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“It’s not a question of whether Steny Hoyer was a nice person or not,” said Harry Jarin, one of five Democrats who’d lined up to face Hoyer in the coming May primary. “My point is about institutional renewal, that is the challenge before us.” Jarin made a national media splash in June by making Hoyer’s age the focus of his campaign, saying “Marylanders don’t even realize he’s still in office” and “younger voters don’t even recognize his name.”

“Our old way of doing politics, that is what created the conditions for a fascist movement to gain power in this country,” Jarin said. “The idea that we would just try to hit the reset button and reset American politics back to the way we operated 10 or 20 years ago, frankly that’s insane. We need a very different path forward.”

"My campaign has never been just about one politician’s age, but rather about how Democrats have failed to advance a vision of the future in which everyday Americans can see themselves. It was this failure which created the conditions for a fascist movement to take power in America. As a Jewish American and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, I am particularly attuned to the dangers of democratic backsliding, political violence, and the normalization of hatred through media technology..."

"...legal scholars and election officials alike are openly preparing for scenarios in which these forces are used to suppress turnout or directly interfere with voting in 2026. It is hard to imagine a clearer case for why the Democratic Party should embrace broad electoral participation wherever possible. Primary elections are also the only truly competitive elections voters get in much of the country, including all but one of Maryland’s congressional districts as currently drawn."

"The real danger to Jews today is coming from a radicalized, authoritarian right that is currently consolidating its grip on power. Those who closely observe Republican politics and its online subcultures know how deep the rot goes; antisemitism is no longer an ugly fringe but a core part of the right’s identity and worldview... Republicans can’t confront the antisemitic right head‑on because the party now depends on them for energy and online relevance."

“Nancy Pelosi has served this nation with unmatched tact, courage, and conviction... I applaud her decision to step aside with dignity for a new generation of leaders." Jarin drew a sharp contrast between Pelosi’s decision and the uncertain future of longtime Congressman Steny Hoyer. "Steny Hoyer has given decades of service to our country, and while he represented this district well in his prime, it’s time he passes the torch to the next generation,” Jarin said.

"Our older representatives - including my own congressman and primary opponent, Steny Hoyer, 86 - still operate as if traditional news media had the same influence as in the time of their own youth. Their unfamiliarity with the technology that now defines politics has become an existential crisis for the Democratic Party, which has lost 12 of the last 16 House elections and is now at risk of being locked out of power permanently.”

On Thursday, Sept 25, prominent Trump critic George Conway tweeted his support for Harry Jarin, Democratic candidate for Maryland’s 5th Congressional District.

Conway, founder of several anti-Trump organizations and PACs tweeted, “I support Harry. It's time for new leadership if there is ever to be effective opposition again.”

“Steny Hoyer just voted to call Charlie Kirk a ‘patriot.’ Democrats keep finding new ways to disappoint. If I were in office, my name would not be on that resolution. Kirk’s record speaks for itself and he deserves no such honor,” tweeted Jarin on Friday, shortly after the vote.

“As I talk to residents in the district, many are horrified by increasing political violence, but also horrified by Democrats like Steny Hoyer honoring Charlie Kirk, who spread hate and poison for a living,” he added.

Democrats’ rock-bottom polling “has been a long time coming,” says Harry Jarin, a Democrat running in Maryland against Rep. Steny Hoyer, a former House majority leader who has been in Congress for more than four decades. Voters have become disillusioned with the party, says Mr. Jarin, because veteran Democrats like Mr. Hoyer haven’t solved problems that matter to them, such as a lack of affordable housing. Worse, he adds, many voters don’t know what the party stands for.

I am outraged that Steny Hoyer is leading a clandestine delegation of Democratic members of Congress without disclosing any information to the press or constituents. His secrecy is evidence of a guilty conscience. Steny knows what he is doing is wrong and unpopular, so he is deliberately hiding information about this trip. Even the Republicans who are on their own trip to Israel weren’t so cowardly.

Jarin said that even if Mamdani’s policy prescriptions didn’t appeal to every voter, “he tapped into that insecurity that a lot of younger voters feel and the feeling that establishment Democrats haven’t done anything to address it. It’s voters rejecting the status quo, just as they did in November when they elected Donald Trump. And right now, the establishment Democrats are the status quo.”

Harry Jarin, 35, is one of the latest Democrats to mount a challenge. “I think a lot of older establishment Democrats are just not psychologically prepared to deal with a fascist administration that clearly has no respect for the rule of law,” he told the Daily Beast. “I think a lot of the rules and the systems they’ve been used to in Congress for 30 or 40 years have totally broken down, and they’re not really sure what to do next.”

Harry Jarin announced last week that he is challenging the former No. 2 in the House Democratic leadership, Steny Hoyer. “When you reelect someone in his late 80s, who has been in the seat since before most of us were born, you’re sending the message that we’re the party of the status quo and business as usual, and that hurts us in the marginal seats we need to win a majority,” Jarin told me. “Over the last 30, 40 years, Congress hasn’t been able to solve basic problems in our society..."

"I don't know how much more losing the establishment of the Democratic Party was planning on doing before they decide to try something different," Jarin, 35, told The Baltimore Sun. "A big part of that, and kind of an underrated part of why we're losing, is that we keep putting literally the same people back into office again and again, none more so than Steny Hoyer himself."

Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), the longest-serving House Democrat, has garnered a primary challenger from a 35-year-old small business owner who is making age a key issue ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Harry Jarin, also a volunteer firefighter, launched his campaign on Thursday. The challenge from Jarin comes after multiple efforts from young Democrats to reform the party in the aftermath of the 2024 elections.

Rep. Steny Hoyer has drawn a primary challenger with a pointed message about the 85-year-old: The incumbent Maryland Democrat is too old to run again.

Harry Jarin, a 35-year-old volunteer firefighter and emergency services consultant who once competed on “Jeopardy!”, launched his campaign Thursday because he said Democrats need to “stop treating congressional seats like lifetime appointments.”

Harry Jarin, a small business owner and volunteer firefighter, announced today that he is running for the US House of Representatives in Maryland’s 5th Congressional District. The district is currently represented by Steny Hoyer, one of the oldest members of Congress, who will be nearly 90 years old in the next term.