Left-wing Democratic congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh blamed narcolepsy for her absence during a candidate forum Tuesday night, according to a statement posted to Instagram.
Abughazaleh, a 26-year-old former progressive influencer who worked for Media Matters for America, posted the statement to Instagram, writing that she “ended up sleeping through alarms, calls, and even my campaign manager knocking on my door repeatedly.” The candidate is running for the open and safely Democratic Illinois’ 9th congressional district.
“Earlier this evening, I was scheduled to attend a Forum with members,” Abughazaleh wrote in the statement addressed to the forum’s attendees. “And then I didn’t show up.”
“I want to offer my sincerest apologies as well as an explanation. I have a chronic illness called narcolepsy. It makes me extremely tired and occasionally causes ‘sleep attacks,’ times when my brain literally cannot stay awake,” the candidate continued.
A chapter of Indivisible, a left-wing Soros family-backed activist group, hosted the forum in which Abughazaleh failed to show up to attend.
Abughazaleh previously mentioned having narcolepsy in a 2024 post to X, claiming insurance premiums would be “insane” due to her condition.
A federal grand jury indicted the candidate in October 2025 for “hindering and impeding” Immigrant and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers in September 2025. Abughazaleh was also recorded attempting to impede an ICE agent’s vehicle during a lawful enforcement operation in a video posted to X.
Abughazaleh is running in a crowded primary field to replace incumbent Democratic Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who announced in 2025 she would not seek re-election. Her campaign website lists “anti-authoritarianism” as a key campaign issue, saying she will “take the fight to them, whether it’s the House floor or the streets where ICE is attacking us.”
Abughazaleh’s campaign did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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