Radical Superstar Running for House Seat INDICTED Amid DSA Surge in Democratic Ranks
"Whether she wins or loses, her candidacy is a warning to the rest of America: Radicals are intent on taking over the Democratic Party before they can move on to dismantling America."
A new wave of socialist activists has stormed the Democratic Party from the inside—but now, the legal system is catching up.
In a dramatic escalation of federal immigration enforcement under President Trump’s second term, one of the left’s rising Gen-Z stars has been indicted after a volatile street clash with ICE agents in suburban Chicago.
Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old social media influencer, DSA-aligned activist, and congressional candidate, is now at the center of a growing debate over extremism, legitimacy, and lawlessness inside the Democratic ranks.
Abughazaleh, a self-styled “new generation” progressive Democrat running for Congress in Illinois’ 9th district, has been federally indicted for allegedly obstructing immigration officers during a heated anti-ICE protest outside a detention center in Broadview, Illinois.
According to the federal indictment unsealed Wednesday, Abughazaleh and five others conspired to block a federal vehicle from exiting the ICE facility on September 26, 2025. Prosecutors allege that the protest became physical when demonstrators surrounded the vehicle, banged on its hood, damaged side mirrors, and scratched anti-police slogans into the paint. One federal agent was allegedly forced to drive at a crawl to avoid hitting the protesters.
Courtesy: @AliBradleyTV
The protest that triggered the indictment unfolded just outside the Broadview ICE Processing Center, one of the busiest immigration detention sites in the Midwest. Video from the scene shows Abughazaleh and other demonstrators linking arms to block vehicles and shouting at federal officers.
In one viral clip, Abughazaleh is seen banging on the hood of a government SUV and shouting at the driver before being dragged away by ICE agents. Days later, she rage-quit a televised interview when shown the footage.
Federal prosecutors now allege that Abughazaleh was not just a passive protester but one of the key instigators of a conspiracy to obstruct law enforcement.
Abughazaleh’s indictment follows a string of similar legal clashes between radical local officials and ICE operations. In May, Newark’s Democrat Mayor Ras Baraka was arrested for trespassing at a detention center. In June, NYC Comptroller Brad Lander was detained after allegedly assaulting agents during a protest. Rep. LaMonica McIver of New Jersey is also under indictment for allegedly interfering with immigration enforcement.
All three incidents occurred in the wake of President Trump’s sweeping 2025 executive orders expanding ICE authority, eliminating sanctuary city protections, and instructing DOJ to aggressively pursue obstruction of immigration officers.
From Internet Star to Indicted Candidate
Abughazaleh, a former Media Matters video producer who built a large following attacking right-wing media figures, is now accused of impeding federal officers in the line of duty. If convicted, she could face years in prison.
The indictment lands at a politically explosive moment. Under Attorney General Pam Bondi, the Trump Justice Department has ramped up prosecutions of public officials and political operatives accused of obstructing immigration enforcement.
In recent months, several high-profile Democrats, including Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and NYC Comptroller Brad Lander, have been arrested for similar ICE-related standoffs.
But Abughazaleh’s case is different: she is not just an activist, but a candidate endorsed by prominent leftist influencers and backed by a well-organized, DSA-infused campaign infrastructure.
She said that what compelled her to run was feeling that the Democrats are not doing enough to stop the Trump administration.
“I was just like, ‘This is so stupid. Why are we not doing anything?’ And I got sick of waiting around for someone else to do something,” Abughazaleh said. “The strategy that Democratic leadership has right now is ‘we’ll sit back, and then everyone will hate Republicans by 2026 and then we’ll win the majority, and then it’ll be good.’ And that’s not the way to beat them. Fascists fucking love it if you just sit back and let them work.”
Abughazaleh first rose to prominence with viral TikToks and Twitter threads dissecting Tucker Carlson’s Fox News segments. After being laid off from Media Matters in the fallout of Elon Musk’s lawsuit against the organization, she pivoted into independent journalism and politics, running on a platform of Medicare for All, Green New Deal, open borders, and opposition to U.S. support for Israel.
But her campaign has now been derailed by the ICE protest indictment. On social media, she called the charges a “political prosecution” and insisted she was defending First Amendment rights.
“I’m not backing down, and we’re going to win,” she posted defiantly.
Her campaign website has since added messaging denouncing federal immigration enforcement and doubling down on her call to abolish ICE.
Suspected Ties to the DSA and a New Radical Bloc
Abughazaleh’s campaign echoes much of the Democratic Socialist of America’s (DSA) platform—and she has shared support from DSA-endorsed candidates like Zohran Mamdani, the democratic socialist who recently won the NYC mayoral primary.
“Unfortunately, this party has become one where you have to look to the exceptions for real leadership. The majority work from an outdated playbook,“ she said in a campaign video.
Abughazaleh is widely seen as part of a new “Squad 2.0” movement: Gen Z progressives pushing open borders, defunding police, and dramatically expanding federal entitlements. Many, like Abughazaleh, have emerged from activist media ecosystems and social justice nonprofits.
This new generation has often clashed with traditional Democrats, whom they accuse of selling out to corporations and moderating too much in the Trump era. But now, legal scrutiny is catching up.
Republicans say Abughazaleh is emblematic of a dangerous new extremism festering in safe blue districts.
“This is what happens when political TikTokers mistake activism for governance,” said Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL). “The law doesn’t care about your likes.”
Exposed: The DSA Playbook
While progressive influencers have rallied behind Abughazaleh, establishment Democrats are largely staying silent. Some party officials privately worry that the DSA wing is becoming a liability—a perception bolstered by Abughazaleh’s embrace of slogans like “from the river to the sea” and her sharp criticism of former President Joe Biden and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The DSA, meanwhile, is trying to replicate the strategy that won Islamocommunist candidate Zohran Mamdani the Democratic primary in the New York City mayor’s race.
In Minnesota, state Sen. Omar Fateh is mirroring the Mamdani playbook in a bid for Minneapolis mayor. He is the son of Somali immigrants and another DSA-endorsed socialist.
Fateh is pushing for a significant minimum wage hike, a major expansion of government-subsidized housing, and a shift away from traditional policing in favor of “community-based” alternatives. He’s also backing a proposal to provide legal identification to illegal aliens — a move critics argue is a calculated effort to erode national borders and bring in a voter base aligned with socialist big government.
Abughazaleh’s personal trajectory mirrors the DSA’s preferred narrative structure as well: a story of disillusionment with traditional politics, awakening through exposure to inequality, and an eventual embrace of radical leftist frameworks. Abughazaleh’s bio details a supposed pivot from Republican-leaning high school student to anti-capitalist activist while attending George Washington University. Her embrace of identity-based politics and anti-establishment messaging tracks closely with the DSA’s recruitment playbook.
Her transition from media watchdog to congressional candidate isn’t a reinvention — it’s a blueprint. Create a base through viral, adversarial content, then channel that clout into a bid for power.
Her criticisms of establishment Democrats echo the same message advanced by DSA-affiliated politicians nationwide: that party leaders are too old, too corporate, and too complicit in Republican victories. What’s different is that Abughazaleh is taking this model into a traditionally stable district like Illinois’s 9th — historically held by Democrats with strong ties to the Jewish community and moderate liberal traditions. That makes her campaign a test case for how deeply the DSA worldview has penetrated suburban blue strongholds.
With her indictment now front and center, the question isn’t just whether she’ll win the race. It’s how much her candidacy reflects a one-off publicity stunt — or how much it reflects a broader coordinated effort by the far-left DSA to reshape the Democratic Party in its own radical image.
Still, early polling placed her in the top three contenders to replace retiring Rep. Jan Schakowsky. Whether that holds after this indictment remains to be seen.
Whether she wins or loses, her candidacy is a warning to the rest of America: Radicals are intent on taking over the Democratic Party before they can move on to dismantling America.”