Saikat Chakrabarti, former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY), will take on Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) to represent San Francisco, Fox News reported. Chakrabarti chastised the Democratic Party for being "paralyzed and unprepared."
Chakrabarti made a name for himself managing Ocasio-Cortez's successful 2018 campaign. He was her chief of staff until resigning in 2019 after he excoriated members of the Democratic Party for not being radically progressive enough.
Now Chakrabarti is continuing his crusade against establishment Democrats by going after Pelosi, who was the former House Speaker. The 84-year-old is running for her 21st term, and Chakrabarti explained his reasons for challenging her in a lengthy post to X, formerly Twitter, Wednesday.
I’ve got some news: 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!
Watching Trump and Elon freely unleash chaos in their illegal…
— Saikat Chakrabarti (@saikatc) February 5, 2025
The election of young politicians like Ocasio-Cortez seemingly represented a renewal of the Democratic Party. However, Chakrabarti blames old holdovers like Pelosi for President Donald Trump's election, which also brought Tesla billionaire Elon Musk into the mix.
"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," Chakrabarti wrote.
Chakrabarti pointed out that the world is much different than when Pelosi first took office implying that she is out of touch with the needs of today's citizens. "When Nancy Pelosi was first elected to Congress, you could buy a home on a single income," he pointed out.
"A summer job could pay for college. Republicans believed in climate change and respected election results. Now, the things that defined the American Dream — being able to afford health care, education, a home, and raise a family — are impossible for most people," Chakrabarti lamented.
"And the Republican Party is overtly conspiratorial and anti-democracy. The Democratic Party needs to stop acting like it's competing against a normal political party that plays by the rules, and it needs a bold vision for how to raise living standards, quality of life and security for all Americans. America is stuck, and Americans want real solutions that are as big as the problems we face," he urged.
The last presidential election was arguably a smackdown of the far left's ideas about the future of this nation. Instead of learning that lesson, Chakrabarti is running on his progressive bona fides.
"After a career in tech, I joined the Bernie campaign in 2016 because I wanted to be a part of solving those problems. I launched a project to elect a new generation of leaders, and one of them was Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez," Chakrabarti explained.
As if that weren't enough, Chakrabarti has a history of going after Democrats who aren't leftist enough, such as accusing Rep. Sharice Davids of propping up the system he insists is built on racism because she voted for a Senate border security bill. It didn't matter that the Kansas Democrat broke the glass ceiling to become one of the first women who was Native American to serve in Congress.
Chakrabarti also went after moderates in his party as the "new Souther Democrats" because they didn't sign onto the liberal border bill. He charged that they "certainly seem hell bent to do to black and brown people today what the old Southern Democrats did in the 40s" in a since-deleted social media post.
Although Chakrabarti has a point about the glut of octogenarians in Congress, his read on the situation is all wrong. The good thing is that if Democrats continue to make the same mistakes, Republicans will remain in power.
