Democratic Civil War? Pelosi Faces Challenge from One of AOC’s Own

House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi is facing a Democratic primary challenge for her House seat from none other than a longtime ally of New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Saikat Chakrabarti previously propelled AOC into her shocking upset election victory in the 2018 midterms and shortly thereafter became her chief of staff, Politico reported.

Now the millionaire political operative, who left a highly lucrative Wall Street and Silicon Valley career, is working to unseat Pelosi in her California district next year, which would put an end to her almost four-decade stint in the House, according to CBS News.

Chakrabarti said on Tuesday that Democratic leadership has been “paralyzed and unprepared” after President Donald Trump decisively won a second term.

The candidate is starting his campaign by speaking with voters through online meetings.

“I’m going to find every way I can to talk to everybody that I possibly can in San Francisco and get my message to them directly,” he explained.

Chakrabarti believes that the Democratic Party needs new leadership and believes Pelosi’s seat is an excellent place to start.

“I’ve got a lot of respect for a lot of what Nancy Pelosi has accomplished in her time in Congress, but I just think we’re in a different era now,” he said.

Chakrabarti framed himself as the change candidate.

He wants to run on the economy, which he believes accounts for the Trump victory last year, as well as universal healthcare and free community college.

He argued that Pelosi is insulated from the cost of living crisis and other issues facing everyday Americans.

“I’m not sure she realizes the level to which the average person — or even most people in this country and in San Francisco — are really feeling the squeeze of just how expensive these big essentials have gotten,” Chakrabarti described.

“To really rebuild this party, we need a whole new generation of leaders who are committed to this kind of a vision of really going out there and first admitting that there’s a problem, which I think the party often doesn’t admit at all.”

He also noted the Democrats’ current lack of national leadership.

“We need to actually have the kind of structural changes that will end this stuff, not just kind of make the situation a little bit better,” he added.

Those who pay close attention to Democratic politics know that the establishment Pelosi types and the progressive activist AOC types have butted heads for years.

Such tensions often rise to the surface.

For example, Democratic leadership reportedly called the progressives who made scenes during Trump’s speech to Congress on Tuesday into their offices for stern warnings about their antics, Axios reported.

But Democrats like Chakrabarti are correct.

The party has some major issues, and someone within the coalition will sooner or later demonstrate a new path forward — or else the party could collapse altogether.

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