Jake Rakov, a former staffer for Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA), has launched a primary challenge against his former boss, exploiting the ruins of the Palisades Fire in a campaign video that says Sherman isn’t fighting hard enough.
“Let’s fight fire with fire,” Rakov says, in a video that appears to link President Donald Trump and entrepreneur Elon Musk with the California blazes. (The video shows Musk holding a flamethrower produced by one of his companies.)
Rakov offers no clear policy differences from Sherman, but he says that Sherman has been in Washington, DC, for too long, and claims Sherman does not spend enough time with constituents in his district, which was redrawn in 2022.
Sherman has largely focused on informing his constituents how they can obtain federal aid for fire victims, rather than addressing the mismanagement by federal, state, and local authorities that critics say exacerbated the damage.
It is unclear how Rakov, who lives in Studio City, was able to gain access to the Pacific Palisades to film his campaign video, given that it is only open to residents, contractors employed by residents, media, and emergency personnel.
Though the video might strike voters as tasteless in its shameless exploitation of the ruins of a resident’s home for a political ad, Rakov’s pitch is a sign of how important the fire and its aftermath could be to California voters in 2026.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of The Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days, available for pre-order on Amazon. He is also the author of The Trumpian Virtues: The Lessons and Legacy of Donald Trump’s Presidency, now available on Audible. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.
