A first-time candidate who came onto the scene as a young TikTok’er getting over 25% in a crowded primary against other elected officials seems like an objectively strong electoral performance, whatever your thoughts on the candidate might be. She did something right with voters:

March 18, 2026 - 11:41 UTC

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Being at the frontlines protesting ICE during the Chicago blitz gave her a ton of credibility with voters (as it should)
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A first time candidate who just moved to the district! Honestly think if nothing else was different except she had been there for 3 or 4 years she would have won.
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Also makes pretty clear that tik tok will be THE information/messaging platform for 2028
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air dropping into a district with no experience, using her social media influencer following to get lots of attention in a campaign…testament to how good she is at posting
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How does that get her 25% in district? I don't understand this argument post primary. She clearly had support in district, which isn't terminally online. Do you think the votes are fake?

That's before we know these are verbatim dark money PAC talking points leaked to journos.
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And in a different, better system, she'd be moving to a runoff.
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Ranked choice is better than a separate runoff on a different day.
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I am disappointed kat lost, but he is a good 2nd choice.
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She is brilliant.
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tiktok generation are detonation societies and institutions by “planting” these nogood influencers…
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She should have lost 52-48!!!
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She's adorable
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It's an interesting strike against Twitter's alleged necessity for campaign presence, too (she wasn't on it)
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The message.
Instead, we’ll get a good soldier with Biss, who waited for “his turn”, rather than challenging Schakowsky, oh, maybe 3 terms ago.
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Is being mayor waiting for his "turn"?
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Progressives opposed by AIPAC (Biss, Kat, Amiwala) getting 60% of the vote is also a pretty massive story.
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Hong in Wisconsin is similar and while they both are good with front facing vertical video, they also are targeting a leftist base of voters that are somewhat easy to attract.

Not enough for electoral wins in all but quite blue voting blocks, but I wish our more moderate candidates paid attention.
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A few things can be true simultaneously (this is district I grew up in):

- This is a largely suburban district and has been for some time

- It was a crowded field and she still overperformed as a “carpetbagger influencer”

- other progressive candidates on the ballot may have been crowded out
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I wish she was able to get there. We need fresh faces in our politics
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She made a lot of people very proud to support her
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Be interesting to see what she does next.
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this one, Will Stancil, and Crockett -- there's clearly a content creator Democrat lane.
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I'm not a Chicago voter but I followed her campaign to some degree and I think the world needs more Kats. 🐱
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No doubt. She likely got a lot of the young votes in the city part of the district. But she got crushed in the suburbs. It came down to the fact that she was a carpetbagger. Illinoisians didn't like it. The winner is well known in the district. And he's a progressive too.
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Worked her ass off is what she did
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She's the only candidate of this group I had heard of prior to your sharing this list today.
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Thing is, people in the district know Biss more. He’s the mayor of Evanston.
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I do not think elections should be won just because someone is popular online. Substance should matter. And I know little about any of them because I'm not even from that state. So, I can not judge if the best person won or not.
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Absolutely.

On a side note by looking at these results, Democrats should implement the changes for themselves that they want to see at the state/national level.

Ranked choice primaries should be a consideration, or other alternatives to first past the post.
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I’m trying to remember where @leedrutman.bsky.social currently stands on the best way forward when it comes to primaries. I know, he has changed his mind on RCV, but it’s context dependent.
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She’s not going away.
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If she stays in Illinois, there's always another campaign. Quigley is likely to run for Mayor so his seat will open.
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