Amy Klobuchar planned to officially launch her gubernatorial campaign on Monday, but has delayed it in the wake of the fatal shooting of a protester by immigration agents in Minneapolis over the weekend, according to two people familiar with the Minnesota Democrat’s plans.

The senator instead spent Monday morning speaking to White House officials, urging deescalation and pushing to get the administration to end its immigration crackdown in her state, according to a third person, who is close to the senator and, like the others, was granted anonymity to describe private conversations.

Her decision to wait on her campaign launch comes amid weeks of turmoil in Minnesota that further escalated over the weekend when Border Patrol agents on Saturday fatally shot Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care unit nurse and American citizen.

Over the last two days, Klobuchar has been meeting with city and state leaders, strategizing with Senate colleagues over Department of Homeland Security funding and calling Trump administration officials, according to the third person, who said Klobuchar’s “focus is on de-escalating the situation and getting ICE out of Minnesota. There's not time for politics today.”

Klobuchar’s nascent gubernatorial campaign has run headlong into a national crisis, another twist for a campaign that started under unusual circumstances. Earlier this month, Democratic Gov. Tim Walz unexpectedly dropped his reelection bid for a third term, as a swirling fraud scandal threatened to engulf his campaign, and met with Klobuchar about running for the office herself. Since then, two American citizens have been killed by federal immigration agents, thrusting Klobuchar into the center of a battle on an issue for which she’s traditionally cut a moderate profile.

“Regardless of what [campaign] Klobuchar is considering, this is what I’d expect from her, she’s been the leader in this state,” said Democratic Minnesota state Sen. Grant Hauschild. “We’re facing unprecedented circumstances of federal overreach and harm to our communities, and she’s stepped up, being present on the ground and fighting in Congress.”

The two people who described her changed launch plans said they expect the senator to formally launch before next Tuesday, when the state’s party precinct caucus kicks off. Klobuchar already filed paperwork with the state’s campaign finance board last week, allowing her to begin raising funds ahead of an expected bid.

Pretti’s killing also shook up the GOP side of the Minnesota governors’ race. Chris Madel, an attorney who launched his campaign as a Republican late last year, announced on Monday he would be dropping out, calling the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement tactics “wrong” and “an unmitigated disaster.”

“I cannot support the national Republican-stated retribution on the citizens of our state, nor can I count myself a member of a party that would do so,” he said in a video posted to social media.

Klobuchar is not expected to face a serious Democratic opponent when she enters the gubernatorial race, giving her some breathing room on both her announcement timeline and on her stance on immigration. Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, a well-known progressive who was considered a potential candidate, confirmed he would not be running for the job last week.

“What you hear from Klobuchar is, ‘ICE needs to get out of here,’ and I don’t think she needs to say more than that [because] without a primary challenger, I don’t think she’ll have to change her position on it,” said a Minnesota Democratic strategist, granted anonymity to discuss the issue candidly. “She’s smart, she’s careful and she’s cautious, and she knows how to win suburban and independent voters.”

Klobuchar has always cut a moderate profile. She rose up in Hennepin County as its prosecutor before running for Senate. During her presidential campaign in 2020, Klobuchar rejected calls for “abolishing ICE,” drawing fire from immigration rights advocates groups in that race, and instead called for reforms of the agency.

When asked during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday whether she supported abolishing ICE, Klobuchar said “we’re always going to have some immigration enforcement in this country, and border control.” But she called for the ICE operation to leave the state because “this agency has been functioning is completely against every tenet of law enforcement.”

Klobuchar ticked through several reforms she supports: “New leadership. Stopping these surges across the country, not just in my state. Training them like they were supposed to be trained. ... Mandatory body cameras. Stopping ramming into people's houses without a judicial warrant.”

Those specifics could become part of Senate Democrats’ demands to give enough votes to pass a bill to fund the Department of Homeland Security and other parts of the government.

Other Democrats have called for more aggressive policies, including abolishing ICE altogether. Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn) posted on X that “voting NO on the DHS funding bill is the bare minimum,” adding that ICE is “beyond reform” and to “abolish it.”

Klobuchar’s approach is once again drawing criticism from some immigrant-rights advocates. “I do not believe that's far enough,” said George Escobar, executive director of CASA, an immigration advocacy organization. “Unless we deal with the cancer that is causing this, which is ICE itself, and unless we have a comprehensive reform of that agency, which to us, means abolishing it, then honestly, this cycle is just going to repeat over and over again.”One Democratic consultant who has worked on Minnesota races warned that Klobuchar’s deliberative approach could hurt her. “She’s incredibly cautious, and this is not a cautious moment,” they said. “So far, she has not put her foot in it by being too moderate, but she’s also not been under a huge spotlight — and that will change with the gubernatorial run.”

Nonetheless, Klobuchar’s messaging earned her praise from even some progressives. "I think she’s spot on,” said Mark Longabaugh, a former adviser to Sen Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.). “If you're going to step up and say that this organization needs to be restructured, or shut down and restructured, you also have to tie that to, ‘Listen, there is a legitimate law enforcement need here, both for customs and for border control.’”

Most Minnesota Democrats don’t think Klobuchar will suddenly center anti-ICE messaging in her gubernatorial campaign. Interviews with a half dozen operatives and elected officials found they still expected the campaign to largely revolve around the economy. “Affordability is still going to be central to her work, along with protecting her state,” said the person close to Klobuchar. “She will always stand up for Minnesota on both.”

“Who knows if, in 10 months, it will specifically be a part of the narrative or messaging,” said a Minnesota Democratic donor adviser. “But this isn’t going to go away any time soon … because we’re traumatized here.”

Former Portland Trail Blazer center Chris Dudley has launched a second attempt to run for governor of Oregon as a Republican, a long-shot bid in a blue state even as the incumbent has struggled in polls.

Dudley, who played six seasons for the Trail Blazers and 16 for the NBA overall, said in an announcement video Monday that he would ease divisiveness and focus on public safety, affordability and education in a state where support for Democratic Gov. Tina Kotek has been low for her entire tenure.

“The empty promises, the name calling, the finger pointing and fear mongering that has solved nothing must stop,” said in his election announcement. “There are real solutions, and I have a plan.”

Dudley is one of the most successful Republicans of the last 25 years in Oregon, coming within 2 points of defeating Democratic Gov. John Kitzhaber in 2010.

“I think it’s imperative that we get somebody from outside of Salem who’s away from the partisan politics, away from the name calling, the finger pointing,” Dudley told The Oregonian. “Who has the expertise and background and the ability to bring people together to solve these issues.”

In his election announcement, Dudley spoke about his love of the state and frustration people have with the current state of politics. He mentioned education, safety and affordability as key issues he plans to address but did not give any key policy specifics.

Dudley is a Yale graduate who worked in finance after leaving the NBA. A diabetic, he also founded a foundation focused on children with Type 1 diabetes.

In the GOP primary, Dudley faces a field that includes state Sen. Christine Drazan, who lost to Kotek by nearly 4 percentage points in 2022.

Other candidates include another state lawmaker, a county commissioner and a conservative influencer who was pardoned by President Donald Trump for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

Kotek is a relatively unpopular governor. Her approval rating has consistently remained under 50 percent her entire term in office, according to polling analysis by Morning Consult. In December, she announced her intention to seek reelection.

Despite expectations that Democrats will do well in the midterms, a number of Oregon Republicans have become more involved in state politics since the last election. Phil Knight, a co-founder of Nike, donated $3 million to an Oregon Republican PAC focused on gaining seats in the state Legislature in October. It was his largest political donation to date, according to the Willamette Week.

Dudley received significant backing from Knight in his 2010 race, but it’s unclear if he will get the same level of support this time around.

Any Republican faces an uphill battle for governor in Oregon, where a GOP candidate has not won since 1982 and where Democrats have a registration edge of about 8 percentage points.

CORRECTION: A previous version incorrectly reported that Gov. Kotek had not announced plans to seek reelection.

Former Vice President Mike Pence on Monday called video footage of the shooting of Alex Pretti in Minnesota “deeply troubling” as he urged a full investigation into the deadly incident.

“In the wake of the tragic shooting that claimed the life of Alex Pretti this weekend, our prayers are with his family, the citizens of Minneapolis and local, state and federal law enforcement officers serving there,” Pence said in a post on X. “The images of this incident are deeply troubling and a full and transparent investigation of this officer involved shooting must take place immediately.”

Pretti, a 37-year-old Minneapolis resident, was shot and killed by Border Patrol agents on Saturday. The incident, which occurred about 2 miles from where Renee Good was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on Jan. 7, has ignited a heated debate between the Trump administration and Minnesota officials amid intense scrutiny of the tactics of the president's immigration crackdown.

Protesters have flooded the streets of Minnesota in the aftermath of Pretti’s killing.

State leaders have alleged federal officials have blocked them from being involved in an investigation into the shooting. Administration officials have accused Minnesota authorities of refusing to collaborate with immigration authorities on deportations.

But Pence on Monday called for law enforcement at all levels to work together on investigating the latest shooting.

“The focus now should be to bring together law enforcement at every level to address the concerns in the community even while ensuring that dangerous illegal aliens are apprehended and no longer a threat to families in Minneapolis,” Pence said.

The former vice president is the latest high-profile Republican to express concerns over the events unfolding in Minnesota. Like Pence, some of the party’s top voices have called for a full investigation into the shooting.

Others have disputed the administration's justification that Pretti’s carrying of a gun was legal justification for his killing, which Pence echoed on Monday.

“The American people deserve to have safe streets, our laws enforced and our constitutional rights of Freedom of Speech, peaceable assembly and the right to keep and bear Arms respected and preserved all at the same time,” said Pence. “That’s how Law and Order and Freedom work together in America.”

Anti-Muslim rhetoric has emerged as a potent ingredient in the looming Texas Republican primary while candidates compete to raise fears about the spread of Sharia law in the state and portray themselves as the toughest option to stand against it.

From the state’s white-hot GOP Senate primary down to local races, Republican candidates are pledging to fight the hardest against a proposed residential development of 1,000 homes centered around a Mosque north of Dallas, while issuing dire warnings about the supposed threat of Islam and questioning their opponents’ commitment to the cause.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and his top primary opponent, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, have sparred in attack ads and on the trail over that project and Afghan refugee resettlement program, at times veering into inflammatory anti-Islamic rhetoric. Cornyn called for a federal investigation into the project; Paxton launched several probes and in December sued the development over alleged securities fraud.

Texas is a heavily diverse state, with non-Hispanic whites representing less than two fifths of its total population — a flashpoint for years on the right. The state’s relatively small but fast-growing Muslim population has become a charged issue for Republicans seeking to distinguish themselves in competitive races. This year’s GOP ads – which vary from condemning terror attacks to burning the Quran – represent an escalation of rhetoric the party has long used to rally its voters.

“The Muslim community is the boogeyman for this cycle,” said Texas GOP consultant Vinny Minchillo. “One hundred percent this message works — there's no question about it. This has been polled up one side and down the other, and with Texas Republican primary voters, it works. It is a thing they are legitimately scared of.”

Muslim advocacy organizations and Democrats decry the ads as racist and grossly inaccurate characterizations of those communities.

“The Texas GOP has declared war on Islam in Texas, claiming that Islamic leaders in the state are implementing Sharia law and using it in court,” said Joel Montfort, a north Texas-based Democratic strategist. “None of it is true, it is just fearmongering and racism to stir up the GOP base and get them to vote.”

A POLITICO review identified ads in half a dozen races since the start of 2025 that highlighted “Sharia law,” according to data from AdImpact, which tracks political advertising. All were from or backing Republican candidates touting their fights against it, and most were common in Texas.

Last week, Cornyn launched a seven-figure ad buy titled “Evil Face” that declares “radical Islam is a bloodthirsty ideology,” referencing the Oct. 7 Hamas attack against Israel and December Bondi Beach shooting in Australia. The ad also references his bill to revoke the tax-exempt status of Council on American-Islamic Relations, a Muslim advocacy organization.

Paxton has gone after Cornyn’s past support of an Afghan refugee resettlement program. And in his capacity as attorney general, Paxton said the project is an “illegal land development scheme” and its leaders are “engaged in a radical plot to destroy hundreds of acres of beautiful Texas land and line their own pockets.”

In the four-way GOP race for Texas attorney general, candidate Aaron Reitz says in an ad out this week that “Islam is not compatible with Western civilization” and vows to “stop the invasion” of Muslims. Reitz served less than a year in the Justice Department before launching his bid for attorney general. His opponent, state Sen. Mayes Middleton, also has an ad boasting that he’s running to “stop Sharia law” in Texas.

And, most provocatively, Valentina Gomez launched her candidacy in Texas’ 31st Congressional District last year with a video showing her burning a Quran and declaring that “your daughters will be raped and your sons beheaded, unless we stop Islam once and for all.” Gomez, who is challenging President Donald Trump-endorsed Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), is a known conservative activist and provocateur who won just 8 percent of the primary vote when she ran for Missouri secretary of state last year.

Anti-muslim sentiment in the U.S. grew out of the 9/11 terror attacks, which some Republicans used to rally their base for political gain. False rumors on the right that Barack Hussein Obama was a secret Muslim persisted from his rise to the White House and for years after. The planned construction of a mosque blocks from Ground Zero became a right-wing cause celebre early in his presidency, with multiple national Republican figures rallying against it.

Trump intensified those feelings, first by elevating conspiracy theories that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., then by repeatedly disparaging Muslims, pledging in his 2016 campaign to ban Muslims from entering the country and once he became president implementing travel bans against majority-Muslim countries. On Tuesday, Trump reposted a comment calling Islam a “cult.”

But in recent years Islam hasn’t been as much of a focus within GOP campaigns — until now.

The Texas ads come as Republicans nationwide have placed heightened scrutiny on CAIR, the largest Muslim advocacy group in the U.S. Sameeha Rizvi, CAIR Action Texas Policy and Advocacy Coordinator, called Cornyn’s ad “defamatory and despicable” and borne out of “desperation to compete with Ken Paxton’s anti-Muslim bigotry.”

“CAIR is not going anywhere, American Muslims are not going anywhere, and our community will show its strength at the ballot box, God willing,” Rizvi said in a statement.

Cornyn has co-sponsored legislation with Sen. Tim Sheehy (R-Montana) seeking to revoke CAIR’s tax-exempt status. U.S. Rep Chip Roy, who is also in the Texas attorney general race, introduced a similar bill last year.

When a super PAC on behalf of Cornyn launched an attack against Paxton on Thursday, calling him “weird” and highlighting his divorce and alleged extramarital affairs, Paxton shot back on X : “This desperate hail mary can't erase the fact that he [Cornyn] helped radical Islamic Afghans invade Texas and that his family's making a fortune securing visas for foreigners.”

Paxton was referencing Cornyn’s past support for increasing the number of Special Immigrant Visas available to Afghans following the Taliban’s 2021 takeover of the country. Cornyn, who had once been supportive of the program, reversed course along with other Republicans late last year following the shooting of two National Guard members by an Afghan who’d been granted asylum in the U.S., on the basis that the vetting of applicants was inadequate.

Cornyn has responded to Paxton’s attacks with a digital ad stating that Paxton talks tough but he’s actually “soft on radical Islam,” claiming that Paxton directed $2.5 million to resettle Afghan refugees in Texas, and his former attorney who defended him during impeachment proceedings now represents the East Plano Islamic Center.

Several ads from different candidates in Texas use footage of the project from the East Plano Islamic Center, which would also feature a K-12 school and retail. Texas leaders, including Gov. Greg Abbott, have said that the presence of the planned Muslim community raises national security concerns. The East Plano Islamic Center did not respond to a request for comment.

“Texans overwhelmingly care about this – they're looking at their communities transform in radical ways,” said Reitz, the attorney general candidate.

“You look at the number of mosques that have been built in Texas in just the last 10 to 20 years, and it's explosive,” he said. “It’s alarming for good reason, and I think that Republican voters in particular are looking for their public office holders to address it, and so it's such a pressing issue that I chose to really lean into this.”

Cornyn’s ad declares that “Sharia law has no place in American courts or communities,” a reference to the development. Trump’s Justice Department also launched a civil rights investigation into the project last year after Cornyn requested the federal government to investigate “religious discrimination.”

The project was already on the radar of Paxton, who had opened his first of several probes into its construction. In December, Paxton — whose candidacy is boosted by his reputation as an aggressive attorney general who frequently files lawsuits on behalf of MAGA causes — sued the development for alleged securities fraud.

The Justice Department quietly closed its investigation last summer without filing any charges. But Abbott still went forward and signed multiple laws last year that banned “Sharia compounds” and designating CAIR and Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations. CAIR sued Texas in response, arguing the action was unconstitutional and defamatory.

Paxton, in his official capacity as attorney general, said last week that the state comptroller can exclude private schools from the school voucher program if they violate the recently signed anti-terror laws, declaring that “Texans’ tax dollars should never fund Islamic terrorists or America’s enemies.”

In the wake of another fatal shooting involving immigration agents, Trump administration and Minnesota officials are locked in a heated dispute over what exactly transpired and who’s to blame for the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.

And they don’t just disagree in their interpretation of the events — they fundamentally differ on what exactly took place and what triggered it.

Border Patrol agents shot and killed Pretti on Saturday during a tense encounter between observers and federal agents, a dynamic that has led to several violent interactions as the Trump administration escalates its nationwide immigration crackdown. His death comes less than a month after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot 37-year-old Renee Good. The scenes of the shootings were roughly two miles apart, and protesters flooded the streets after both.

Amid conflicting accounts over the incident — including whether Pretti’s hand at any point during the incident was near his gun — video verified and analyzed by several media outlets, including the New York Times, show the item Pretti appeared to be holding was a phone he was using to film the scene before he attempted to help a woman who had been pushed to the ground by Border Patrol agents. According to a Washington Post analysis of video footage, federal agents appear to have secured Pretti's gun just moments before an agent shot him.

“What you see is someone brandishing a cellphone who is simply there with a cellphone helping someone up, a woman up, as his parents point out, when she had slipped,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And so when I hear these officials from the Trump administration describe this video in ways that simply aren’t true, I just keep thinking, ‘Your eyes don’t lie.’”

Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino on Sunday accused Pretti of having “injected” himself into a law enforcement investigation. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti had committed a “felony” by impeding law enforcement. And Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche blamed local state officials for what he called an “entirely avoidable” event.

But Minnesota officials see a different story in the footage. Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said Pretti was lawfully armed and exercising his constitutional rights, and Klobuchar told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the video shows him holding a cellphone and helping a woman up, not acting aggressively toward agents.

Shortly after Saturday’s shooting, Noem offered one account of the incident: She said Pretti “approached U.S. Border Patrol officers with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun” and that he “violently resisted” when the officers attempted to disarm him.

Noem then told Fox News Sunday that agents on Saturday “clearly feared for their lives” before shooting Pretti. She and other federal officials have claimed that Pretti was approaching agents with a gun.

“We do know that he came to that scene and impeded a law enforcement operation, which is against federal law. It's a felony. When he did that, interacting with those agents when they tried to get him to disengage, he became aggressive and resisted them throughout that process,” Noem said. “These officers used their training, followed their protocols and were in fear of their lives and the people around them.”

Despite Noem’s claim that the agents feared for their lives, O’Hara, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday morning, said he had seen no evidence Pretti brandished a weapon during the encounter.

“You have a Second Amendment right in the United States to possess a firearm,” O’Hara said during an interview with host Margaret Brennan. “And there are some restrictions around that in Minnesota, and everything that we see that we are aware of shows that he did not violate any of those restrictions.”

But in an interview with CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, Bovino said a person’s Second Amendment rights “don’t count when you riot and assault, delay, obstruct and impede law enforcement officers.”

Noem seemingly suggested the fact that Pretti possessed “a gun and ammunition, rather than a sign” meant the scene was a “violent riot.”

“We have someone showing up with weapons and are using them to assault law enforcement officers,” she said Saturday of the situation.

“What you see is someone brandishing a cellphone who is simply there with a cellphone helping someone up, a woman up, as his parents point out, when she had slipped,” Klobuchar told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “And so when I hear these officials from the Trump administration describe this video in ways that simply aren’t true, I just keep thinking, ‘Your eyes don’t lie.’”

Former President Barack Obama also said the Trump administration’s explanations “appear to be directly contradicted by video evidence.” And Pretti’s family members have accused the White House of spreading “sickening lies.”

Just as in the aftermath of Good’s shooting, federal and state officials disagree about who bears responsibility — and how to manage the fallout.

Blanche on Sunday told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that Pretti’s shooting was a “tragedy” but added that “this was entirely avoidable if we had a governor, if we had a mayor, if we had leadership in Washington and over in Minnesota that actually cared about their citizens.”

But Gov. Tim Walz and local officials say it’s the Trump administration that has sown chaos. Walz deployed the state’s National Guard to Minneapolis in the aftermath of Pretti’s killing, which he called “sickening.”

“I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening,” Walz posted on X. “The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.”

“This administration and everyone involved in this operation should be reflecting. They should be reflecting right now and asking themselves, what exactly are you accomplishing?” Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, a Democrat, said at a Saturday press conference. “If the goal was to achieve peace and safety, this is doing exactly the opposite. If the goal was to achieve calm and prosperity, this is doing exactly the opposite.”

A new generation of Black Democrats is running in the midterms, aiming to inject a younger vision into an aging Congressional Black Caucus. And in some cases, that means primarying incumbents.

The wave of new candidates comes amid an identity crisis for the Democratic Party, which has splintered along generational and ideological lines as the party searches for new leaders in the second Trump era, both for this November and the open presidential race in two years.

“This is a new moment that requires different ideas, requires new energy and new perspectives and you cannot be a part of the system for 40 years and also be the one who's going to change it for the next 40,” said Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, 31, who launched his primary challenge to 76-year-old Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) last year. “You've done the best that you could, and it's time for other folks to be able to do the best that they can for the present and for the future.”

Young Black candidates say they’re motivated to run due to rising racial tensions, redistricting and the possibility of an end to the Voting Rights Act — and what they describe as an inadequate response from older generations that are fighting past battles.

“Our generation recognizes the fierce urgency of now,” Pearson said.

The CBC has grown exponentially since its establishment in 1971, currently boasting a historic 62 members — the largest of any of the affinity caucuses. But the average age of CBC members is 60 years old, and some of the oldest House Democrats are members.

Rep. Jim Clyburn, 85, has represented South Carolina for more than 30 years and plans on running again. At 88 years old, D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton has not ruled out running for reelection, despite growing concerns about her age. And 87-year-old Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.), who was first elected in 1990, said she also plans on running for reelection this year.

These long tenures have started to worry some new candidates, they said in interviews.

“When I was born in 1992, this was the poorest district in the poorest state in the country,” said Evan Turnage, who is primarying 77-year-old Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.). “Congressman Thompson was elected in ’93 and now today, I'm 33, and this is still the poorest district in the poorest state in the country.”

Turnage — a former senior staffer to Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts — said these long-serving members have “failed” younger generations for too long.

“Just because you've been around the block for 30 years doesn't mean you're delivering results for the district, doesn't mean you're delivering results for your constituents,” Turnage said.

In a statement, Thompson said he has spent his entire career encouraging young people “to make a difference in the world.”

“If this is how Mr. Turnage chooses to make a difference in Mississippi’s 2nd Congressional District, that's his choice," Thompson said.

The younger Black candidates — and current lawmakers — have generally pushed more progressive policies in their campaigns than CBC members who have served for decades. They've had a heavy focus on issues they say are of most concern to those in their generations, such as the cost of living and education.

"The Democratic Party has to adapt in order to survive. That work starts right now," said Pearson, who gained nationwide fame in 2023 as a member of the "Tennessee Three” after he was expelled from, and then reelected to, the state Legislature for leading a gun safety protest on the state House floor.

"Black folks in this country are still suffering disproportionately in every single category, and without leadership to elevate those concerns, those worries, those issues in a meaningful way, we're never going to see that change," Pearson added.

He is challenging Cohen, who is white, in a majority-Black district based in Memphis that Cohen has represented for decades. During his 2007 campaign, Cohen expressed interest in joining the CBC, but caucus members quickly shut that down.

Cohen said in an interview that his tenure in Congress is actually a strength.

“I know the issues and I know the problems, I know the people,” said Cohen. “The way you get legislation passed hasn't changed, really, in the 40 years I've been here. Some people think it's about getting a megaphone and hollering or making some kind of a fuss, and I've done some of that in my younger days, and I still like to occasionally … but it's a matter of having friends, having relationships, and being able to get the majority of votes to pass the bills. And I've done that all my life.”

The CBC has begun to see younger legislators enter their ranks in recent years. Rep. Gabe Amo, 38, made history in 2023 when he was elected as Rhode Island’s first Black representative. And in 2022, at the age of 25, Rep. Maxwell Frost became the first Gen Z CBC member elected to Congress.

“Our movement — from the civil rights era to the birth of the CBC itself — was born from the energy and courage of young people to stand up and do the right thing,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), chair of the CBC’s political arm, in a statement. “Our caucus today represents the breadth and depth of our community — from every corner of America — and folks whose families have been here for generations, those who are immigrants, queer, disabled, and more women and young people than ever before.”

The CBC PAC has already endorsed some young candidates this cycle, including California’s Lauren Babb and Arkansas’ Chris Jones. It’s likely the PAC will also endorse Adrian Boafo, 31, according to a person familiar with the matter who was granted anonymity to discuss private matters, who is running to succeed 86-year-old Rep. Steny Hoyer.

But the PAC this year also endorsed 71-year-old incumbent Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) — who identifies as Afro Latino, currently chairs the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and has had a bumpy relationship with the CBC — over his 32-year-old primary challenger, Darializa Avila Chevalier.

As the age gap between caucus members and voters grows, an influx of fresh faces will be vital to regaining voters’ support for Democrats ahead of the 2026 midterms, said 25-year-old Courtney McClain, who is running for a red House seat in South Carolina.

“Within the party in general, we've had an issue of connecting with younger voters, and especially with young men,” said McClain, referring to the 15 percent of Black men who supported President Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. “I really think a lot of people are more apt to vote if they can see themselves in the candidate as opposed to someone who has been there for many years.”

But these young Black candidates still hold a deep appreciation for the caucus, despite their concerns around age.

Turnage said he’d “love” to be a member of the CBC. Pearson called the caucus an "extraordinary institution.” And McClain — a onetime CBC Foundation intern and a fellow with the CBC Institute last year — said she would “definitely” like to be a member.

Ultimately, McClain said, the CBC needs young members if they hope to actually address the challenges facing the next generation.

“The legislation that's being passed, a lot of the people that are currently in office won't even be impacted by it, say, in the next 20 years,” McClain said. “But my generation will.”