Skip navigation menu
Hero background image

NEWS

Apr
2
2025

HuffPost

A Longtime House Democrat Is Getting Challenged

A former deputy communications director to 70-year-old Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.) announced Wednesday that he’s seeking to dethrone his former boss.

“If you want to know why we as Democrats are so bad at fighting back against Trump, look at guys like my former boss,” 37-year-old Jake Rakov, who worked for Sherman in 2017, said in a two-minute campaign announcement video.

Using the Southern California wildfires as a metaphor throughout his video, Rakov claimed that President Donald Trump’s administration is “burning our government to the ground.” He also insisted that it’s time to fight fire with fire.

Rakov made three promises in his campaign video: to seek 10-year term limits for Congress, to not accept corporate PAC money and to host monthly in-person town halls for California constituents.

He also directly slammed Sherman, a 15-term congressman who has held office since 1997, for his handling of the wildfires, for being out of touch with constituents, for staying in office for so long and for selling his Los Angeles home to live in Washington, D.C.

Read the full article.