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A new world needs new leaders.
Nancy Pelosi entered politics 45 years ago. Back then, your rent could be a few hundred dollars a month and a summer job covered college tuition. Republicans and Democrats agreed that climate change was real and that democracy was a good thing. Roe V. Wade was the law of the land, and it was impossible to imagine going backwards.
Today, even highly-paid professionals struggle to afford decent housing, healthcare, and education. MAGA Republicans are tearing apart virtually every public institution. And the Supreme Court voted 6-3 to allow states to totally ban abortion without exception for rape, incest, or age.
I'm running for Congress because our Democratic party leaders in DC are unfit to lead in the world as it is today.
They don't have the strength to stop Trump and MAGA β and they don't have the vision or the voice to convince voters they can fix our biggest problems.
The Democratic Party needs to change.
Nancy Pelosi believes Democrats don't need to change. She believes Trump, MAGA, and the new authoritarianism will fade away on its own. I believe we need a totally new leadership in DC that not only knows how to fight Trump, but also how to deliver the change that Americans are demanding. 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.
Since 2016, I've been working to promote that kind of leadership in the Democratic party.
After a career in San Francisco's tech industry, I helped lead Bernie Sanders' 2016 campaign and then launched a project to recruit and elect new leaders to Congress. One of those leaders was Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC), and we went on to elect several others.
I have seen what real leadership can do.
After managing AOC's first campaign, I became her chief of staff in Congress where I was in charge of launching the Green New Deal. The Green New Deal was designed to inspire 2020 presidential candidates and congressional leaders to go big on climate. It worked.
Every presidential candidate either endorsed the Green New Deal or proposed climate plans that were larger than anything any President had ever proposed before. It directly led to President Biden investing over a trillion dollars into combating climate change β the largest climate investment in history, and the largest investment in American industry and manufacturing since World War II.
That experience taught me that even a little bit of bold leadership goes a long way β even when it comes from a brand new Congressperson.
Imagine what a whole new Democratic party leadership could accomplish!
Twenty terms in Congress is enough.
Like many others, I was astonished when Nancy Pelosi filed to run for her 21st term in Congress. Shortly after, she told the New York Times that Democrats didn't need to change and that Trump's victory wasn't their fault.
Speaker Emeritus Pelosi is still calling the shots for the party. At a time when Democrats need the strongest possible voices to hold Trump and his oligarchs accountable, she personally blocked AOC from becoming the chairperson of the Congressional Oversight Committee.
Nancy Pelosi has done many great things in her career. Now, though, she is blocking the change we need.
She was a fighter who joined Congress in 1987 β but she does not understand the anti-Democratic, anti-Constitution, and anti-American forces that we are up against in 2025. And at age 84, she no longer has the strength for the current fight.
In the News
Interview: Saikat Chakrabarti, creator of the Green New Deal | Noahpinion Blog
POLITICO Power List: Saikat Chakrabarti | Politico
How Saikat Chakrabarti became AOC's chief of change | The Washington Post
Saikat Chakrabarti on Working for AOC and 'Supply-Side Progressivism' | KQED
How Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Allies Supplanted the Obama Generation | The New Yorker
AOC's former chief of staff weighs in on San Francisco politics | SF Examiner
Saikat Chakrabarti: Biden's Many Options for Creating Real Change | INET
Inside the Left's New, 'Mature' Political Strategy | Politico
How AOC's 'humble' chief of staff got his start in Silicon Valley | Fast Company
Saikat Chakrabarti is Building a Millennial Movement | The Atlantic
About me.
I was born in Fort Worth, TX, to immigrants from India. I came to San Francisco after college, like so many others, with dreams of making a difference and fell in love with our city. I started my own company here before joining Stripe as its second engineer.
I left Stripe to join Bernie's 2016 campaign where I traveled the country building tools that powered Bernie's unprecedented grassroots movement. On that campaign, I met an incredible group of leaders and together we launched an effort to recruit a new generation of leaders to Congress called Justice Democrats.
Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was a member of our first class of recruits. I ran her 2018 campaign before going into Congress as her Chief of Staff.
I now lead a policy think tank devoted to developing comprehensive plans for how government can deliver prosperity and economic security for all Americans through an economic mobilization to build a clean economy for the U.S. and the world.
We're running a clean and independent campaign. NO corporate PAC Money. Follow Saikat's Campaign on Bluesky!