The intergenerational infighting amongst Democrats has come to Los Angeles County.

Jake Rakov, a former staffer to Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Sherman Oaks, will run against his ex-boss for California’s 32nd Congressional District seat when the current officeholder is up for reelection next year.

The 37-year-old candidate says it’s time for long-serving members of Congress to step aside and allow a new generation of Democrats to lead.

Sherman, 70, will have served for 30 years by the time his current term ends next year. He was first elected to the House of Representatives in 1996 — shortly before Rakov’s ninth birthday.

“We can’t keep sending the same people back and expecting a different result,” Rakov, a first-time candidate, said in a news release this week. “I’m going up against my former boss because the Democrats who have been in Washington for decades got us (President Donald) Trump twice, and the fight for our future is too important to sit back and watch them continue to fail us.”

In a campaign video announcing his candidacy, with rubble from January’s Palisades fire as the backdrop, Rakov made several “fire” metaphors. He spoke of the need for leaders with “fire in the belly” willing to fight back against a president “hellbent on burning everything to the ground” and said it was time to “fight fire with fire.”

He is the latest example of a younger generation of Democrats hoping to replace longtime members of Congress as the party struggles to define itself and relate better to voters following November’s bruising defeats, with Republicans taking full control of the executive and legislative branches in Washington, D.C.

Rakov, who was Sherman’s deputy communications director in 2017, acknowledged that he and his former boss are aligned on issues more often than not. But he would approach the role of congressmember differently than the incumbent, he said in an interview on Thursday, April 3.

“We’re both progressive Democrats,” Rakov said. “But this is mainly about knowing how to be more accountable and accessible to voters.”

Rakov said Sherman, who also owns a home in the D.C. area, should spend more time in his home district and hold more in-person town halls. The first-time candidate pledged to hold monthly in-person town halls in California’s 32nd District if elected and said he would have a greater social media presence to engage with voters.

The 32nd District includes parts of western San Fernando Valley and the Palisades.

Sherman, in an interview, defended his record.

He said he’s done a mix of in-person and telephone town halls and said polls indicated that constituents “overwhelmingly” preferred the tele-town halls, which allow more people to participate. Over 7,000 people called in to his tele-town hall last month, Sherman said. In comparison, most venues in his district are much more limited in the number of people it can accommodate physically, he said.

The congressmember also noted that his next town hall will be in person at Cal State Northridge on April 26. He had publicized that event before Rakov announced his candidacy this week.

In addition, Sherman said he’s held some in-person town halls in the past that were focused on specific themes, such as the Armenian community or educational issues. Invitations to such meetings were more limited and not widely publicized, he said.

Rakov, meanwhile, questioned whether those should count as town halls if they’re not open to everyone in the general public.

When asked, Sherman scoffed at the notion that long-serving members of Congress should simply step aside.

“You need a mixture in Congress,” he said. “We’ve got people in their 20s and people who are older. The fact is, every two years, people have a chance to vote. A seat in Congress isn’t a prize we give to somebody because it’s their turn. You vote for the person who’s going to be most effective.”

Having experience and knowledge of how to navigate Congress is an asset, Sherman added, saying it allows him to get more done for his constituents.

Sherman is a senior member of both the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the House Financial Services Committee.

The elected official also dismissed the idea of term limits for congressmembers. Rakov has pledged to advocate for a constitutional amendment to limit congressmembers from serving more than 10 years.

But under that scenario, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was first elected to the House in 2018 and whom some view as a rising star in the Democratic Party, would not have many years left in Congress, Sherman said.

“(Ocasio-Cortez) would be on her last legs now. Most people think she’s got a future in Congress. I don’t know any progressive that says, ‘Take her out in two years,’” he said.

Rakov, meanwhile, said his three campaign pledges — to serve no more than 10 years, hold monthly in-person town halls and to not accept corporate PAC money — “shouldn’t be revolutionary.”

“Unfortunately, Congress has gotten so broken, and members like Rep. Sherman have been there so long that they either don’t even see how much of a problem the system they created has become or they did it on purpose to give themselves a lifetime of job security without having to listen to their constituents,” he said.

Rakov, who lives in Studio City with his husband and their rescue dog, is a former steering committee member of L.A.’s Stonewall Democratic Club, known for its LGBTQ+ advocacy.

His decision to run is reflective of a growing sentiment among some in the Democratic Party that it’s time for more millennials and Gen Zers to represent voters in Congress.

Recent examples of younger Democrats heeding that call include Saikat Chakrabarti, the former chief of staff to Ocasio-Cortez, who is seeking to oust former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco. And in Illinois, social media influencer Kat Abughazaleh is running to replace 80-year-old Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who has been in office for more than a quarter century.

Chris Ahuja, who unsuccessfully challenged Sherman last year, has also indicated on social media that he is running again in 2026. The Tarzana resident was handily defeated in the 2024 primary.