Chelsea Manning, the government whistleblower and transgender activist, is an Oklahoma native currently living in Maryland—not exactly someone you’d expect to weigh in on the local politics of Arizona’s Eighth Congressional District. But early last month, after Republican Congressman Trent Franks resigned over sexual misconduct accusations, Manning tweeted her support for an obscure Democratic candidate in this year’s special election to replace him.

wow, #TrentFranks sudden resignation just opened up solid shot for my friend @BWestbrookAZ8 to be first trans person elected to the house !? 🤔🌈💕 — Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) December 9, 2017

Manning’s friend is Brianna Westbrook, a 33-year-old transgender woman in Peoria who—despite having no political experience and only one paid staffer—has managed to attract support from a number of national figures. Rosie O’Donnell backs her, as does Justice Democrats, the progressive group founded by The Young Turks’ Cenk Uygur and former staffers of Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaign. A social media enthusiast who documented her gender transition on YouTube five years ago, Westbrook has amassed over 12,000 Twitter followers—a remarkable feat for a sales manager at Arrowhead Honda, a car dealership. “I decided to run because over the years you haven’t seen a representative of the people,” she told me on her lunch break one afternoon last week. “There isn’t a working-class voice in Congress.”

Westbrook says she’ll be “a warrior for the people” on Capitol Hill, and she’s clearly the populist in the Democratic primary on February 27. She’s also the underdog. Her opponent, another political newcomer, is Hiral Tipirneni. A 50-year-old emergency room physician and advocate for cancer research, Tipirneni is running a better-funded, more traditional campaign, with endorsements from Maricopa County Supervisor Steve Gallardo and several members of Congress. “I’ve spent my life basically working to solve problems on a non-partisan basis,” she told me this past weekend, adding that she’d bring a doctor’s collaborative spirit and devotion to facts to Washington. Tipirneni immigrated to the United States from India with her family at age three and says she’ll fight to expand the same opportunity America gave them.

It may take a political miracle even greater than Senator Doug Jones’s victory over Roy Moore in Alabama last month for either of these women to beat the Republican nominee in the April 24 general election. As GOP strategist Barrett Marson told me, “There’s no child molester in this race, and Democrats aren’t going to spend $5 million to win.” Regardless, Westbrook and Tipirneni are emblematic of a renewed Democratic enthusiasm in the Trump era, even in red America: In the past two election cycles, the party didn’t even bother to field a candidate in the 8th. “This is an incredible time in our country’s history politically,” Tipirneni said. “We know the momentum is on our side. There is clearly a movement coming—and an energy I haven’t seen before.”

Westbrook and Tipirneni are also emblematic of the divide between the party’s ascendant left and chastened center in the wake of Hillary Clinton’s loss to Donald Trump. Westbrook, like many activists, believes Bernie Sanders–style progressive populism can sell in Trump country. “I think everyone can agree that Washington, D.C., politics is corrupt,” she said. “It’s ruled by money.” Tipirneni accuses Congress of corruption, too, but the self-described moderate thinks her pragmatism will resonate with conservative voters. “It’s not about some sort of party purity test,” she said. “People want to know you have plan that’s implementable and feasible.”