Samad Hakani, Photography Editor

Rep. Rosa DeLauro, the 81-year-old New Havener running for an 18th term in Congress, released a video in which she uses internet slang to make the case for Democrats in the upcoming election.

The minute-long video, which has garnered 1.5 million views since it was posted to her account on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday evening, shows DeLauro moving from her office to the Capitol while serving up a densely packed smorgasbord of online idioms.

“Republicans’ Project 2025 is mad sus. Eliminating the Department of Education? Negative aura points,” DeLauro says in the video, referring to a conservative policy proposal that has become a bogeyman for Democrats. “Big L, posting it online, buddy.”

The video appeared to be an effort to appeal to young voters in Connecticut’s New Haven-centered 3rd Congressional District, which DeLauro has represented since 1991 — before most people who could make sense of her allusions were born. She is likely to defeat her Republican challenger, the political newcomer Michael Massey, in November.

The post also drew attention to her role as the top Democrat on the powerful House Committee on Appropriations, which oversees federal government spending. She serves as its ranking member and previously was its chair, a position she would be set to regain if she secures reelection and Democrats win a majority in the House.

In the video, DeLauro introduces herself as the “ranking rizzler on Appropriations,” using a label, derived from “charisma,” that denotes romantic prowess. She goes on to say, “House Appropriation is the money moves in Congress. We are not chasing the bag. We are the bag. Democrats are making life smoother through government funding.”

As she apparently rides the underground train from the Rayburn House Office Building to the Capitol, DeLauro adds, “It’s giving skibidi” — a virtually meaningless word from a meme popularized among members of Generation Alpha, who remain below the voting age.

The script was the work of Generation Z staffers, the video says. Its traction far exceeded that of DeLauro’s typical posts about policy proposals, political events or speeches on the House floor.

The video garnered responses from over 1,500 X users, including Bobby Kogan, senior director and federal budget specialist at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank in Washington.

“I will henceforth be calling Rosa DeLauro the Ranking Rizzler on Appropriations for the rest of time,” Kogan wrote on X, “until she becomes the Chad Chairwoman of Appropriations.”

Although DeLauro’s own X post said her “opps are going to hate this one,” in reference to her opponents, Republicans in Congress did not jump on the video online. Neither did Michael Massey, DeLauro’s opponent in her reelection campaign.

On Friday, the New Haven Independent published an extended exegesis of DeLauro’s slang-filled speech in the video. Jabez Choi ’25, the “Gen Z correspondent” dispatched to decode each line, concluded that the video was a hackneyed play for attention on social media.

“The frustrating reality is that a younger generation has been extremely clear in their demands from politicians, from gun control to the environment, and most recently, on college campuses, to investments in atrocities abroad,” Choi wrote. “DeLauro’s video, in the end, looks trite.”

A DeLauro spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment on the thinking behind the video.

DeLauro is both the oldest and longest-serving member of Connecticut’s congressional delegation.