker Carlson so you dont have to.
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