Chicago, can we get a Zohran Mamdani or Jasmine Crockett to run for the House or Senate?
Senator Dick Durbin and Rep. Jan Schakowsky are retiring, but is a social media enthusiast like Kat Abughazaleh the answer?
The following post is part of my former Substack publication “One Black Woman’s Vote” that is now in “I Do See Color.” To see more OBWV posts from 2025, click here. To see OBWV posts from 2021-2024, click here. New OBWV posts will be published on the last Wednesday of each month.
Jealousy is not an emotion that appears often in my personality, but watching Kid Mero (of the former “Desus & Mero”) interviewing Black and Brown New Yorkers gave me the green eyes Erykah Badu sings about. While I am elated to hear the strong voices of Governor J.B. Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson standing up to Donald Trump, the Illinois House and Senate may be in trouble of finding effective replacement leaders for upcoming retirees Senator Dick Durbin and Representative Jan Schakowsky. The last thing we need is a politician who is more interested in social media videos and status updates than actually talking to the voters in the community. We need our own Zohran Mamdani or Jasmine Crockett.
I was already duped before — twice. When former Mayor Lori Lightfoot and current Alderman Maria Hadden ran for office, I didn’t hesitate to vote for Lightfoot. Hadden was a little different. I pondered on unseating former Alderman Joe Moore because I was constantly seeing him in the neighborhood, passing out donuts and coffee and talking to random people headed to the Red Line el train.
Moore and I had a rough start, primarily because I demanded to know his views on the Jena 6 the first time we met. (Blame me being in my 20s for choosing an incident in Louisiana instead of anything at all happening in Illinois.) But I kept popping up at his ward events, and he started to grow on me. I asked him to pose for a pic at a back-to-school BBQ and introduced him to my mother before he went back to mingling with a diverse group of parents asking him about education and avoiding getting run over by energetic Black kids in bounce houses. I went from being annoyed by him blocking the Red Line doorway to being pleased to see him (even if he was a little wary of bloggers at local events). To this day, I regret not voting for him again.
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Still, Hadden’s campaign team sold me on the Black LGBTQ+ woman running against Moore, who’d been the alderman for 28 years. The handwritten note in the mail and the chats with her campaign crew made me wonder what wonderful ideas she’d offer my ward and how she’d make participatory voting better.
Fast forward past elections, and Lightfoot was cursing everybody out like an episode of “The Wire” and Hadden has repeatedly done a mediocre job of getting the word out about participatory voting — an active part of ward voting that affects how $1 million is spent. While Moore used to have signs all over the neighborhood, outside of Hadden wanting to get re-elected, we don’t see much about the 49th alderwoman other than a zillion selfies on Facebook, Instagram and her newsletter.
And when I actually did need the alderwoman’s help regarding a parking dispute that has historically been affecting all of Chicago — the heinous Lincoln Towing now renamed Protective Parking Service — that led to me filing a parking lawsuit and complaining to the Illinois Commerce Commission, Hadden was nowhere to be found. Not one response. Even ICC tried to assist multiple times. The team for Schakowsky and an alderman in a whole other ward (Andre Vasquez) immediately jumped in to assist as well. Three years later, I still support just about everything Vasquez is involved in and loathe whoever left that rat in front of his office.
Chicago needs politicians who do more than post on social media
Kat Abughazaleh concerns me. I regularly walk past the campaign office of the 20-something woman running for Schakowsky’s seat, and the office is always empty. While Abughazaleh has plenty of time to upload videos on Instagram, I wouldn’t have had a clue who she was if not for the bright orange signs on the office windows.
In a Rogers Park neighborhood filled with Asian-owned, Black-owned and Hispanic-owned businesses, no one from her team is ever seen. The Honeybear Cafe, a restaurant clearly a hit for the brunch crowd, has so many people eating there that the place has to have fold-out seats lining the doorway and around the corner. Chicago dog walkers, joggers and Metra riders poke their heads in the adjacent fridge and cabinets for food giveaways.
It’s an area that makes absolute sense to campaign around or at least introduce yourself the way Moore did, and Abughazaleh is not doing this — less than a block away. I have walked by five of her volunteers holding yard signs and what looked like handouts. One of the five said hello to me and kept walking, as if stopping to give me a handout while ringing random people’s doorbells never even occurred to them. Black women vote too!
While I was disturbed by the way she was shoved to the ground by armed troops during a peaceful protest outside Broadview ICE facility, I’m also skeptical of why she can go all the way to Broadview but not interact with the Black and Brown areas of Chicago that are full of potential voters. There is a page about immigration on her site, but there’s also a noticeable lack of information regarding her appeal to African-American voters — or what we will gain by voting for her.
I also haven’t seen her talk to the immigrants in the actual neighborhood where her window signs suddenly appeared (long before ICE showed up in Broadview a few weeks ago). Is this pro-immigration protest performative or does she really care? Cause fishnets, a raised middle finger and a few rally posters aren’t enough to impress voters like me. Her cat is cute and being a tenant may make her bond with apartment dwellers, but Chicago voters need more than that to confirm a vote for Congress.
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While an alderwoman like Hadden has pretty much gone missing outside of photo ops, renaming streets and updating her own social media platform, it’s fair to say that Abughazaleh has to appeal to more than just one ward. The problem is Abughazaleh is not even doing that. If anything, Rogers Park should know her well because her campaign office is here (and empty outside of a large Halloween skeleton). I don’t care if she’s on the fence about keeping Rep. Hakeem Jeffries as Minority Speaker. I care about whether Chicagoans should vote for her — even though we don’t really know her. I knew who Moore was from a block away — because I saw him often enough, even outside of the Know Your Rights workshops and other Democratic-leaning events.
Chicago needs the equivalent of a Mamdani or Crockett to run for the House and the senate, and someone who is as visible as Moore was. I’m not saying we need someone who knows the words to Wu-Tang Clan songs or who can easily converse with Jadakiss and Run the Jewels at a Wu concert. I’m not saying we need an attorney who can check a MAGA Republican getting out of line. But we do need someone who connects with the community. The bruise (that she made sure to post) will heal, but can she effectively work on laws?
Pritzker and Johnson figured out how to be activists and politically savvy, and Crockett embodies these characteristics. So far, Abughazaleh feels like another round of Hadden: here for the Instagram pics and newsletter selfies but not connecting with voters. So far, neither one of them have my new or next vote!
Did you enjoy this post? You’re also welcome to check out my Substack columns “Black Girl In a Doggone World,” “BlackTechLogy,” “Homegrown Tales,” “I Do See Color,” “One Black Woman’s Vote” and “Window Shopping” too. Subscribe to this newsletter for the weekly posts every Wednesday. Thanks for reading!