How this TikToker running for Congress is designing her campaign for Gen Z
Social media creator Kat Abughazaleh, 26, is running to represent the 9th District of Illinois in Congress against an incumbent who’s held the seat since 1998. She announced the news on TikTok.
“Donald Trump and Elon Musk are dismantling our country piece by piece, and so many Democrats seem content to just sit back and let them. So I say it’s time to drop the excuses and grow a f*cking spine,” Abughazaleh says in the opening to her TikTok announcement, published on the platform on Monday.
After stating her intention to run for a House seat against the 80-year-old Democratic incumbent, Representative Jan Schakowsky, Abughazaleh adds, “Unfortunately, this party has become one where you have to look to the exceptions for real leadership, as the majority work from an outdated playbook. We need a makeover.”
Abughazaleh may have just announced her run for Congress, but her strategy already provides some insight into how she’s planning to upend that “outdated playbook” (and how future new legislators might do the same): by meeting younger voters where they are—literally, on TikTok—and embracing a direct-yet-casual tone in her branding that feels natural to a digitally native generation.
Meeting young voters where they are
On TikTok, Abughazaleh has become known by more than 225,000 followers for her liberal political commentary, giving viewers frank, easy-to-understand analyses of policy and cultural trends, like an eight-part series on the rise of white Christian nationalism. Outside of social media, she’s worked as an independent journalist for the left-leaning watchdog nonprofit Media Matters for America, monitoring conservative content and analyzing emerging trends. Now she’s using her experience as a communicator to craft a campaign designed to capture young voters’ attention.
Abughazaleh has already perfected the short-form TikTok format, and her announcement video makes it clear that she plans to use that skill to her advantage. Instead of being a production-heavy or highly edited announcement, Abughazaleh’s video is just her, in her home, casually speaking into a microphone with captions—a standard TikTok format she also uses for her political commentary.
Within the video itself, she’s clear about how she wants her campaign to differ from the norm: “We’re focused on meeting constituent needs with one simple rule: What if we didn’t suck?” she says. “My campaign and I would rather spend our money on book drives and clothing exchanges and public events than fancy fundraisers for rich donors. I also want my campaign to be as transparent as possible. That’s why I’ll be posting regular videos about the costs and steps of running for office.”
As a Gen Z candidate already using social media to build a career, Abughazaleh is in a unique position to appeal to young voters on TikTok without seeming disingenuous. According to a tweet from Abughazaleh, her announcement—which garnered more than 230,000 views on TikTok and another 37,000 on X—has helped her campaign raise more than $200,000 in its first 24 hours.
An internet-savvy tone
From her announcement video alone (and her motto, “What if we didn’t suck?”) it’s obvious that Abughazaleh is using language and tone as another lever to connect with Gen Z. Her mix of candid honesty, exasperation, and a touch of humor feels like a refreshing reflection of how Gen Zers actually talk to each other on the internet.
Abughazaleh’s tone is even more distinct on her new campaign website. In her bio, she highlights that she doesn’t have health insurance, and her net worth “is pretty much just the laptop I bought with my entire severance when I got laid off.” One page lays out her core principles, including a section on “basic existence,” which decries the current rising cost of living “while Elon Musk hides away in his own personal compound.”
The site also includes a timeline highlighting that Abughazaleh was born after Schakowsky first took office, captioned, “Sorry for the history lesson but like I said, we have a representation problem”; a list of “anti-endorsements” dedicated to calling out figures like Musk and Tucker Carlson, who have previously taken issue with her work; and a mission statement that starts, “I’m running for Congress because the same old shit isn’t working.”
In short, Abughazaleh’s copy style communicates that she’s a regular, in-touch, working-class citizen of the U.S., and it’s meant to distinguish her from the reputation of elitism and inaction that has plagued many established Democratic politicians. In an interview published in Rolling Stone, Abughazaleh is clear about her intentions to run her campaign without catering to corporations, scraping for donations from wealthy donors, or making concessions to the MAGA crowd.
“We are in an emergency,” Abughazaleh told the publication. “Right now, the answer to authoritarianism isn’t to be quiet. It’s not matching pink outfits at a state address. It’s not throwing trans people under the bus. It’s not refusing to look at the party at all and see where it could be better. The answer is to very publicly, very loudly, very boldly stand up.”
It’s a message that simultaneously calls out the Democratic Party’s current ineffectiveness while asking constituents not to give in to apathy—and it might be what’s needed to actually invigorate young voters to get involved in politics.