Abughazaleh, a video journalist known for her takedowns of right-wing media figures, started her campaign for Illinois’s Ninth District with the goal of unseating the long-standing incumbent, Jan Schakowsky, who has served since 1999, the year that 26-year-old Abughazaleh was born. In just one week as a candidate, she raised more money for the race, over $378,000, than Schakowsky did in the entire 90-day quarter. And on Wednesday, reports surfaced that 80-year-old Schakowsky would announce her retirement on May 5. Abughazaleh sent out a press release thanking Schakowsky for her service and encouraging others to jump into the race.

The entry of Abughazaleh has coincided with a debate about Washington gerontocracy and whether younger automatically means better in politics. Without an octogenarian incumbent for contrast, Abughazaleh will now face a younger, hungrier field of challengers, and she’ll need to compete by offering an agenda for voters, perhaps through a different fault line among today’s Democrats: the willingness to fight.

THE DISTRICT ENCOMPASSES CHICAGO’S northernmost neighborhoods and a good chunk of its northern and northwestern suburbs, including the campuses of Northwestern University and Loyola University of Chicago. Those tens of thousands of college students bring down the median age in the district to 40, which is right around the national median.

Abughazaleh’s early campaign events have catered to this young, liberal, college-educated demographic. At one event, Abughazaleh collected 5,600 period products instead of cash donations to the campaign. Just last week, she hosted a knitting circle where she worked on a patchwork sweater and answered questions from constituents.