“Kat Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old running for Congress in Illinois’ 9th congressional district, isn’t shy about her belief that politicians need to do things differently.
“We have a representation problem,” the first line of the “About” page on her website reads.
“As in, about half of Congress are millionaires and people born before the Moon landing. And that’s part of the reason we’re in this mess: Our leaders are out of touch.”
A journalist, social media influencer, and political commentator that GQ called “a lefty,” with a mission to revitalize the Democratic party, Abughazaleh built a following online before she launched her campaign in March of 2025.
But now, she’s leveraging her platform — and campaign dollars — to help people in her community before ballots are even filled in.
“My congressional campaign is feeding people right now,” she starts in a recent TikTok video.
“Part of the reason I decided to run was because I saw how much money gets wasted in politics, and I thought, ‘What if we spent it differently?’”
She adds that the campaign is focused on “direct action and mutual aid,” emphasizing that she wanted her run for office to be “dual-purpose,” in which she can get her message out and help people in the process.
It’s a stark pivot from the traditional way of campaigning in the United States, which often includes pricey fundraising galas, attack ads, big billboards, and perhaps the most criticized and unpopular feature: massive donations from private businesses and interest groups.
Abughazaleh has publicly congratulated the former incumbent of this seat — 80-year-old Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who has held the title since 1999, the year Abughazaleh was born — for her “decades of service.”
Rep. Schakowsky will not seek reelection, but Abughazaleh called for others to run, hoping to participate in the “first competitive Democratic primary in the District since 1998.”
Abughazaleh has also shared that the average donation her campaign receives is $31. And according to GQ, 1,000 people signed up to volunteer for her campaign within a week of her initial announcement.
And while that volunteering does include marketing, canvassing, and getting the word out, it mostly adds up to actual on-the-ground volunteer work to help people in the local community.
“Our kick-off event, for instance, didn’t charge $500 a plate,” Abughazaleh shared in her TikTok. “People just had to bring a box of pads or tampons, which were donated to Chicago’s period collective. By the end of the night, we had gathered over 5,600 period products, which went to people who can’t afford them.”
Most recently, the campaign hosted a food drive for a local community fridge program.
“We asked folks to come out and donate food in exchange for a campaign yard or window sign,” Abughazaleh said. “And by the end of the day, we were able to fully stock the empty pantry and fill the fridge with frozen meals, produce, and eggs. That’s feeding people right now.”
“Don’t worry, we checked to make sure this is legal,” she added. “And it is.”
The campaign has also launched a High School Public Serve Grant program that encourages local youth to submit ideas for how to make the community better, and Abughazaleh’s campaign will support it with money, materials, volunteers, and her online platform…
“Something you’ll rarely see is concrete help in their communities during the campaign,” she said. “And frankly, to me, that just seems stupid. Not only do you get to help people — supposedly what you’re running to do — but it also shows what you’re about, instead of just providing lip service.” …
“If every campaign adopted this model, then we wouldn’t be wasting money every single cycle. Every city, town, and village across America would be improved by their election process, and I think it would also get people more involved,” she said.
“We have local folks who have never voted in an election, but they joined our volunteer Discord server because they want to help, they feel like they have something to vote for.”
For those who might be inspired enough to run for office with this model, she says: Full steam ahead.
“Frankly, I would love it if other campaigns took our model. Use it, pretend it’s yours, I don’t care!” she wrapped up her TikTok.
“Pair with organizations in your community that have been doing the work, talk with local experts, and try to spearhead any initiatives you can to show your values and help your constituents. It’s really that easy.”
The thing I won't forgive Mathew, Casey and Amazon is making Alex is the only child in Rwrb movie. June played a big role in Alex life and them erasing her from his life is so wrong😑
I actually disagree: I fully support Matthew cutting June out of the movie.
Here’s the thing: the movie isn’t a retelling, it’s an ADAPTATION. And part of this is artistic choices, part of this is the limits of the presentation format. Movies contain significantly less information than books do.
So when you have a limited amount of time to explain things, you don’t quite have the time to fully and responsibly portray things as complex yet delicate as the affects of divorce on children when it’s not the focus of the film. You can either half-ass it or adapt and make changes.
Matthew chose the latter. Partly adaptational, partly because he wanted to break the latine stereotype of father’s not being present and give Alex a happy, diverse family in this alternate universe. I respect that.
The thing with June is, and I’m going to preface this by saying I really love and relate to her in the book, is that if we view her as someone aiding Alex’s character instead of her as a independent character, which while doesn’t sound good, is something necessary when you’re doing adaptation, is that her contribution to Alex’s development, is 1, the family issues that stem from the divorce, and 2, a confidant, which Nora also fills: there are things you need to talk to your siblings about, there are things you need to avoid family about.
So if you view it from this perspective, given the changes made to Alex’s backstory and character, removing June and combining her position in Alex’s life with Nora makes sense. It gives Rachel more things to do as well, as Mathtew has mentioned.
TL DR: given the limits and changes the movie needed to make, I think removing June was the correct choice.
to those of you who are moving here from tiktok, from someone whos used both tiktok and tumbr for years…
1. DO NOT censor your posts
dont censor sex, abuse, suicide, dont censor it. we dont have censors like tiktok does, you wont be banned for talking about these things and tagging them properly helps people avoid them (also, we dont have shadowbanning here)
2. we dont really have an algorithm
you follow who you follow, and you see posts from who you follow or what you search. the ‘for you page’ is basically useless here. this also brings me to my next two points
3. dont crosstag
we get it, on tiktok you have to crosstag for reach, but thats not really a thing here. just tag your posts properly (also posters often leave more info about the post in the tags!! and when you reblog stuff you can leave your own notes in the tags, kind of like the old “repost comments” on tiktok)
4. dont expect to go viral/be famous
“viral” isnt really a thing on here (at least not for the average blogger). your posts will probably get 2-10 likes and you wont get nearly as many followers than on tiktok. thats just how tumblr is
5. blocking is your best friend
tiktok is VERY discussion based, and while tumblr is much more discussion based than other social medias, its still not a good place for ragebait/discourse. dont interact, itll make your experience worse in the end, just block and move on
6. you cant go into someone elses house and start rearranging their furniture
this is tumblr, not tiktok. dont diss old tumblr users for how they use the site or try to change them, thats like going into someone elses house and trying to rearrange their furniture. we’ve been here longer and we’re familiar with the site and its culture, either find your niche, adapt, or find a different app
Another important point
You need to actually reblog posts for this site to work as it should.
Liking posts only saves them in a spot that no one checks except for the user who liked them. Most people have their liked posts hidden.
Also, this site has a spam bot problem. One way we weed those out is to check the blog to see if it’s actually being used to post legitimate content. If there is absolutely nothing on your blog you’re getting blocked and some users may just straight up report you as spam as a precaution.
Not to mention that the posts you reblog will only be seen by you and whoever follows you. Tagging it “fyp” does absolutely nothing.
It is with the deepest frustrations that I must report Microsoft has pushed out Copilot onto Microsoft Word no matter what your previous settings were. If you have Office because you paid for it/are on a family plan/have a work/school account, you can disable it by going to Options -> click on Copilot -> uncheck ‘Enable Copilot’.
(Note, you may not see this option if you haven’t updated lately, but Copilot will still pop up. Updating should give you this option. I will kill Microsoft with my bare hands.)
In addition, Google has forced a roll-out of it’s Gemini AI on all American accounts of users over 18 (these settings are turned off by default for EU, Japan, Switzerland, and UK, but it doesn’t hurt to check).
To remove this garbage, you must go to Manage Workspace smart feature settings for all your Gmail/Drive/Chat and turn them off. Go to Settings -> See all settings -> find under “Genera” the “Google Workspace smart features” -> turn smart feature setting off for both Google Workspace and all other Google products and hit save. (If you turned off the smart settings in your Gmail, it never hurts to open Drive and double-check that they’re set to off there too.)
Quick Edit: I found the easiest way to get to the Smart Feature settings following the instructions above was to do it through Drive. Try that route first.
Okay, all other Microsoft settings addition: If your Microsoft 365 apps don’t yet have the Enable Copilot checkbox, you can turn off Copilot by changing your account privacy settings. This worked when I tried it, but it’s a fucking pain.
In your app (for example, PowerPoint), go to File > Account > Account Privacy > Manage Settings.
Under Connected experiences, clear the Turn on experiences that analyze your content checkbox.
ALT
