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Former aide skewers California House Dem in primary launch

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Another House Democrat is getting an age-driven primary challenge.

Jake Rakov, a former staffer to Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), is launching a bid Wednesday to oust his one-time boss. Rakov, 37, is part of a string of Democrats waging intra-party battles against a long-time House incumbents by calling for a generational change in leadership.

Standing in front of a Los Angeles structure decimated by wildfire, Rakov used a 2.5-minute long launch video to blast Sherman, 70, as out of touch with his constituents and unwilling to mount a meaningful resistance against President Donald Trump’s “MAGA hellscape.”

“He and people like him, who have stayed on for so long, who don’t even check into the district anymore,” Rakov said in an interview with Blue Light News, “are why we have Trump twice, and why our party is so bad at fighting back against him now.”

First elected in 1996, Sherman is serving his 15th term in the House. His last truly competitive election was in 2012 when redistricting pitted him against then-Rep. Howard Berman in a race that turned so acrimonious that the two nearly came to blows during a debate. Sherman ended 2024 with $3.9 million in the bank.

Rakov served as Sherman’s deputy communications director in 2017. He is active in the LGBTQ+ community in the district and sat on the steering committee for Los Angeles’ Stonewall Democratic Club.

The district spans the western San Fernando Valley and includes Pacific Palisades, a part of Los Angeles devastated by the wildfires in January. Sherman was a regular presence at press briefings in the area as a series of major fires fueled by high winds and dry brush raced through the county. He also sparred with Trump during the president’s January visit to the disaster area, challenging the assertion that FEMA was doing a poor job.

But Rakov said Sherman’s response to the tragedy was lacking and that he did little besides “maybe tweeting out a 1-800 number.”

“If I were in office and our district had gone through what it’s gone through, I would be here every recess with my staff out at the Westside Pavilion rebuilding center,” Rakov said. “How can the federal government help? Who do you need us to talk to? He hasn’t done any of that.”

Rakov pledged to eschew corporate PAC money — he is married to Abe Rakov, who is the executive director of campaign-finance reform group End Citizens United — to serve no more than five terms in the House and to hold monthly in-person town halls, a practice he says Sherman avoids.

He said his challenge is motivated more by Sherman’s leadership style rather than ideological differences.

“We’re both progressive Democrats, and I’m sure we’ll find daylight on a few things here and there,” he said, “but I think this is much more about being a better member of Congress and actually doing what needs to be done in this moment in time.”

Sherman’s speeches on the House floor and lengthy social media videos don’t win the party new voters or “get any of our message out there,” Rakov said. Younger Democrats can better relate to Gen Z and millennial voters, he argued, and know how to reach them on new mediums.

California’s primary advances the top-two vote-getters regardless of party to a general election, so Rakov and Sherman could face off twice. Such a campaign would require significant resources. But Sherman, a senior member of the House Financial Services committee, has remained skeptical of cryptocurrencies, which he has called a “Ponzi scheme.” Pro-crypto super PACs spent heavily in the 2024 election and could see an opportunity to dethrone an opponent by spending against him.

Besides Rakov, two other younger progressives have launched prominent campaigns against older Democrats. YouTuber Kat Abughazaleh, 26, is challenging Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), and Saikat Chakrabarti, the 39-year-old former aide to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), is primarying Nancy Pelosi. Both described their campaigns as an attempt to usher in a new cohort.

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Congress

House clears critical hurdle to advance three major priorities

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House Republicans cleared the way for consideration of a key spy power sought by President Donald Trump — as well as the farm bill and the blueprint for funding immigration enforcement agencies that remain shuttered amid the ongoing Department of Homeland Security shutdown.

It’s a major victory for Speaker Mike Johnson, whose chamber has been in a state of paralysis as lawmakers worked through Monday night and all Tuesday to reach an agreement with hard-liners to advance the three legislative priorities.

Lawmakers adopted the procedural measure Wednesday, 216-210, after fierce opposition from several members of the GOP conference over various issues related to the farm bill and Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which will expire Thursday. Leaders spent over two hours on the floor flipping votes and wooing holdouts.

GOP leaders have been locked over the past week in intense negotiations with members who wanted to amend the program — which allows the government to surveil foreigners outside the U.S. without a warrant — to include guardrails on the warrantless surveillance of American citizens.

Many hard-liners have also been demanding a permanent ban on the Federal Reserve issuing a digital currency be added to any reauthorization. GOP leaders acceded to that demand, agreeing to combine the Section 702 extension with the digital currency ban upon passage. But the gambit is unlikely to survive in the Senate, where the issue has long been stalled.

“That’s not happening,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said in an interview about linking the two matters.

The successful procedural vote will also allow lawmakers to proceed to consideration of the latest farm bill — which would be the first blanket reauthorization of agriculture programs since 2018 — which GOP leaders hope to pass with help from several Democrats.

Some hard-liners are upset over GOP leadership’s plan to tack legislation onto the farm bill that would allow for year-round sales of the fuel blend known as E15 at the insistence of farm-state Republicans. Fiscal hawks balked at estimates showing it would cost $1 billion.

Republican leaders separately agreed to allow a floor vote on an amendment from Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) that would remove a prohibition on states creating pesticide labeling laws that differ from EPA guidance — a major priority of health-focused Trump supporters.

Finally, the procedural vote sets up consideration of the fiscal blueprint the Senate adopted last week that would allow Congress to craft a budget reconciliation package addressing funding only for Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol, rather than a wider range of conservative priorities.

Republican leaders and the Trump administration insist the GOP needs to advance the Senate’s product without changes in order to quickly reopen the Department of Homeland Security, which has been shut down since Feb. 14.

As with the farm bill, however, grumbling within the ranks remains, particularly among conservatives who want to expand the scope of the budget resolution to include other items on the GOP policy wishlist.

Jordain Carney contributed to this report.

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Floor arm-twisting continues

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The House floor has been frozen for more than an hour now as GOP hard-liners dig in against a procedural vote to move ahead with consideration of extending a government surveillance law, a farm bill and a budget blueprint for a party-line immigration bill.

GOP leaders have been seen huddling with holdouts on the House floor and have so far been able to flip Reps. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, and Andy Biggs and Eli Crane of Arizona. Speaker Mike Johnson will need to flip several holdouts to be able to proceed.

Five Republicans, however, are still standing firm. That includes Reps. Troy Nehls and Keith Self of Texas, as well as Reps. Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania. GOP leaders have been seen in huddles with the hard-liners, several of which have still not voted. Though a few have since voted for the rule after talking to GOP leaders.

Many Colorado Republicans also haven’t voted yet, with several of them concerned about small refinery language added to a E15 sales bill that will merge with the farm bill upon passage.

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House Oversight sets date for Pam Bondi deposition

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Former Attorney General Pam Bondi will appear May 29 for a deposition before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a panel spokesperson said Wednesday.

The announcement came after committee Democrats said they would pursue contempt charges against Bondi after she failed to appear for an earlier deposition as part of Oversight’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and the Department of Justice’s handling of the federal inquiry into the late convicted sex offender.

In a sign of Republican efforts to quickly preempt Democrats’ action, ranking member Robert Garcia of California was taken by surprise by the development during a news conference Wednesday morning to roll out the contempt resolution.

Since the bipartisan vote to compel Bondi’s testimony earlier this year, she has been ousted, and her former deputy, Todd Blanche, has assumed the role of acting attorney general.

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