New Delhi: Saikat Chakrabarti, who previously served as the chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, has declared his intention to challenge House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi for the congressional seat representing San Francisco, as announced on X. The 39-year-old progressive activist of Indian descent is aiming to unseat the 84-year-old Pelosi, who is running for her 21st term in Congress.
“I’ve decided to run against Nancy Pelosi to represent San Francisco in Congress. I know some of you might be surprised that Speaker Emeritus Pelosi is running again, but she is — for her 21st term,” Chakrabarti wrote on X. Saikat Chakrabarti expressed his dissatisfaction with the current Democratic leadership, criticising their inability to adjust to the evolving political climate in the United States.
“Watching Trump and Elon freely unleash chaos in their illegal seizure of government, it’s become clear to me that the Democratic Party needs new leadership. I don’t understand how DC’s Democratic leaders are so paralyzed and unprepared for this moment after living through President Trump’s first term – and after Trump and Elon warned us exactly what they planned to do,” he added in his social media post.
All about Saikat Chakrabarti
Saikat Chakrabarti, known for his strong connections to progressive politics, referred to Nancy Pelosi’s recent comments in an interview with journalist Ezra Klein. In the interview, the former Speaker of the House said that the Democratic Party does not require any change.
“In an interview with Ezra Klein after Trump’s victory, Pelosi said the Democrats don’t need to change. I disagree. When Democrats were about to appoint their star communicator — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — to chair the powerful Oversight committee to hold Trump and his cronies accountable, Pelosi personally intervened to block it,” he further wrote.
Regarding his campaign, Chakrabarti said that his strategy will focus on being driven by voters, not by donations. “Now, I want to bring those solutions to Congress. I’m going to run a very different kind of campaign than most. Instead of spending hours each day doing “call time” with big money donors — I’m going to spend every day talking with voters. I know! What a radical idea,” he added.
Saikat Chakrabarti, a Texas native, is a political advisor, activist, and software engineer with a Harvard background. After working on Wall Street and in Silicon Valley, he joined Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. He later helped launch Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s successful 2018 campaign and served as her campaign manager and chief of staff before returning to San Francisco.
