Sunrise Movement backs Chakrabarti in CA’s 11th

Sunrise Movement has thrown its support behind Saikat Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and a Green New Deal architect, as he heads into California’s fiercely contested 11th Congressional District Democratic primary agains

For California’s youth climate activists, the clock is already running out. Early voting is underway. and in less than a week. the Democratic primary in California’s 11th Congressional District will test whether Saikat Chakrabarti can translate his Green New Deal pedigree into a winning insurgent bid.

Sunrise Movement has endorsed Chakrabarti, framing the race as a continuation of the fight to push Washington to act on climate and labor—work Sunrise says it tried to force when many Democrats refused to move.

Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff to Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and one of the architects of the Green New Deal, will face State Sen. Scott Weiner and San Francisco supervisor Connie Chan. both Democrats. in a heavily contested primary to succeed Democratic former House speaker Nancy Pelosi in the district.

In a statement shared with The Intercept, Chakrabarti credited Sunrise for showing what organizers can do together. “For years. the Sunrise Movement has shown us the power that people like all of us have when we organize strategically. ” he wrote. “Together with Sunrise. we pushed Washington to respond to the needs of working people when most Democrats (and of course Republicans) refused to do so. We were able to change political reality in Washington, and we’ll do it again.”.

Sunrise’s endorsement is a signal that its climate-first, confront-the-establishment approach is aiming directly at a House seat that Pelosi once dominated. This is also a race where Chakrabarti’s political history—especially his relationship with Ocasio-Cortez—hangs over every moment.

Justice Democrats, the progressive group Chakrabarti helped co-found in 2017 alongside other former presidential campaign staffers for Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., brought him national attention as an engine for primary challenges against establishment Democrats. Since then, he has become known as an irritant to moderates within the party.

Chakrabarti’s profile deepened after he became Ocasio-Cortez’s first chief of staff following her upset victory over longtime incumbent Rep. Joe Crowley in 2018—an outcome that helped put Justice Democrats on the map and ushered in the first members of the progressive Squad in Congress. In Ocasio-Cortez’s office, he worked with the Sunrise Movement and other stakeholders to draft the Green New Deal.

Some elements of that bill later found their way into the Biden-era Inflation Reduction Act, which invested $369 billion in fighting climate change, even as the law fell short of progressives’ loftiest ambitions.

Now, Chakrabarti is expected—if elected—to vote with Ocasio-Cortez and the rest of the Squad. That expectation is not in dispute. The friction is. Despite his close role in Ocasio-Cortez’s early rise, she has not endorsed him, fueling speculation of a rift that Chakrabarti has continuously denied.

Progressive Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., have endorsed Chakrabarti, as has former Rep. Jamal Bowman, D-N.Y. Justice Democrats—Chakrabarti’s co-founding organization—also is backing his campaign.

Sunrise made its pitch more pointed than climate policy alone. In its statement, Executive Director Aru Shiney-Ajay argued that the group is endorsing a candidate to fight back.

“We’re proud to endorse Saikat Chakrabarti. Saikat has spent years fighting for the Green New Deal, taking on corporate power, and delivering for working people, not billionaires and special interests,” Shiney-Ajay wrote in a statement to the Intercept.

This cycle. Sunrise says it pivoted to emphasize explicit opposition to President Donald Trump. and Shiney-Ajay added that Chakrabarti is “ready to fight back with courage and vision.” She continued: “We know he’ll be instrumental in helping build a Democratic Party that is unapologetically for working people. serious about confronting the climate crisis. and ready to take on authoritarianism head-on.”.

Chakrabarti’s ambition has long been aimed not just at policy, but at power itself. After leaving Ocasio-Cortez’s office, he led New Consensus, a progressive environmental policy think tank. That work has produced Mission for America, which he bills as a “successor” to the Green New Deal.

Mission for America, according to Chakrabarti, seeks to “rapidly slash emissions” and “build a new, clean economy” to protect workers from job cuts threatened by the rise of artificial intelligence.

Still, the political story around him has always involved discomfort—particularly with Pelosi, whom Chakrabarti is trying to replace. He has relished his role as an opponent of entrenched power, and he has antagonized the 20-term congresswoman he seeks to replace.

Chakrabarti previously slammed Pelosi in a series of 2019 tweets after then-House Speaker Pelosi penned an op-ed critical of Ocasio-Cortez. The two congresswomen have built bridges since, despite having divergent ideologies.

Even now, the tensions appear to be still in play. Chakrabarti has continued to provoke Pelosi while running for her district. calling her out in a recent video after she endorsed Chan against him. He launched his campaign to challenge the former speaker before she announced her retirement in November; his two opponents entered the race later. after it was clear they’d be competing for an open seat.

“My goal. honestly. is to replace a huge part of the Democrat establishment. ” Chakrabarti said in November during an episode of the Intercept Briefing. “I’m calling for primaries all across the country. … I think we actually have to get in there and be in a position of power where we can do all that. so it’s not going to be this constant compromising with the establishment. trying to figure out how we can push.”.

Politics is only one part of Chakrabarti’s resume. He also built a life in tech, making millions as a founding engineer of the payment process platform Stripe.

But in a tech-dominated district where Pelosi won re-election with 81 percent of the vote last cycle. Chakrabarti’s path looks steep. Weiner. a state senator supported by the California Democratic Party. has a clear lead over both Chan and Chakrabarti. who appear to be neck and neck for second place. Under the primary rules. the top two candidates on the ballot next Tuesday will advance to the general election in November.

Chakrabarti, for his part, is framing Sunrise’s endorsement as both validation and momentum. In his statement to the Intercept. he said: “I’m grateful to the Sunrise Movement for joining our coalition. and I look forward to working with them again in Congress.” He added: “I believe we can improve the material lives of working people and build a future we all actually want to live in.”.

The question now is whether voters in California’s 11th will reward a candidate whose political identity is built around confronting the Democratic establishment—just as the clock runs toward the primary day that will decide who gets a chance to reshape that legacy.

Sunrise Movement Saikat Chakrabarti Green New Deal Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Justice Democrats California 11th Congressional District Scott Weiner Connie Chan Nancy Pelosi climate activism Inflation Reduction Act Mission for America