A Federal Worker Was Fired for Filming DOGE. Now She’s Running for Congress

["Alexis Goldstein had just dropped her toddler off at day care and was on her way back into the office when she stumbled upon a group of people she had never seen before attempting to access equipment that appeared to be from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). What ensued was a yearlong fight to save her job at the agency from Elon Musk's so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).", 'It was February 2025, and DOGE was conducting a wholesale assault on the US government. The operatives arrived at the CFPB on February 6.

Goldstein whipped out her phone and started documenting the intruders; they turned out to be members of DOGE, including Jordan Wick and Jeremy Lewin. CFPB leadership alleged that Goldstein violated agency information security rules because the pictures she took included computer screens. After a year in administrative leave limbo, she was fired this past February.', "Like the US Agency for International Development (USAID), DOGE targeted the CFPB early on, attempting to terminate more than 1,400 of its 1,700 workers in April 2025.

Musk first acknowledged his intention to destroy the small consumer protection agency in November 2024, writing on X 'delete CFPB.' Days after her firing, Goldstein announced that she would run in a crowded race for the US House of Representatives as a Democrat in Maryland's 6th congressional district against incumbent April McClain Delaney.", 'In an interview with WIRED, Goldstein discussed her experiences in the government and with DOGE—and how her experience as a federal worker inspired her to run for office. When asked to walk her through the situation that got her fired, Goldstein explained that she had been on-site at the CFPB because the union had been tabling in the lobby all week, trying to show people they were still there for them. She had gotten word that DOGE was probably coming that day.

Goldstein had dropped her kid off at day care and was pushing her stroller through the basement when she saw some people she had never seen before who didn’t have CFPB badges but had a CFPB computer.', "Goldstein started filming and asking them their names and whether they’d had the proper training to handle sensitive information. One of them ran out of the room immediately. Another one, Jeremy Lewin, the guy that dismantled USAID who looks approximately 18 years old even though he’s almost 30, ran into the corner, and they called security on her.

Goldstein was put on administrative leave for a year before being fired. She described the experience as being in limbo, but she was more worried about the situation of her colleagues. 'There was only a court order keeping the CFPB open.

At one point it went to the DC Circuit, and we were waiting for their decision. Every day that passed, people would be like, “We made it through another day!”'"]