{"id":7899,"date":"2025-04-02T13:04:18","date_gmt":"2025-04-02T13:04:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/former-aide-skewers-california-house-dem-in-primary-launch\/"},"modified":"2025-04-02T13:04:18","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T13:04:18","slug":"former-aide-skewers-california-house-dem-in-primary-launch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/former-aide-skewers-california-house-dem-in-primary-launch\/","title":{"rendered":"Former aide skewers California House Dem in primary launch"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Another House Democrat is getting an age-driven primary challenge.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Standing in front of a Los Angeles structure decimated by wildfire, Rakov used a 2.5-minute long launch video<\/a> to blast Sherman, 70, as out of touch with his constituents and unwilling to mount a meaningful resistance against President Donald Trump\u2019s \u201cMAGA hellscape.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe and people like him, who have stayed on for so long, who don’t even check into the district anymore,\u201d Rakov said in an interview with Blue Light News, \u201care why we have Trump twice, and why our party is so bad at fighting back against him now.\u201d<\/p>\n

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<\/a> during a debate. Sherman ended 2024 with $3.9 million in the bank.<\/p>\n

Rakov served as Sherman\u2019s deputy communications director in 2017. He is active in the LGBTQ+ community in the district and sat on the steering committee for Los Angeles\u2019 Stonewall Democratic Club.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> during the president’s January visit to the disaster area, challenging the assertion that FEMA was doing a poor job.<\/p>\n

But Rakov said Sherman\u2019s response to the tragedy was lacking and that he did little besides \u201cmaybe tweeting out a 1-800 number.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIf 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,\u201d Rakov said. \u201cHow can the federal government help? Who do you need us to talk to? He hasn’t done any of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rakov pledged to eschew corporate PAC money \u2014 he is married to Abe Rakov, who is the executive director of campaign-finance reform group End Citizens United \u2014 to serve no more than five terms in the House and to hold monthly in-person town halls, a practice he says Sherman avoids.<\/p>\n

He said his challenge is motivated more by Sherman\u2019s leadership style rather than ideological differences.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe’re both progressive Democrats, and I’m sure we’ll find daylight on a few things here and there,\u201d he said, \u201cbut 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sherman\u2019s speeches on the House floor and lengthy social media videos don\u2019t win the party new voters or \u201cget any of our message out there,\u201d Rakov said. Younger Democrats can better relate to Gen Z and millennial voters, he argued, and know how to reach them on new mediums.<\/p>\n

California\u2019s 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 \u201cPonzi scheme.\u201d Pro-crypto super PACs spent heavily in the 2024 election and could see an opportunity to dethrone an opponent by spending against him.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7899\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}