Yesterday I got the chance to meet Saikat Chakrabarti, who’s running against Nancy Pelosi in California’s 11th congressional district. He has my vote for the following reasons:
- I agree with the vast majority of his policies, which focus on affordable housing and healthcare, building a clean economy, and ending corruption in Congress.
- He’s relatively young (39) and is thinking about what the next 30 years of democracy can look like.
- He’s not afraid to call out the complacency and cowardice in the Democratic party, and to stand up for systemic change, even if it means rocking the boat.
- He’s a flexible, nuanced thinker, who rejects false dichotomies (for example, we can expand state capacity AND make government more efficient–it’s not one or the other).
Some random observations:
- His name is pronounced “shoy-kot” (more or less), which is the Bengali pronunciation of the name.
- He’s independently wealthy from a startup (engineer #2 at Stripe). I don’t hold this against him at all, as it allows him to fund a campaign entirely free of corporate PAC money, AND he’s in favor of a wealth tax on people like himself.
- He’s approachable, down-to-earth, and has a good sense of humor.
- He’s originally from Texas.
- He campaigned for Bernie Sanders, and was AOC’s campaign manager, and later, chief of staff.
- While just as articulate and principled as Bernie and AOC, I could see Saikat being a less polarizing figure, simply because he is so personable and solutions-focused.
My friends Mike and Lara graciously hosted the meet-and-greet (despite having a two-month-old baby). The crowd was young (mostly in their thirties) and diverse. Questions focused on how to fight Trump’s authoritarianism, changes needed in the Democratic party, affordable housing, and healthcare. Saikat was up-front that the first order of business would be to push back against Trumpism in any and every way possible, and that implementing a larger policy vision would require more Democratic power. He envisions a FDR-like rebuilding of U.S. economic capacity and quality-of-life improvements for citizens (like affordable healthcare, housing, and education).
Could Saikat Win?
Defeating incumbents isn’t easy, and Pelosi has declared her candidacy. Even if Pelosi drops out, Scott Wiener could transfer his ’28 fundraising to the ’26 mid-term race.
On the other hand, Saikat knows the ins-and-outs of campaigning, and helped AOC defeat an incumbent. Political landscapes can change quickly. He has some momentum, and could definitely win.
I, for one, am tired of a complacency of the Democratic party. How can Trump claim to be the champion of the working class, and have so many believe him? It’s largely because the Democrats have settled for the status quo of corporate control of the economy, “playing nice” with entrenched business interests and wealthy elites while putting too much emphasis on identity politics.
The Way Forward
In a recent blog post I teased the idea of brainstorming for Project 2029, a rebuttal vision to the regressive, minority-rule, ultraconservative, patriarchal, Christian Nationalist power-grab of Project 2025, led by Russell “put-them-in-trauma” Vought.
But who am I kidding? I don’t have time for that, I’m not a policy expert, and there are already multiple Project 2029 organizations leading the charge.
What is the Democratic answer to “Make America Great Again”? We know now, clear as day, that the real meaning of MAGA is “us vs. them,” or “bring back white Christian dominance”. But the nostalgic, optimistic message is still powerful, and 40% of the country is still under it’s sway, regardless of its complete insincerity.
We Dems don’t yet have our great slogan. But a collective sentiment is rising among the majority (not just Democrats), that the way forward for a functional, powerful United States lies not only in pushing back against authoritarianism and cryptofascism, but in implementing policies that make life more livable for the average American, taking common sense environmental actions, and creating foreign policy that doesn’t support genocide or Russian invasions. It’s not rocket science.
It’s what useful governments do, when you get rid of the corruption, religious extremism, and hate-based ideologies.
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