Anger toward Donald Trump’s aggressive second-term moves — and the relatively subdued opposition mounted by many Democrats — has inspired dozens of new candidates to run for Congress. That includes a handful who know the place well: former Hill staffers.
With 2026 midterm elections still 18 months away, at least four ex-aides have already launched congressional campaigns. In California, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s former chief of staff, Saikat Chakrabarti, looks to take on former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, while further south Rep. Brad Sherman faces a primary challenge from his onetime deputy communications director, Jake Rakov. In Illinois, Jason Friedman, once an intern under Sen. Richard J. Durbin, is running for the seat currently held by Rep. Danny K. Davis, who has yet to announce whether he will run for a 16th term. And in Maine, Jordan Wood, who was Katie Porter’s chief of staff before she left the House, hopes to unseat Republican Sen. Susan Collins.
The ex-staffers share a few aspects in common. They are all Democrats and, except for Wood, challenging an incumbent Democrat in a solidly blue district. They’re all young, at least by congressional standards. Wood, Rakov and Chakrabarti are under 40, while Friedman is the oldest at 51, still below the House median age of 57 and much younger than Davis, who is 83. And they all say that, after seeing how Washington operates up close, they want to come back to change the place.
