Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., is in big trouble and is quietly being abandoned by Democratic Party insiders.
And she could be ousted from office in just months.
Waters is facing her first serious primary challenge in more than a decade from Myla Rahman, a 53-year-old nonprofit executive and Los Angeles native.
Rahman has launched a 2026 primary campaign against Waters in California’s 43rd District, making the 87-year-old congresswoman’s age the central issue of the race. Waters has held an iron grip on the seat since 1991, winning every election by landslide margins — most recently taking three-quarters of the vote at age 86.
Rahman and her supporters are demanding generational change, and says Waters has grown old and rich in a a district that is overwhelmingly young and poor.
“The community has said that they’d like new energy, a new perspective,” Rahman told Politico. “And the reality is, the average age is 36 years old in the district. The average person is a renter in the district. So we’ve got a lot of issues that are relatable to my life experience.”
“I’m sure I’ll get a lot of calls. I’m waiting for ‘how dare you? The audacity of you, who do you think you are?'” Rahman said. “And what I can say is that there’s a choice, and this is a democracy. That’s why we have elections, and the voters can decide.”
The challenge is part of a broader revolt inside the Democratic Party, caused in large part by the cover-up of his serious mental decline of former President Joe Biden during his re-election bid that led to a disastrous debate performance in 2024.
Waters is not the only elderly Democrat in California facing younger challengers — Reps. Brad Sherman and Mike Thompson are in similar fights. In Massachusetts, Rep. Seth Moulton is attempting to throw Sen. Ed Markey out using the same attacks.
Waters remains the ranking Democrat on the powerful House Financial Services Committee. She has repeatedly generated headlines from various stunts, clashing with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a February committee hearing and being called a “lunatic” by the White House after she said the country was slipped toward “civil war.”
Republicans have little shot at flipping the solidly blue district. Still, National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Christian Martinez used the opportunity to attack the party.
“Democrats built a party run by career politicians like Maxine Waters, who has been cashing taxpayer-funded paychecks since the Cold War,” Martinez said. “After decades clinging to power, these political fossils are getting tossed aside by the same radical activists they helped empower.”
Rahman said her campaign to oust Waters is building momentum.
“We’re getting momentum, momentum is getting strong, and we think that we will have what’s necessary to be competitive and to win this race,” she told The California Post.