George Hornedo Featured in The New York Times: “The Next Generation of Democrats Don’t Plan to Wait Their Turn”

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Thursday, April 10, 2025

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INDIANAPOLIS – Today, George Hornedo, running for Congress in IN-07 was featured in a New York Times article titled “The Next Generation of Democrats Don’t Plan to Wait Their Turn.” 

 

Key Quotes:

 

On Wednesday, Mr. Hornedo announced his campaign against the nine-term incumbent, Representative André Carson, while deriding him and those like him as “do-nothing Democrats” and promising a new generation of leadership for Washington. “The Democratic Party cannot win the future with a leadership structure that is built for the past,” he said in an interview. [...]

 

“Mr. Hornedo said he rejected any labels like “progressive” or “establishment,” arguing instead that the split in the party is between those like himself who feel a sense of urgency to shake up the status quo and those ‘who believe that our system and institutions are largely working for people, and we simply have to protect them and manage them in this decline.’”

 

Read the Piece:

 

New York Times: The Next Generation of Democrats Don’t Plan to Wait Their Turn

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George Hornedo, a liberal activist and Democratic Party strategist in Indianapolis, had already been weighing a primary challenge to the local congressman when he was confronted last month by a senior Indiana Democrat.

 

Asked whether he was planning a run, Mr. Hornedo, 34, acknowledged he was considering it. The woman, he recalled, told him he was “going to get hurt.” He posted his recounting of the interaction on TikTok, where it quickly went viral. “Don’t let them scare you off,” one commenter wrote.

 

On Wednesday, Mr. Hornedo announced his campaign against the nine-term incumbent, Representative André Carson, while deriding him and those like him as “do-nothing Democrats” and promising a new generation of leadership for Washington. “The Democratic Party cannot win the future with a leadership structure that is built for the past,” he said in an interview.

 

A small but growing group of young Democrats are being propelled to act by outrage among rank-and-file voters, and especially among young people. Infuriated by the early months of President Trump’s second term, impatient with the status quo and frustrated with party leadership, they are mounting bids for office.

 

In California, Jake Rakov, 37, a onetime Capitol Hill aide to Representative Brad Sherman, 70, is challenging his former boss. And even Representative Nancy Pelosi, 85, the California Democrat who stepped down from her two-decade leadership role in 2023, faces a primary challenge, from Saikat Chakrabarti, 39, the former campaign manager for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, who ran a similar playbook in her first race for Congress.

 

Some of these efforts look like long shots against well-funded and better-known incumbents. But they amount to a manifestation of the anger felt by voters toward the Democratic Party — after President Joseph R. Biden Jr., ignoring their concerns, waited until late in the game to abandon his attempt at re-election — and the sentiment that a younger generation might be better equipped to oppose Mr. Trump.

 

“They’re looking to build a Democratic Party that will fight instead of fold,” said Amanda Litman, the leader of Run for Something, a progressive group that pushes young Democrats to run for office. Young people, Ms. Litman said, were essentially saying: “It’s time to pass the torch. And if they’re not going to pass it, we’re going to take it.”  [...]

 

Seeking to shake up the status quo

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Mr. Hornedo worked in the Justice Department during the Obama administration, and has worked for a range of prominent Democrats, including Pete Buttigieg.Credit...AJ Mast for The New York Times

 

A member of the Indiana Democratic Party representing the Latino caucus, Mr. Hornedo (rhymes with tornado) has a résumé that does not quite qualify him as a party outsider. He held a communications role in the Obama administration’s Justice Department and has worked for a range of prominent Democrats, including Pete Buttigieg, the former transportation secretary, who has had presidential ambitions.

 

But Mr. Hornedo said he rejected any labels like “progressive” or “establishment,” arguing instead that the split in the party is between those like himself who feel a sense of urgency to shake up the status quo and those “who believe that our system and institutions are largely working for people, and we simply have to protect them and manage them in this decline.”

 

Mr. Hornedo said that he planned to take a more active role than Mr. Carson in building up the Democrats’ bench in Indiana and that he was especially interested in pushing for more affordable housing in Indianapolis, which Mr. Carson has represented since 2008. In a statement, Mr. Carson said he was a lifelong progressive and invited “all voices to join me to defeat far-right extremism.” [...]

 

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