An American activist who once moved through the rising ranks of progressive Democratic politics has appeared at Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s funeral in Tehran, praising the slain Iranian supreme leader as the “greatest anti-imperialist leader” of her lifetime.
Calla Walsh, 22, attended the sprawling funeral ceremonies in the Iranian capital and appeared in an interview aired by Iranian state media, where she praised Khamenei’s legacy and portrayed him as a global symbol of resistance to the United States and Israel.
The appearance marked a remarkable transformation for an activist who, only a few years ago, was viewed as one of the most promising young figures in Massachusetts progressive politics.
Walsh volunteered for Elizabeth Warren’s 2020 presidential campaign and later became far better known through the youth-driven political movement surrounding Sen. Ed Markey’s successful 2020 reelection bid. The Boston Globe reported that she and other young activists helped form the online “Markeyverse,” which played a significant role in turning the veteran Massachusetts senator into a Gen Z progressive icon. Walsh herself later wrote that she had helped build the youth movement around Markey’s campaign.
Now, the former Democratic activist is appearing in Tehran at one of the Islamic Republic’s most politically charged events.
Speaking during the funeral period, Walsh called Khamenei the “greatest anti-imperialist leader” to have lived during her lifetime and praised him as a figure for people fighting what she described as imperialism and Zionism.
Her appearance came as Iran staged days of elaborate mourning ceremonies for Khamenei, who was killed on February 28 during the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Major international news organizations reported enormous crowds gathering in Tehran, with senior Iranian officials in attendance and repeated demands for revenge against the United States and Israel.
The ceremonies were also filled with the revolutionary slogans long associated with the Islamic Republic. Crowds chanted “Death to America” and “Death to Israel,” while Iranian authorities presented the funeral as a demonstration of continued loyalty to the revolutionary system after months of war and internal upheaval.
Walsh’s presence was not an isolated appearance by a foreign admirer of the Iranian regime. Iran International reported that several American pro-Iran figures attended funeral events, including activist and influencer Jackson Hinkle and Vermont local official Christopher Helali.
But Walsh’s political background makes her case especially striking.
As a teenager, she was profiled as part of a new generation of highly online progressive organizers reshaping Democratic politics in Massachusetts. Boston Magazine credited her with helping co-found a campaign group that strengthened Markey’s position during his primary battle against Joe Kennedy III. The Boston Globe later described her as a former rising star of the state’s progressive political scene.
Over time, however, Walsh moved sharply away from mainstream Democratic politics and toward revolutionary anti-imperialist activism. A March 2026 investigation by The Free Press traced her progression from Democratic organizing and the Democratic Socialists of America toward increasingly explicit support for Iran and the so-called Axis of Resistance. The Boston Globe separately examined the same transformation, describing her trajectory from Massachusetts politics to openly chanting “Death to America” in Tehran.
Her latest appearance is therefore more than another provocative statement by an online activist. It offers a dramatic image of one strand of American far-left radicalization: a former teenage Democratic campaign organizer traveling to the capital of a hostile foreign power and publicly eulogizing its supreme leader.
The episode is also likely to intensify an already growing argument inside the American left over anti-American rhetoric, revolutionary politics and the boundaries between criticism of U.S. foreign policy and active identification with governments hostile to the United States.
For Democrats, the political question is becoming increasingly difficult to avoid.
Walsh is no longer a mainstream Democratic operative, and her current views cannot fairly be attributed to the Democratic Party as a whole. But her path began inside a progressive political ecosystem that once celebrated her organizing talent and treated activists like her as the future of the American left.
Five years later, she was in Tehran mourning Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
