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This Substack Live was different. Charles Douglas did not join me from a studio or a living room. He joined me from a park in Edgewater, Chicago, in the snow, with his team behind him, flyers in hand, splitting turf and heading to doors. This was not a conversation about politics. This was politics happening in real time, and you got to see it.
The Illinois 9th Congressional District primary is one of the most closely watched primaries of this cycle. Jan Schakowsky, 81, is retiring after 27 years, opening the first real contested seat in this district since 1999. Fifteen Democrats entered the race. Three emerged as frontrunners: Evanston Mayor Daniel Biss, state Senator Laura Fine, and 26-year-old former journalist and progressive researcher Kat Abughazaleh. Common Power is on the ground for Kat, and Charles brought us along for the ride.
What made this Live special is what it showed people who have never canvassed before. The carpools, the turf splits, and the coordination in real time between volunteers. This is what the work actually looks like. And Charles made clear that this kind of organizing, replicated across 50 races in 20-plus states this year, is how you rebuild a party from the ground up.
You can watch the full conversation above and read key takeaways below.
Who Is Kat Abughazaleh And Why Common Power Is Backing Her
Kat Abughazaleh is not a conventional candidate. She is 26, a first-time candidate, a former journalist who spent years dissecting far-right media and disinformation at outlets like Media Matters, Mother Jones, and Zeteo News. Charles gave the clearest portrait of her candidacy from the ground, and it is worth understanding what makes her different before you understand why she matters beyond this district.
Charles described how Kat’s campaign office doubles as a mutual aid hub. Coats, boots, hand warmers, and hats donated by supporters are given out to anyone in the community who needs them. She is actively serving her potential future constituents while she is still running. Charles connected this directly to Chicago’s resistance culture, where immigrant communities targeted by ICE raids have increasingly relied on mutual aid networks for basic goods they can no longer safely buy in stores. Her campaign is not just a political operation. It is embedded in the community it wants to represent.
Charles noted that Kat was indicted by the Trump DOJ in October 2025 for her presence at protests outside the Broadview ICE detention facility, which she called a political prosecution and an attempt to silence dissent. That indictment has become a rallying point for her campaign rather than a liability. In a district where ICE raids hit hard and voters remember it, her willingness to show up with a megaphone is exactly the credential her supporters are looking for.
I pointed out that Kat’s campaigning tactics are potentially pioneering regardless of whether she wins. Fundraising on Twitch while playing video games. A self-attacking ad that went viral. A mutual aid pipeline run out of her campaign office. Charles agreed, noting that even candidates who lose their races can reshape how politics is done. Stacey Abrams lost two gubernatorial races and built Fair Fight and New Georgia Project. Beto lost in Texas and turned his grassroots machine into a statewide infrastructure. Kat’s movement in Chicago does not end on election night.
What Charles Heard From Voters On The Ground
Charles was at a polling site on the morning of Election Day and spent the day talking to voters in Edgewater, one of the most liberal neighborhoods in the district. What he reported was not a blowout for either candidate. It was a split that reflects the broader argument the Democratic Party is having with itself right now.
Charles said the early vote in this primary is running at multiples higher than the 2024 presidential year turnout in this district. A non-presidential year primary eclipsing a presidential year general is unprecedented in his experience. He said the same phenomenon happened in the Texas primary, where Democratic primary turnout exceeded the vote total for Kamala Harris in the general. Voters are engaged, and they are showing up. The energy is real.
The dominant issue at the doors was not a single policy. Charles described it as a national fight instinct. Voters want someone who is going to push back against authoritarianism. Chicago was directly targeted by ICE. People remember JB Pritzker and Mayor Brandon Johnson holding press conferences about how to respond. The woman patrolling the block outside the polling site with a whistle, photographing suspicious cars, is not a political abstraction. She is a voter who has not forgotten what the federal government did to her neighborhood.
Charles was honest that the race is split. Biss is the safe choice for voters who want stability, experience inside government, and a proven record. Some of those voters have a Kamala sign still in their window and are looking for continuity over disruption. Kat is the choice for voters who think the moment demands something different entirely. Charles framed Biss not as a bad candidate but as the kind of candidate who would have been ideal in 2014. The question is whether 2026 calls for something else.
The Bigger Picture: What This Race Is Really About
Charles made clear early in the Live that Common Power’s investment in this race is not just about one district on the north side of Chicago. It is about what the Democratic Party looks like nationally and whether candidates like Kat can change the perception of what a Democrat is.
Charles argued that the Democratic Party has a national brand problem. Trump is polling historically low. So is the Democratic Party. The way you fix a national brand is not with a messaging campaign. It is by producing candidates who redefine what the party stands for in the minds of voters who have given up on it. Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old former journalist who turned her campaign office into a mutual aid hub and got indicted for standing up to ICE, changes that perception in ways a press release cannot.
I raised the point that this district’s primary is a different kind of argument than, say, the Texas Senate primary. The coalition needs to be wide enough to include candidates who look nothing like each other and represent districts with completely different needs. Charles put it cleanly: a sign of a genuinely broad coalition is when Democrats in one place look at Democrats in another place and say, what is wrong with that person. That tension is not a failure. It is evidence that the tent is wide enough.
Charles also flagged Common Power’s upcoming schedule. Maine, Iowa, California, Tennessee, and Georgia are all on the calendar for May and June. They are also sending a small team to challenge Marjorie Taylor Greene’s old seat in Georgia, a Trump-plus-30 district. The logic is straightforward. Any doors knocked in deep-red territory are doors primed for Jon Ossoff in the Georgia Senate race. The work compounds even when the immediate race is a long shot.
Bottom Line
This is what democracy looks like. A team of volunteers in a park in Chicago on a freezing Tuesday morning, splitting turf and heading to doors before the polls close. Charles and Common Power have been doing this work across the country, and they are going to keep doing it through November.
If you want to be part of it, go to commonpower.org or email hello@commonpower.org. The work is real, and it is accessible.
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